Banned Words, Living Practice: Enacting Inclusion, Equity, and Systemic Transformation in a Time of Dread

• In Event: Thriving in Context: Exploring Dimensions of Variation in Equity-Driven Partnership Research

Abstract

Purpose
This paper examines the Florida Learning Lab (FLL), a districtwide, equity-centered intervention co-developed by university researchers and an urban school district to address racial disproportionality in school discipline and special education between 2019 and 2024. Funded by a federal school transformation grant, the project aimed to build collective agency among school stakeholders to facilitate justice-oriented, ecologically valid, adaptive, and sustainable systems change.

Framework
The FLL is grounded in Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (Engeström, 2015) and critical pedagogies (Freire, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Levitas, 2013), which conceptualize school systems as socially and historically constructed, culturally mediated activity systems where contradictions generate opportunities for transformation. Together, these frameworks conceptualize change as emerging from contradiction-driven learning, dialogic engagement, and collective agency across boundaries. FLL is a justice-oriented RPP, a participatory, relational, and design-based effort aimed at transforming inequitable systems (Bang & Vossoughi, 2016; Gutiérrez & Jurow, 2016).

Methods
The FLL was implemented as a formative intervention using a mixed-methods design across four phases: (1) historical analysis of disciplinary systems, (2) collaborative analysis of data, (3) co-design of context-specific tools (e.g., restorative matrices), and (4) a cycle of change with seven expansive actions: formation of the Lab, questioning the existing system and its outcomes, historical and empirical root-cause analyses, modeling a culturally responsive system, examining the new system, reflecting on the whole process, and implementation. FLLs included parents, students, teachers, administrators, and community members. Five district staff trained as facilitators led the Lab process in 62 schools. FLLs met monthly over 90–120 minutes.

Data Sources
Data sources included discipline and disability referrals, suspensions, attendance records, GPA, Multitiered Systems of Support (MTSS) instruments, facilitator memos, monthly facilitator meeting notes, interviews, and nine district-wide forums involving over 700 family, community members, and district staff.

Results
Schools with sustained Lab engagement demonstrated statistically significant reductions in exclusionary discipline for Black students. For example, Black 8th graders in pilot schools experienced a 32% decrease in referrals over a two-year period. These improvements were most notable in schools where restorative practices and co-designed discipline systems were fully implemented. New systems were positively correlated with better attendance, GPA, and school climate ratings. Qualitative data revealed shifts in educator discourse and collective agency. Educators described FLL as a critical space for addressing racialized harm and co-creating change. Students and families reported feeling more seen, respected, and valued. These outcomes emerged despite the state’s suppression of equity-oriented discourse. Lab teams utilized frames such as “belonging,” “family and community involvement,” and “transparency,” maintaining momentum. Institutionally, the Lab spurred lasting policy reforms—such as new referral documentation, expanded roles for community partners, and data dashboards.

Significance
This study offers timely evidence of how equity-focused RPPs can foster systemic change under repressive political conditions. A district leader, FLL facilitators, and university-based researchers will present how collaborative inquiry and participatory design advanced collective agency, relational accountability, and enacted utopias—constructing educational possibilities while navigating global crises and legislative attacks on educational justice.

Authors

• Aydin Bal, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Dywayne Hinds, Pinellas County Schools

• Keisha Albritton, Pinella County Schools

• Dominque Dudley, Pinellas County Schools

• Elizabeth Schrader, University of Wisconsin - Madison