The USLC at the University of Texas-San Antonio is a unique principal preparation program that focuses on preparing aspiring school principals to become transformational leaders who can work in diverse, ambiguous and challenging school contexts (Garza & Merchant, 2009; Merchant & Garza, 2015). Originating in a partnership with San Antonio Independent School District, now in its 11th cohort, the USLC model established new partnerships. This new program, USLC-South Bexar (USLC-SB), is in its fourth cohort, working to prepare school leaders for small districts in urban settings. A vital feature of the USLC is the leadership from its core faculty, former school principals, and district administrators who bring heuristic knowledge in preparing and developing school leaders for social justice. The Urban School Leaders Collaborative (USLC) is an award-winning 36-semester credit hour program that leads to the Master of Education Degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and Texas Principal as Instructional Leader Certification. The transformative program prepares leaders for social justice leadership in diverse communities.

This collaborative and collective partnership was significantly enhanced with the recent award of a multi-million-dollar grant from the Wallace Foundation, the Equity-Centered Principal Initiative. The collaborative has been nurtured, sustained, and studied for the past twenty years with unconditional support from the former and present district superintendents as well as the dean of the college of education and human development (Murakami-Ramalho, Garza, & Merchant, 2009).

A constructivist theoretical approach drives teaching and learning in this program. In a constructivist classroom, students and faculty engage in critical reflection, individually and collectively (Merchant & Garza, 2015). Coupled with constructivist learning theory, the Pedagogy of Collective Critical Consciousness (Garza, 2015) engages masters students deeply in collective learning activities, including shared critical reflection, written autoethnographies, digital life stories, community engagement projects, equity audits, and ultimately, the implementation of praxis (Freire, 2000). As co-constructors of knowledge, students, and faculty are both teachers and learners.

Embracing a bricolage approach, we grounded this study following Anzaldúa’s (1990) words, “by bringing in our own approaches and methodologies, we transform that theorizing space (p. xxv) to better understand how the program has influenced the students and professors in this innovative program. As such, in order to seek the insights from the experiences of our alumni and current students of this innovative program, several theoretical approaches were considered to highlight the collaborative lived experiences to include, social justice (Marshall & Oliva, 2006), and critical theory (Freire, 1993; Santamaria, 2013). Using testimonios (Anzaldúa, 2002) as a methodological approach, will help create salient depictions of experiences, identities, and new ways of knowing that center of culture and identity. A testimonio is viewed as a verbal journey (authentic narrative) of one’s life with a focus on the effect of injustice (Reyes & Rodriguez, 2012). As such, the testimonios of 26 students will offer a language of hope and insights into the ability of schools to promote equity, consciousness, and agency. During this session, we will engage in a presentation of testimonios about their lived experiences in the program. A theory in the flesh means one where the physical realities of our lives; our skin color, the land or concrete we grew up on, our sexual longings all fuse to create a politic born out of necessity. Here, we attempt to bridge the contradictions of our experience. (Moraga & Anzaldúa, 1981, p. 23)

This study is important because we offer an alternative model to leadership preparation that aligns with the conference theme of, Value of Diversity in Education and Educational Research. If preparation programs are going to adopt a mission of equity, diversity and social justice leadership, they need to be deliberate about helping aspiring principals understand the challenges they must be willing to confront if they are to maintain their commitment to social justice. In the last twenty years, a number of scholars have advocated for preparation programs designed to prepare aspiring leaders to lead socially just schools (McKenzie & Scheurich, 2004; Cambron- McCabe & McCarthy, 2005; Rusch, 2004). However, most principal preparation programs are traditional and continue to prepare future principals as managers mostly supervising and evaluating employees, encouraging collegiality, maintaining facilities, overlooking a set budget, discipline and many other non-instructional tasks (Toth & Siemaszko, 1996). Although these skills are important, social justice leaders are much more than good managers. In a study conducted by Theoharis (2009) his participants (practicing principals) expressed that preparation programs were uninspiring and did not address the need to advocate for equity and justice for marginalized students. They believed that their preparation programs were strongly focused on developing management skills that could be measured through a standardized “principal assessment” instrument designed and standardized for the “general” population of students. Furthermore, they were concerned about the absence of readings and critical discussion about race and equity (Theoharis, 2009, p.107). As such, this study on twenty years of leadership development will highlight how the experiences of aspiring school leaders lived experiences shape their understanding and identity as leaders in diverse communities.

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