“Maybe It Is the Race Issue”: Navigating Race Talk in Urban School Reform

• In Event: Roundtable Session 79
  In Roundtable Session: Diversity, Discourse, and Disruptions in Local Contexts

Abstract

Although American schools are becoming more diverse, educators continue to struggle with dilemmas over whether and how to initiate conversations about race. While equity specialists offer general guidelines for engaging colleagues in race talk (Pollock, 2008; Singleton & Linton, 2006), the literature provides few illustrations of how educators successfully navigate race talk in specific contexts. This paper responds to that gap by analyzing how five teacher-leaders began a conversation about race that changed their understanding of themselves, their students, and their school’s problems. Drawing on data gathered during a three-year ethnographic study of what participants called “toxic” school culture, I trace how conversation led this mixed-race group to shifts in race consciousness and new approaches to school reform.

Author

• Jennifer Buehler, Saint Louis University