Antiracist Policy Decision-Making Cycles of Inquiry: Dismantling Racist Policies and Constructing Antiracist Educational Possibilities

• In Event: Collaborative Agency in School Turnaround: Voice, Partnership, and Equity in Action

Abstract

Imagining how school leaders might construct educational possibilities, two authors of this paper created a cycle of inquiry protocol wherein school leaders interrogate whether and how the policies they design and/or implement are racially unjust. In this race-conscious research-practice partnership, we examine how a school that has undergone our protocol has addressed racial inequity in school policy and practice. In this paper, we expand on two of the four themes we found: tension and anti-racist partnerships. Although we sought to empower educators to reimagine a policy of their choosing, the school team is still attempting to move beyond the cycle of inquiry and into the equitable reality they hope to construct in their school.

Authors

• Sarah Wenneker Walters, University of Missouri

• Deonte E. Iverson, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Anjalé D. Welton, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Sarah Diem, University of Missouri