The K-12 School as an Unequal Workplace: Teachers’ Experiences With Organizational Racism and Sexism

• In Event: Revealing Systematic Pushout Through Intersectional Analysis

Abstract

In recent years, social movements around race and gender have called attention to structural inequalities in social life, including in schools. While scholars have examined these topics in relation to students, the same cannot be said for teachers. Too often, educators are reduced to drivers or disruptors of social reproduction, with little attention paid to how schools are also unequal workplaces. This paper utilizes in-depth interviews and teacher diaries to examine educators’ experiences of schools as workplaces. Drawing educators from different organizational types (public, charter, private-religious, private-secular), this paper offers a comparative analysis of school workplaces framed by theories on gendered and racialized organizations. The unique design of this work will offer important insights for policy, practice, and theory.

Author

• Julio Ángel Alicea, Rutgers University - Camden