A Black Principal's Decolonizing Journey for Racial Justice

• In Event: Black and Brown Leadership: Promoting Just and Equitable Practices in an Era of Social Unrest

Abstract

A critical autoethnographic analysis of a Black male school leader enacting racial and social justice in school improvement efforts. The presenter interrogates issues of race, power, justice, and leadership in public school. A reflexive dialogue between research findings and related leadership experience extricate the colonial structure of public education and the colonizing intent of schooling. Three dynamics are identified as oppressive: white moves towards Black domination, white privilege and intersecting oppressions. Three decolonizing acts are highlighted: centering of racial justice, catalyzing critical community consciousness and agency, and dismantling intersecting oppressions through counter narration..

Author

• Jamel Adkins-Sharif, Rutgers University - New Brunswick