Boundary Crossing to Design an Equity-Oriented Protocol for Responding to Discrimination and Harassment in a Predominantly White School District

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

Abstract

This paper presents an inclusive boundary-crossing initiative by Equity Task Force (ETF) in a school district in New Hampshire. Employing the methodology of Learning Lab, the ETF designed an equity-oriented protocol to address discrimination and harassment prevalent in the school district. The ETF comprised members representing diverse roles and racial/ethnic groups including parents/community, students, administrators, and teachers. The objective of this paper is to investigate challenges encountered by the ETF during their boundary-crossing work, how they navigated the challenges, and the outcomes of the boundary-crossing work. This paper demonstrated the potential for school/district leadership to create policies through a bottom-up approach, leveraging the epistemic knowledge of the local community through an inclusive problem-solving team.

Keywords: Equity-oriented policy, boundary-crossing, inclusive problem-solving

Authors

• Dian Mawene, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Andres Mejia, SAU 16 - Exeter NH

• Beatriz Mella, SAU 16 - Exeter NH

• Hana Cass, SAU 16 - Exeter NH

• William Bowie, School Administrative District 16, NH

• Kelly Childress, SAU 16 - Exeter NH