The Persistence of Whiteness in an Equity-Centered Community School Initiative

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Two
  In Roundtable Session: Assessing Parent Perceptions of Family, School, Community Partnerships (Table 14)

Abstract

In this study, we examined how school principals and their teams understood one equity-centered initiative, the Community Schools Initiative in New York City schools. We use existing literature on whiteness in parent engagement and Community Equity Literacy(Green, 2017, p. 490). We conduct a document analysis alongside interviews with principals and their community school teams to understand more about the initiative and how it may have shaped the perspectives of principals and their teams. Our findings reveal that principals describe “community” in three ways: a process, a place, and a resource. While the school leaders seem well intended, our findings also highlight that deficit perspectives can creep into the ideas and behaviors of leaders even in well-intentioned equity initiatives.

Authors

• Arianna Di Puorto, University of North Carolina - Greensboro
  Presenting Author

• Tiffanie Celeste Lewis-Durham, University of North Carolina - Greensboro
  Presenting Author

• Monique Saastamoinen, University of North Carolina - Greensboro
  Presenting Author