Understanding Postsecondary Equity Initiatives: An Ideological Discourse Analysis

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 9:00 am
  In Roundtable Session: Enactment of Equitable Leadership in Postsecondary Contexts (Table 5)

Abstract

Conservative policymakers increasingly target postsecondary equity initiatives despite limited understandings of the meaning of equity within these contexts or perspectives of college administrators engaging in equity work. This Ideological Discourse Analysis (IDA) draws systematic connections between structures of discourse and structures of ideologies among interviews with 16 administrators recognized regionally and nationally as equity leaders. In examining the ideological discursive elements of these administrators’ identity constructs and self-representational techniques, we uncovered a pervasive focus on the other as well-meaning but ill-informed colleagues, rather than political or institutional actors, as the primary challenge to achieving equity-minded change. Implications are discussed for shifting the discourse towards increasingly inclusive understandings of who is engaged in equity work and collaborative enactment of change.

Authors

• Emily Suh, Texas State University

• Nasim Layegh, Texas State University