From Power-Oriented Framework to Power-Undermining Action: The Work of Diversity Committee in Two Integrated Schools

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Successes and Challenges in Navigating Equity Dilemmas

Abstract

I explore the conditions under which similar frameworks of group relations and inequality translate into different kinds of organizational action. I ask when does a power-oriented framework of group relations – a framework which focuses on systematic inequalities and the racial hierarchical structure of American society – becomes power-undermining action. My data come from two years of fieldwork in two schools implementing a voluntary economic integration program and specifically from observations of the work of the schools' diversity committees and in-depth interviews with their members. I find that a constellation of conditions allows for power oriented-talk to become power-undermining action: the vision of the school, administrator's priorities, parents of color place to speak out on school issues, and white parents allyship.

Author

• Idit Fast, Ben Gurion University