Abstract
Increasing diversity in schools has made the culture of living together an important issue in schools and forces education, schools, and school administrations to transform. The roles, responsibilities, and tasks of school principals are also transforming. However, the culture of living together does not fully coincide with the values of the nation-state. Laws of nation states, social understanding, and beliefs and values of school principals create significant obstacles for school principals who are expected to lead the culture of living together. On the other hand, school principals-preparing programs keep their traditional approach, are theory-oriented, and lack appropriate educational strategies. This new challenge to school principals needs to be understood, and the preparing of aspiring and incumbent school principals needs to be reconsidered in this new framework.
TopWhy Do We Need To Lead Clt?
Multiculturalism is a concept that emerged in America and Europe after the World War II. At the end of the 20th century and especially at the beginning of the 21st century, multiculturalism was accepted as a determining factor in every field from economy to politics and from education to health. After the World War II, multiculturalism, which came to the agenda within the framework of fundamental human rights, started to be discussed through the women's rights, religious/cultural minorities and immigrants. Over time, the scope of the concept expanded and deepened. Now, differences in religion, language, race, socioeconomic level, gender, age, seniority, and even interdisciplinary aproaches have been included in the scope of multiculturalism (Banks, 2009; Doytcheva, 2009; Lachat, 1999).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Intercultural Schools: Schools with students and teachers from multiple cultures.
Leading Culture of Living Together (CLT): Leading the culture of living together in a way that will meet the expectations and needs of all stakeholders in an institution or a school.
Multicultural Education: A form of education that meets the needs and demands of multiple cultures at the same time.
School Principals: Administrators of mass education institutions in modern states.
Nation-State: The modern form of state dominated by a nation.
Culture of Living Together (CLT): A culture developed by people from different cultures, religions, languages, races or regions to live together in peace.
Multicultural Leadership: The leadership style developed to manage multicultural societies and institutions.
Culturally Sensitive Leadership: A leadership style developed to lead schools with students and teachers from multiple cultures, or companies with employees from different cultures.