A Critical Examination of School Leaders' Perceptions of Race and Disability

• In Event: Taking Responsibility for Racial Justice in Educational Leadership Preparation: Antiracist Implications in Doctoral Student Work

Abstract

Purpose
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA; 2004) created two major focuses: the first ensures equal access by providing a free and appropriate public education for students with disabilities (SWDs), and the second is to provide this education in an inclusive and least restrictive environment (LRE) alongside non-disabled peers. To this end, one of the major challenges school administrators face is related to school discipline. For more than a half century, school discipline research literature has consistently shown that minorities, specifically Blacks, are more likely than whites to be punished (Rocque, 2010), a statistic that worsens for SWDs (Arcia, 2006). Given the utilization of criminalizing practices illuminated by disproportionate school discipline of minority students (Nocella, Parmar & Stovall, 2018), it becomes imperative to understand how school leaders conceptualize the manifestation of behavioral responses for disabled students of color. To better understand how to support the achievement of historically marginalized nonwhite SWDs, we must elicit a working knowledge of administrator perceptions. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to analyze the held attitudes, views and to what extent deracialized thinking exists within administrative practices.

Theoretical Perspective
Structuring this research using a framework of prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination, Intergroup Threat theory (ITT) aims at uncovering perceptions of threats experienced when a member of one group ideologizes and perceives that a member belonging to a different group is in a position to cause them harm (Stephan, Ybarra, Morrison, 2009). ITT becomes useful as we examine how leaders who oversee school discipline perceive and make sense of behavioral responses of SWDs and how internalized racist practices result from behavioral misinterpretations due to historical racial injustices enforced on Black people.

Methods
Using semi-structured interviews, the goal was to understand how school officials view disability and their perspectives as it pertains to equitable and just practices for nonwhite disabled students. Highlighting this within a larger conversation surrounding race, equity and ability explains the oppressive thinking and behaviorally racist practices embraced by school leaders who support Black SWDs.

Data Sources
Using a predetermined list of questions, data was retrieved from 5 school administrators within a large urban midwestern district who enforce school discipline. Responses were coded based on emerging themes endorsing maladaptive behavior, need for exclusionary and segregationist practices, disability awareness and student achievement rate.

Results
Findings reveal that school leaders’ perception is linked to racial threat as those in power have a racist ideology of how bodies with disabilities should behave. While K-12 administrators express the importance of nondiscriminatory, antiracist practices, they still maintain their racist perceptions of students of color with disabilities which lead toward racist action.

Scholarly Significance
Despite mandates explicitly eliminating the discrimination against students based on their specific and unique characteristics of disability and race through segregation (Williams, et al, 2013), school leaders continue to embrace hegemonic racial structures and exercise White-dominated racist practices when supporting Black SWDs. Fortunately, administrators can swiftly remove unjust representation of students of color in school discipline by thoroughly deconstructing and reconstructing their knowledge of how Black SWDs should behave.

Author

• Julien Frazier, Wayne State University