Sparking Change to Promote Equity: Implementing Culturally Responsive Leadership Practices in Gifted and Advanced Programs

Sparking Change to Promote Equity illuminates the skills and practices that campus and district-level leaders of gifted and advanced programs need to encourage and support minoritized and marginalized student success in today’s classrooms.

Designed to empower leaders and other educational stakeholders to build a more equitably represented student population within gifted and advanced programs, Sparking Change chapters offer a discourse on the benefit of incorporating culturally responsive gifted leadership practices to open the gateway toward recognizing, accepting and nurturing each gifted student according to their true needs, interests, challenges and abilities.By dismantling inequitable and oppressive systems that impede student potential, leaders can leverage CRGL behaviors to foster a more inclusive environment within advanced programs, allowing each student to flourish. In the context of the complexities of today’s schools and advanced programs, this book provides recommendations and strategies towards developing an equitable leadership stance that is needing in gifted and advanced education.

Whether you’re new to leadership, experienced, or an aspiring leader seeking to advance equity in gifted and advanced education, this book is a valuable resource for educational leaders to become more equitable in advanced level learning.

Dr. Javetta Jones Roberson serves as the District Coordinator of Secondary Advanced Academics & Gifted and Talented in McKinney ISD. She also serves as Lecturing Professor in the Teacher Education and Administration department at the University of North Texas. Her research interests include diverse gifted and Advanced Placement populations, equity in giftedness, Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (teaching, leadership, and curriculum), and professional learning of teachers (special education and gifted).

Dr. Kristina Henry Collins is the Executive Director for Robinson Center for Young Scholars at University of Washington (UW) in Seattle. At UW, she holds dual affiliate associate professor appointments in the College of Education at the Seattle and Tacoma campus. Dr. Collins also continues to serve as a collaborating research fellow, mentor, and visiting associate professor for LBJ STEM Institute for STEM Education and Research at Texas State University.