The Roles and Responsibilities of Equity Directors in a State With Changing Demographics

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Utilizing Leadership Context to Champion Reform, Policy, and Practice Toward Equitable Change for Justice

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the roles and responsibilities of Equity Directors in our state’s K12 public school districts. The research questions were: What are the roles of Equity Directors in the state’s K12 districts in preparing for demographic change? How are the state’s public K12 districts preparing for a more diverse future? Preliminary results are framed within the four domains of equity seeding, equity collaboration, equity management and compliance, and equity development and innovation (Irby et al., 2021). Additional analyses revealed that Equity Directors struggle with inhabiting the position as a person of Color, encountering resistance to deeper equity work, confronting deficit perspectives, and doing equity work in a conservative state.

Author

• Leslie Ann Locke, University of Iowa