Leadership and At-risk.

While educational leaders may believe they are gender neutral when dealing with at-risk students, research suggests otherwise. In their traditional roles, men are socialized to become competitive, strong, and to be in control. The top-down leadership practices have been reported to cause troubling experiences for at-risk students to the differential in the social capital represented by bureaucrats and that the students at risk of academic failure bring into the school system. Similarly, women have also reported to have been alienated by some of the masculine leadership traits in societal institutions. Society expects women to be mothers, teachers and nurses. In those roles, women are socialized to be interactive, long suffering, cooperative, conscientious, empathetic, and providers of supportive leadership to others, especially those that are vulnerable. Yet, the quality of classroom instruction for at-risk students has been reported to have deteriorated over the years in the public school system where the majority of educators were women. In their practice, irrespective of their gender, leadersoften begin with what comes “naturally” to them. However, habits inculcated by socialization, erode over time due to the idiosyncrasies and the vicissitudes of careers. This article attempts to probe extant literature using a critical theory approach in order to identify distinctive capabilitiesentailed in the re-conceptualization of instructional leadership and at-risk students beyond the knowledge gleaned from gender roles.