Everyday Actions for Change: Teachers of Color Engaging in Political Struggles for Justice

• In Event: 29.033 - Political Space, Deliberation, and Collective Action: Students, Teachers, and Parents as Socially Conscious Actors

Abstract

Teachers work within a market-driven system where they are expected to prepare students as “docile citizens” in order to add value and compete in the labor market, which conflicts with their potential to prepare students as “fully informed democratic citizens” in order
to contribute to a socially just society (Baltadono, 2012). This ideological struggle is especially apparent for socially conscious teachers of color who may experience both ideological isolation and hostile racial climates (Kohli, 2016) in schools shaped by neoliberal policies and practices. Thus, they leave the classroom at 24% of a higher rate than their white counterparts (Eddy & Easton-Brooks, 2011). However, some teachers are able to assert their agency and transform the hostile conditions of their schools (Jacobs et al, 2014). This study illustrates how urban teachers of color draw upon their social consciousness to engage in everyday political actions to reclaim the democratic purpose of schooling.

Micropolitics is a theory that considers the external political forces that shape everyday school life and decision-making processes within organizations (Ianconne,1975). Individual actors engage in micropolitical strategies and tactics to further their goals within schools. I utilize micropolitics to understand how teachers of color, as socially conscious actors, engage in micropolitical strategies to mitigate the effects of external political forces that construct educational inequalities within schools. I also use democratic leadership to examine how these actions include the interests of people most affected by organizational policies and practices (Ryan & Rottman, 2009). Bridging these frameworks, I investigate how teachers of color working in systems of politics and power use leadership skills, political savviness, and deep understanding of organizational contexts to organize collective action through everyday actions.

I used snowball sampling to recruit five urban teachers of color exhibiting an advanced level of critical consciousness and agency for change through referrals from social justice-oriented teachers, teacher educators, and professors working within urban schools (Merriam, 2009). I conducted two open-ended interviews with each participant and a focus group interview with all participants. All interviews were 60-90 minutes in length, audio recorded and transcribed with permission from all participants.


Data revealed that the participants’ broader political awareness and relational power within their schools constructed their professional agency to alter policy requirements at the local level. To transform the conditions for schooling and learning, the participants also drew upon their cultural knowledge and lived experiences to engage in two forms of action: 1) They created their own spaces outside of their context to strengthen their political awareness; and 2) They engaged in informal and formal leadership roles to expand their political power, broadening their engagement in collective action with students, families, and colleagues. These actions required additional time outside their teaching responsibilities, emerging issues of sustaining long-term professional commitments.

These findings provide implications for transforming the conditions of schools to
better serve students, families, and teachers, and address retention issues for teachers of color. Thus, educational leaders must provide support for and conceive of teachers of color as socially conscious change agents and policy brokers.

Author

• Josephine Pham, University of California - Los Angeles