A Well-Intentioned Principal's Struggle to Engage in Racial Dialogues

• In Event: 61.024 - Interrogating Educational Leadership: Critical Research on White Privilege and Racism

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the racial politics involved in the ways in which a white principal engages with their school community about issues of race, especially when couched within the complex reality of school reform and improvement. I describe how one white principal attempted to engage in discussions about race fluctuated and in fact was on a continuum of being race-conscious or race neutral based on the politics of a given situation or context.
Theoretical Perspectives
According to Bonilla-Silva (2004) schools now operate within a “new racism” where a racial caste system is maintained through race-neutral policies and practices that have severe racial outcomes (Welton, 2013). Race-neutrality in educational structures and practices stems from an ideology of colorblindness that denies that race matters to issues of inequity and either downplays or attempts to thwart any discussion about race (Bonilla-Silva, 2004). Finally, I define race consciousness as the opposite of colorblindness or race-neutrality (Ullucci, 2010).
Methodology
I undertook a case study of a semi-urban high school principal fostering an environment where students and teachers are beginning to critique the cultural norms of their school. As Stake (2005) describes, the “case is of secondary interest”, the case is used to “advance understanding of that other interest” (p. 445). The “other interest”, in this study, is the racial dialogue of the students, teachers, and more specifically, how the principal is an important lever in creating a culture where this is permissible.
Data Sources
I employed purposeful snowball sampling technique (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007) and conferred with professional colleagues, in a variety of role, who are familiar with self-described P-12 socially just principals working within the public schools. I sought principals who believe in (a) challenging the status quo to make schools a more empowering and liberating space for students, (b) intentionally raising issues of race, (c) and aimed to help other persons contextualize the schooling experience to issues of race. After using the purposeful snowball sampling, I selected a principal at random, Principal James Fawkes of John F. Kennedy High School located in Meadowbrook (all pseudonyms). My case included nearly 30 semi-structured interviews of teachers, administrators, and parents, over 200 hours of observations, and the collection of relevant artifacts.
Findings
Fawkes promoted a grassroots movement of the students to critique cultural norms of the school, used positional power to employ staff to work with students to solve students’ grievances, and highlight substantial gaps in test score data. However, despite the best efforts of the principal, the principal would often use “safe” words in staff and department head (curriculum) meetings, as well as personal conversations with students and parents like: “equity”, “needy”, “the kids who need it most”, and “social action”. Rather than exploring and isolating root causes of institutionalized oppression, symptoms of the problems were address with “neutral” words that often resulted in perpetuating staff members’ deficit perceptions of students.

Author

• Jason Swanson, University of Illinois - Chicago