B-Sides: Instructional Improvement That Cultivates Equitable Education in Urban Schools

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Grow Your Teachers, Grow Your Schools: Improving Teacher Practice as a Means of School Reform

Abstract

In this symposium, Black and Brown scholar-practitioners present auto-ethnographic accounts of the B-Sides of their instructional leadership. B-sides refer to the sides of the audio recordings that are intended to add value to an A-side. A-Sides are promoted as the most appealing and valuable song. Whereas B-sides offer complex portrayals of artists’ work and aspects of their work that, until a listener flips over the recording, remains unheard. Each participant’s B-Side draws on their school-based inquiry processes aimed to improve instruction and student learning for historically marginalized youth. Specifically, papers provide first-hand accounts of how participants straddled instructional and culturally responsive leadership to lead equitable improvement. The session offers insights into what these B-Sides mean for deeper engagement with instructional leadership.

Authors

• Lionel Allen, University of Illinois of Chicago

• Will Daniels, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Laquita Louie, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Sherisse Lucas, Chicago Public Schools

• Jason Salisbury, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Rebecca Schick, University of Illinois at Chicago