Problematizing Equity in Practice: Considerations for Collaborative Efforts to Promote Educational Equity

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Fourteen
  In Roundtable Session: Contextualizing Educational Leadership and Policy: Pre-K–20 Perspectives (Table 5)

Abstract

This paper draws on data from a larger project focused on leadership development for equity. The project involves collaboration among researchers and district teams from eight urban districts, which are funded by the Wallace Foundation to design and implement equity-centered principal pipelines. Our experience in this collaborative effort inspired us to problematize how equity is defined in practice and carefully consider whose voices and perspectives are privileged in research on equity-centered work. We outline three properties of equity that we believe deserve careful attention in research and practice: relationality and the perspectival, the equity monolith, and co-construction. We discuss each of the three properties of equity in greater detail, and draw on data from one district to provide illustrative examples.

Authors

• Louis M. Gomez, University of California - Los Angeles
  Presenting Author

• Tammie Causey-Konaté, American Institutes for Research
  Presenting Author

• Carolyn Kelley, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author

• Daniella Molle, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author

• Mary-Louise Leger, University of California - Los Angeles
  Presenting Author

• Melissa Arellanes, American Institutes for Research
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alex J. Bowers, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author