FPXEDD8522_Wasinger.Samantha.assessmnet_3.1
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Apr 3, 2024
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Interview With a Leader
Samantha Wasinger School of Public Service and Education, Capella University
EDD-FPX8522: Leading a Culture of Learning and Inclusion Terrence Brown
February 22
nd
2024
Equity and inclusion are crucial in today’s classroom. Equity refers to creating opportunities that allow each student to have resources that they need to be at the same level as their peers. Inclusion refers to including each person regardless of sex, gender, age, or disability. This paper will discuss an issue of equity within LeMay Elementary. The Early Childhood Lead Teacher in Bellevue Public Schools was selected to be interviewed for this paper. According to Turner (2010), interview questions should be conducted one at a time. For this reason, I compiled a list of interview questions and blocked off an hour time to ensure the participant had enough time to answer each question. Description of Interview When a person conducts an interview, they are conducting a type of qualitative research. Qualitative research aims to get human perspective on certain situations. This type of research can be helpful when a person wants to get opinions on something rather than get numerical data. Qualitative research was chosen for this as it is an interview that seeks to find human perspective
on equity, inclusion, and diversity in the Bellevue Public Schools early childhood department.
The interview conducted for this paper was conducting informally at LeMay. The interview was conducted with the Early Childhood Lead Teacher in Bellevue Public Schools. The participant has been in the field of Early Childhood Education for over twenty years. In the past five years, she began working with special education students. An hour of time was blocked off but the interview ended up taking about 30 minutes total. The participant was willing to share
information and consented to having the interview recorded in order to create a transcript. The transcript can be found in Appendix A. Each question asked served a purpose to gain knowledge about equity and inclusion. Questions asked included concerns with staff training, disability inclusion, equitable access to
education, and general thoughts about inclusion, equity, and diversity. The responses given were detailed and gave insight into the equity and inclusion issues within Bellevue Public Schools. The interviewee states that she has been working diligently to ensure the department gets better at utilized inclusive resources.
Equity and Inclusion Framework A Four Frame Model for organizations was publish by Bolman and Deal (2017). This framework model consists of structural, political, human resource, and symbolic models. Each model can be applied to different situations, including interview responses. Two frames can be applied throughout the interview. The first that could be applied is the human resource frame. The participant was asked in what ways she feels the preschool program is equitable. She answered that it is improving but she has been seeking feedback on ways to improve this area of the program. This is reflective of the human resource frame as it relies on what people want to meet the organizational goal. The participant is actively seeking feedback from the employees and wants to ensure everyone’s needs are being met.
Another question that was asked represented a strong political framework answer. She was asked why the number of special education teachers in the district has decreased. She simply
answered that she could not speak more about that due to policy restrictions. This relates heavily to the political framework as her answer related back to polices and rules. This was the only time
throughout the interview that she was unable to answer a question due to rules and regulations.
Three Adult Plateaus in Mental Complexity There are three adult plateaus in mental capacity. The three types are self-authoring mind,
socialized mind, and self-transforming mind. Each of these serve a different purpose and help to
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navigate the world in different ways (Khurran & Khurram, 2019). This paper is going to focus mostly on is the socialized mind with a small portion of the interview relating to the self-
authoring mind and the self-transforming mind. Within this complexity it states that people are shaped by their expectations and their environment. The sense of self expresses itself mainly through relationships. The self-authoring mind focuses on a person having their own identity but acknowledging that other people and thoughts exist. Relationships do not matter much to people with this mindset when it comes to making decisions, they rely heavily on themselves. The socialized mind focuses on relationships as the base for decision making. May people in this stage utilize social norms and other beliefs to form their own beliefs. The self-transforming mind
allows someone to form their own independent identity without building from social norms. These people are always shifting and changing their mindset when they learn new information. Within this interview the socialized mind mental capacity can be seen. The socialized mind is shaped by the definitions and expectations of the surrounding environment. Beliefs in a socialized mind mental capacity focus heavily on relationships. Many of the participants responses include examples of working together, seeking feedback from staff, and reaching out and creating relationships with various organizations. The participant can be related slightly to the self-transforming mind. She is seeking feedback and wanting to change things, but is not doing it independently. The self-authoring mind can also be seen slightly as she does state she has reached out for support but ultimately made the decision herself when it comes to creating equitable and inclusive opportunities. It is clear that Bellevue Public Schools early childhood department is trying to expand their knowledge and use of equity, inclusion, and diversity. The participant mentions that she is
working on getting more diverse toys for the preschool classroom. She is also working on getting
all teachers to implement IEPs. This was concerning at first as it is required by law for teachers to follow these individual education plans. I would be curious to see if she is able to make that possible. She also stated that she has recently reached out to the Special Olympics to have them come in and provide activities and resources for staff on inclusion and inclusive opportunities.
References
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leaderships. John Wiley & Sons Incorporated.
Khurran, S., Khurram, A., & Ashraf, N. (2019). Types of mindsets. International Journal of Organizational Analysis (2005). Turner, D. W., III. (2010). Qualitative interview design: A practical guide for novice investigators.
The Qualitative Report
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Appendix A- Interview Transcript Question: Do you have any concerns with the inclusion, diversity, and equity of the early childhood department? Answer:
I do have concerns. I believe a lot of special education students are slipping through the
cracks. I also believe there are some teachers not following children’s IEPs and therefore compromising the equity of our program. I do not have any concerns with diversity though.
Question:
What practices are put in place to ensure the learning environment is equitable for all students? Answer:
We have 504 plans and IEP plans. 504 plans are for students who need additional support to be at the same level as their peers but not a lot. An IEP is to support students who have greater needs to be at the same level as their peers.
Question:
How do your classrooms support inclusion? Answer:
We offer a number of books about inclusion and diversity for our staff and students. The curriculum we use is diverse as well. I recently reached out to staff for some improvements on this. One of the suggestions was to buy toys that support different skin color and different abilities. Question: What materials do you have to support English language learners? Answer: We label everything with pictures. We also print our newsletters in English and Spanish. Books are available to check out in different languages. Question:
Do you feel that your current preschool is equitable?
Answer:
I think it has been improving for sure. I know this is something that we need to work on. I’m always seeking feedback from different people and organizations on how to ensure this. Question:
Are staff trained in inclusion?
Answer:
Not directly. We assume many of our teachers who have special education degrees know a lot about this. We do touch base on the importance of including all children in all activities.
Question:
Why has the number of special education teachers in the district decreased?
Answer:
That is something I cannot answer due to current policies. Question:
Is there anything else you want to share about inclusion, equity, or diversity?
Answer:
I don’t think so. Just that we have come a long way with our inclusion. We just started teaming up with the Special Olympics this year and they have introduced us to a lot of inclusion oportunites.