Traversing Turbulent Times: Racial and Research Politics in an Educational Research-Practice Partnership

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  In Paper Session: Leading for Racial Justice: Navigating Politics, Policy, and Ethics in Education

Abstract

This paper examines how institutional leaders in an educational research-practice partnership navigate and negotiate conflict within highly politicized conditions in the process of pursuing racial equity in education. Drawing on a set of semi-structured interviews with both research-side and practice-side leaders, this analysis uncovers how fundamental sources of conflict included the extent to which their work should be framed in race-neutral and colorblind ways as well as the ultimate purposes of conducting research (e.g., what is researched, goals, outputs). These findings highlight not only the contested and turbulent territories of navigating politicized conditions in education but also the tendency to acquiesce and to reproduce grand narratives of progress and benevolence.

Author

• Christopher Hu, The University of Alabama