A Step Toward Becoming an Antiracist Leader: Use of Racial Autobiographies in a Leadership Preparation Class

• In Event: Racial Autobiography as a Catalyst for Antiracist Leadership Identity

Abstract

Purpose. Racism has deep tentacles and the ability to reach into all aspects of modern-day life. Thus, a primary and imperative place to address racism is at the personal level. Being reflective about how racism has influenced a person can cause discomfort, however, we must be able to welcome and wrestle with the discomfort in order to productively move forward. For educational leaders, who are responsible for the education of all students in their schools and districts, reflecting on race and racism at the personal level is a quintessential first step toward addressing it. I contend that leaders, in order to effect any real change for the students and families they serve, must be anti-racist leaders (Welton et al., 2019). To be an anti-racist leader, especially for white folks, takes constant personal work and reflection on race and racism.

Data Sources and Frames. As a first step toward addressing racism, in my master’s level leadership courses, I use “I Am” poems which prompt students to start thinking about their roots in terms of family, history, and community. Next, I use Gooden’s (2021) racial autobiography, “a narrative written to explore how race has manifested in one's life [because it] can support a leader's goal of becoming antiracist” (n.p.). In my experience it has helped these aspirational school and district leaders lift up unexamined and unreflected meanings of race and racism in their own practice and in the larger context of the U.S. (Gooden & O’Doherty, 2015). In assigning a racial autobiography, I follow Gooden’s and Radd et al.’s (2021) suggestions and ask students to identify key realizations and multiple points and times across their lives, and write their personal narrative and memoir around race and racism. Alongside this narrative, I ask students to sketch a rough timeline to support the narrative and allow them to understand where they are in the history of racism and inequality.

Data for this study include former master’s level students “I Am” poems, racial autobiographies, and timelines. I asked students to share these items such that I could review and analyze them through the lens of antiracist leadership, and Radd et al.’s (2021) themes related to the racial autobiography—increasing awareness of race, building community within and beyond the school, taking antiracist action to change structures, and a commitment to being vigilant, curious, and courageous. Fifteen students shared their materials with me.

Method, Results, & Significance. I conducted a content analysis (Krippendorf, 2018) on students’ shared materials. Preliminary results indicate that students fall on a continuum on the depth of reflection, their understanding of the history of racism, their awareness of race, and their understanding of how to build community related to becoming an antiracist leader. However, all students were committed to continuing this work such that they might identify as an anti-racist leader and take action to make change–as demonstrated through direct quotes from participant materials related to this continuum and the students’ commitment. Recommendations for leadership programs will be included.

Author

• Leslie Ann Locke, Minnesota State University - Mankato