School and District Leadership for Cross-Racial Solidarity

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Interrogations of Equity and Racial Justice in K–12 and Higher Education (Table 9)

Abstract

This study is a critical co-constructed autoethnography (Cann & DeMeulenaere, 2012) between four educators who engage in cross-racial solidarity work as scholar-practitioners and K-12 administrators in one of the most diverse contexts globally – the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), in Ontario, Canada. We draw on our lived experiences as practitioners and scholar-practitioners, as well as the literature on solidarity and leading for racial and social justice to highlight important challenges and possibilities of cross-racial solidarities in educational leadership. The challenges include a lack of political will, a lack of theoretical understanding, and performativity. The possibilities include centering complicities, complexities, and contradictions, new ways to foster communities of care across identities and geographies, and a deepened sense of community-centered leadership.

Authors

• Vidya Shah, OISE/University of Toronto

• Harpreet Ghuman, Toronto District School Board

• Sayema Chowdhury, Peel District School Board

• Monica Tang, York University