Depoliticized and Technocratic Solutions within Race-explicit Discourse: The Case of a School’s Equity Observations

• In Event: Spinning in Circles or Driving Change: The Possibilities and Constraints of Racialized Change and Learning

Abstract

Purpose

Talk of anti-Blackness and systemic racism has increased in school equity initiatives across many parts of the United States. Such discourse breaks from race-evasive patterns (Annamma et al. 2017; Bonilla-Silva, 2006), potentially supporting leaders’ more precise identification and response to racism (Dumas, 2016). However, discursive specificity alone does not ensure shifting power relations. Using a case of a school’s “combating antiblackness” initiative, this paper examines: 1) how antiblackness and related interventions were explained by teacher-leaders with new teachers and 2) how the racial status quo was challenged or protected within these interactions.

Framework

This paper uses a multi-level race-critical analysis, focused on how inequity and related solutions were framed and engaged across interpersonal, classroom, and organizational levels (Goffman, 1974; Leonardo, 2012, McKinney de Royston & Nasir, 2017). Data analysis brings intersectional attention to the classroom structures (un)changed for Black girls (Collins, 2019).

Analytical Approach

Drawing from a larger qualitative study, this paper presents two embedded case studies of new teachers: their post-observation conversations with teacher-leaders and researcher interviews and observations. Data analysis entailed case memos, thematic coding, and critical discourse analysis.

Findings

Teacher-leaders acknowledged anti-Black racism as a structural phenomenon in observation debrief conversations with new teachers. However, proposed interventions failed to disrupt the racial status quo in classroom relations, reflecting a pattern of technocratic and depoliticized equity discourse (Nieto, 2006; Philip, 2019).

Case One
- In the observation debrief, the teacher-leader contextualized the focus on anti-Black racism as a school-wide issue before encouraging the teacher to use more “positive behavior narration” with Black students. She softened her remarks several times through qualifiers.
-In researcher interviews, the teacher discussed classroom racial dilemmas not addressed with leaders, including the use of the n-word by non-Black students of color. The teacher eventually relied on Black girls’ correcting their peers’ language, reproducing quotidian educational violence faced by Black girls (Smith-Purviance, 2021).

Case Two
-The second leader emphasized the goal to “disrupt” teachers’ lower expectations for Black students” and increase Black girls’ enrollment in advanced STEM classes. She positioned the second teacher as exceptional, noting that her “Black students were almost more engaged [than white students].” The leader suggested the teacher start an afterschool math club to provide a challenge to Ka’lia, the most vocally participatory Black girl in her class.
-Overwhelmed in her first-year, the teacher indefinitely postponed the math club. In a year-end interview, the teacher noted that Ka’lia grew frustrated with classroom dynamics and became less engaged. She added that despite some positive relationships, there were several Black girls with whom she struggled to support throughout the year.

Significance

Despite intentions, observation debrief conversations failed to prompt structural or epistemic change. Ultimately, while incorporating attention to “antiblackness” may have expanded the specificity of leaders’ language and particular forms of data collection, the proposed interventions remained technocratic and depoliticized. Furthermore, interpersonal mechanisms such as softening and exceptionalizing created emotional configurations (Vea, 2020), centering white comfort. Overall, this study presents possibilities, contradictions, and limitations of race-explicit discourse within educational change efforts.

Author

• Joy Esboldt, University of Delaware