Bringing Others into Us: School Leadership Meeting the Politics of Identity Jennie Billot, Unitec New Zealand, New Zealand Abstract: How does a school maintain a sustainable identity within the rapidly changing society in which it is positioned? As a result of global migrations of people, the demographics of societies are changing and creating increasingly diverse communities, resulting in a challenging context for school leadership. The ‘research territory’ (Morrison, Lumby & Sood, 2006, p. 281) of diversity has mainly been occupied by those outside the domains of educational management and leadership, so this paper aims to redress that imbalance. By examining the connections between diversity of population and school identity, I identify how inclusive practices aimed at social equity can be used to draw diverse groups into a larger unifed school community. There has been much debate about what constitutes ‘diversity’ in general terms and, given the multiplicity of meanings for this concept, in this paper I focus on ethnocultural diversity which Au refers to as encompassing ‘groups with shared histories and cultural knowledge’ (1995, p. 85). I refer to research fndings of an international study to identify strategies and practices developed and implemented by principals in New Zealand to address increasing ethnocultural di- versity. Identity can be viewed as the ‘combination of the internal experience of place and external participation in world and society’ (Cockburn, 1983, p. 1). The principal holds a pivotal role in facilitating school identity and as leadership emerges from social constructions of the self, so the principal works recursively with the concept of identity in the agency of leadership. I identify the tension between efforts to value diversity and the achievement of social cohesion through consensus building and contend that espoused concentration on issues arising from the multi-dimensional nature of diversity can divert focus from the pursuit of equity. Keywords: Ethnocultural Diversity, Identity, School Leadership Introduction I COMMENCE THIS paper by declaring my academic and political intent. I contend that educational communities cannot be examined in isolation in the same way that leadership cannot be circumscribed by just policy and social duty. Both entities exist within a quickly changing global environment where communities constantly refgure and priorities are modifed. While this macro-dynamic infuences political efforts to pursue social control, it may cause issues at the local level to be less visible. Local contexts may not always mirror global expressions, so by concentrating on the issues at large, we risk passing over what is happening locally. In the escalating call for educa- tional researchers to acknowledge the impact of globalisation, tension has developed between fnding global solutions and developing locally appropriate practices. In response to this tension and Dimmock’s observation that ‘astonishingly the leadership of multi-ethnic schools has received little attention in the literature’ (2005, p. 82), I focus on the position of the school community within a changing global, national and local context. Currently, migrations of large numbers of people are a global reality. These movements result from the desire to relocate in regions of greater opportunity through to forced migration arising from social or political dislocation. As a result, societies are chan- ging and becoming more diverse in character (Dim- mock, Shah & Stevenson, 2004). Such changing demographics alter the nature of the environment in which individuals are situated, becoming apparent at the micro level of the community and school with school leadership roles becoming more pluralistic as schools face ‘critical adaptive challenges’ (Madsen & Mabokela, 2002, p. 1). In this paper I critique how school leaders create cohesive school communities within such complex circumstances. There has been concern raised that current research does not provide theory on how principals remain effective in chan- ging environments. Acknowledging that there are a multitude of effects resulting from population change, I focus on issues related to the connections between diversity of population and school identity. Furthermore, I identify the legitimacy of how inclus- ive practices aimed at increasing equity can be used to draw diverse groups into a larger unifed school community. It is well documented that schools have been transformed by cultural multiplicity (Dimmock & Walker, 2005), with the result that multiculturalism has become the dominant discourse of the current century, although as the term multiculturalism is applied in many different ways and to varied con- THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DIVERSITY IN ORGANISATIONS, COMMUNITIES AND NATIONS, VOLUME 7, NUMBER 2, 2007 http://www.Diversity-Journal.com, ISSN 1447-9532 © Common Ground, Jennie Billot, All Rights Reserved, Permissions: cg-support@commongroundpublishing.com