Accountability and Reform: Education Leaders' Sense-Making Impact on Black Boys

• In Event: Blackness in Schools: Surviving and Thriving in Hostile Environments

Abstract

Significant effort and energy have gone toward examining how schools respond to the larger societal context in which schooling occurs. In this paper, we examine how educational leaders are making sense of this pivotal time and its implications for Black boys in schools. This qualitative study interviewed educational leaders and analyzed district policies pertaining to discipline across four districts. Our preliminary findings indicated that though education leaders enacted policies and practices to directly address the inequitable treatment of black boys in schools, it did little to change the antiblackness within them. Thus, we argue that it is the responsibility of educational leaders to employ the same accountability and reform that they request to see in larger society within their schools.

Authors

• Victor Carter, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Eskender A Yousuf, University of Minnesota