**4.1 What happens when we intersect Pra-colonialism and transformative leadership**

The intersections of transformative leadership and Pra perspective on identity are germane to our discussion. Being aware that, from a poststructuralist perspective, identity is a negotiated process in the contexts of social location and positioning, how are students positioned? How are student identities negotiated, if at all, with educational leaders? What powers do students have to express themselves as they wish within the curriculum? The roles of leaders in curriculum development and pedagogies of the oppressed become evident. Do the theories and foundations of educational leadership, administrative systems and policies, organizational cultures, curricula, pedagogy, and assessment allow students to be seen for who they truly are, for who and what they wish to become? Shields and Hesbol [48] conclude:

*To meet the needs of rapidly changing populations, whether immigrant or refugee, whether they speak the language of instruction or not, whether they have experienced trauma or not, and whether the school is in a vibrant urban setting or a remote rural setting, it is incumbent on school leaders … to lead in ways that promote inclusion, equity, and excellence for every student (p. 559).*

As Sayani [54] asks, what is the epistemic status of the student's lived experience and knowing? We begin with reflections on our mind-sets around that question. We have outlined here a Pra [colonial] framework, intersecting with and guided by transformative leadership, that allows us to engage with students in ways that develop body, heart, and mind and develop the full potential of humanity already present with the students.

Again, we want to stress that our Pra perspective includes consideration of cultural, regional, gender, or other such unique characteristics of the students; but it also transcends them. Our perspective "precedes," in an ontological sense, these considerations. Suppose we are willing to recognize students in their basic humanity. In that case, we can strive as educational leaders to create educationally humanizing conditions, working toward the possibilities of what Freire [8] refers to as "becoming fully human." As Bai, Park, and Cohen [49] note in distinguishing education from mere instruction:

*Education is for growing, raising, maturing, cultivating, and fulfilling human beings, manifesting the full potential of humanity….[the wisdom] traditions share an understanding that education has to do with human becoming …. the larger aim of education that the wisdom traditions hold up before us: humans increasingly maturing into and embodying a fuller humanity that can manifest wisdom and virtue (pp. 114–115).*

We do not believe that simply applying a transformative leadership paradigm to the problem of engaging international students in higher education in a manner that simply "transcends" colonialism and Euro-centric pedagogical practices is the solution. Instead, we believe that a genuinely radical leadership paradigm shift lacks meaning or cannot occur unless a call for action occurs by intersecting a Pra perspective with the praxis of transformative leadership.

In summary, then, Pra-colonialism challenges colonialism and post-colonialism by offering a heuristic to problematize deeply ingrained ideologies that international students are less than or different from other students. We suggest that by viewing international students *as* students, leadership, and faculty respond as if providing equity, inclusivity, and diversity in their regular classrooms with "regular" students. Current ideologies have resulted in pedagogical practices rooted in a deficit model or oppressive pedagogical and curriculum approaches that limit the potential of what can happen in classrooms. To mitigate current damaging approaches, we suggest a Pra-transformative perspective that recognizes *and* legitimates the students' subjectivity and lived experience, offering and enacting transformative pedagogical opportunities where student identities can be explored as a means of becoming more fully human.
