Justice in Search of Leaders: A Handbook for Equity-Driven School Leadership (Counterpoints)

This is so bad. This is what they call education?? Parents take note - watch what we are paying for and how they are teaching our kids! Justice in Search of Leaders: A Handbook for Equity-Driven School Leadership is a guide for educators who are committed to equity-driven teaching, leading, and policy-making, and would like to operationalize socially just school practices for all children. Moving beyond a heroes and holidays approach to addressing racism, bias, injustice, and a cluster of isms, it provides a deeper understanding of the causes of structural inequities in schools, and suggests approaches for deconstructing them. The book includes a frank discussion of race, racism, social dominance, and implicit bias, and encourages both objective and subjective analyses of how they infect school practice.America’s ambivalent response to race, racial identity development, the nature of prejudice, and how humans form values and develop belief systems is explored in some depth. There is also a critique of Whiteness as a socio-political concept as it relates to power and privilege, and as a demographic reality as it relates to institutional discrimination in schools. The book is not a critique of white people, and it is important that readers make that distinction. This leads to a discussion of the tricky and challenging process of changing beliefs, values, and attitudes as they relate to school leadership and teaching, and how all of this is connected to the power dynamics in schools.Justice in Search of Leaders: A Handbook for Equity-Driven School Leadership encourages educators to acknowledge that we all have racial identities and biases that inform professional practice, and to reflect on the significance of this. It means thinking deeply about socially abhorrent subjects which make us uncomfortable and cause us to retreat to the safety of our comfort zones. This is necessary because for most under-served students, there is no retreat and no safety; there ar Cover 1 Contents 9 List of Tables 11 Acknowledgements 13 Preface 17 I Must Have Been Mistaken (Shaylah McQueen-Lee) 21 Part One 23 Chapter 1: If Not Courageous Conversations, Then What? 25 References 36 Chapter 2: Challenging the Mystification of Social Justice 39 Defining Social Justice 49 Are Social Justice Initiatives Part of a Radical Social Agenda? 50 How, When, and Why Did Justice Become a ‘Dirty’ Word, and What Does This Have to Do with Social Dominance? 54 References 60 Chapter 3: Reentering the Racial Self: Examining and Deconstructing Personal Biases 63 Prologue: Nakedness 64 Playing in the Dark ... 69 The Nature of Prejudice: Why We Need to Talk About It 73 Definitions of Key Terms—Prejudice, Racism, and Discrimination 75 More Definitions—Attitudes and Beliefs 80 Inner Conflicts 82 The Double-Edged Blade—Racism Damages Everyone It Touches—Even White People 86 Talking About Racism in the Workplace: Patterns of Denial and How We Interrupt Progress 88 Playing the Race Card 88 Dancing on Hot Coals: The Problem of Deconstructing Whiteness 91 Deconstructing Whiteness 92 Breaking the Silence—Step One Toward a Healthy White Racial Identity 95 Helms’ Model of White Racial Identity Development 97 Helms’ Model of White Identity Development 98 Stages and Phases of White Racial Identity Development 98 References 101 Chapter 4: Implicit Bias and the Bias Awareness Gap: Implications for Equity-Driven Teaching and School Leadership 105 Implicit Bias—An Overview 114 Implicit Bias—Quick Facts Where Our Biases Originate 120 Reasons to Ignore Implicit Bias Michael Carr’s Theory of Change—The 40% (Dis)solution 126 But What Does This Have to Do with Equity and Bias in a School Setting? 127 The 40% (Dis)solution 127 References 129 Chapter 5: Social Dominance Orientation (SDO): Implications for Equity-Driven Teaching and School Leadership 133 The Theoretical Basis for Social Dominance Orientation 138 Connecting Social Dominance Orientation to the Educative Process: 15 Critical Elements of SDO 143 15 Critical Elements of SDO 143 The METCO Program: Busing in Boston, or What It Feels Like to Be Treated Like a ‘Guest’ in Your Own School 163 Transforming Social Dominance Orientation and Deconstructing Bias in Schools or How to Stop Viewing the World as a ‘Competitive Jungle’ 167 References 168 Chapter 6: Moving Forward: Biasing, (De)biasing, and Strategies for Change 171 The Problem with Color Blindness as a Response to Bias in Schools 173 “Bias Is Not a Choice, but Our Responses to It Certainly Are” 174 “You Can’t Handle the Truth!” 175 Forms of Subtle Racism 176 Microaggressions 177 Keeping It Real—Connecting Implicit Racial Bias to School Discipline Disparities 179 (De)biasing and Strategies for Change (Part 1)—Rethinking White Racial Socialization 185 Wendell’s Story 186 Differentiating Between Active and Passive Racial Socialization 189 White Racial Socialization: What Role Should Schools Play? 191 Schools Are the Missing Link in the Racial Socialization Process 192 (De)biasing and Strategies for Change (Part 2) 196 Successful Research-Based (De)biasing Interventions 197 References 201 Part Two 205 Chapter 7: The Paradox of Power, Justice, and School Leadership: Facing Diversity—Leading Change 207 Multicultural Education and Multicultural Social Justice Education Defined 214 Culture: ‘Borders’ and ‘Boundaries’ 216 Multicultural Social Justice Leadership 218 Leadership Matters 219 Leading Change 220 Equity-Driven School Leadership 222 “I Don’t Think I’m a Racist, but I Don’t Want to Talk About Race!”: How Critical Race Theory Reframes Discussions About Race 226 Critical Race Theory 227 The Paradox of Leadership 230 Adaptive Change 231 Equity Leadership and Race 236 Present and Future Demographics 238 References 243 Chapter 8: Teacher Leadership for Equity and Social Justice 247 Teacher Leadership for Equity and American Democracy 253 Teacher Shared Leadership—The Creative Redistribution of Power in Schools: How Does This Affect Equity? 259 Teacher, Learner, Leader: A Conceptual Framework for Equity-Driven Teacher Leadership 265 References 269 Chapter 9: All Teachers Can Lead—All Leaders Can Learn: Making the Case for Social Justice in Teacher and Leader Preparation 273 Toward a Framework for Preparing Leaders for Social Justice: The Capper, Theoharis, Sebastian Framework for Social Justice Leadership Preparation 276 Case Study: In Search of a Model of Teacher Preparation for Equity and Leadership: An Examination of the Conceptual Framework of the School of Education at Quinnipiac University 283 The Conceptual Framework 283 Teacher Beliefs 284 Definitions of Social Justice 285 From Conceptual Framework 285 Anonymous Reflections from Pre-Service Teacher Candidates 288 Reflection/Mindfulness 292 Content Knowledge 295 Teaching that Values Diversity 298 Educator as Learner 301 Educator as Leader 303 Using the Capper, Theoharis and Sebastian Framework: Implications for Social Justice Teacher Leadership Preparation 310 Conclusion 312 References 313 Chapter 10: Conclusion: An Empowering Vision: Harnessing Bias and the Possibility for Change 317 Bias Cannot Be Eradicated, But It Can Be Harnessed 320 References 326 Appendices 329 Contents 9 Appendix A: A Conversation with an Implicit Bias Skeptic 331 Note 335 Appendix B: Examples of Microaggressions in the Classroom 337 Definitions of Microaggressions 337 Examples of Microaggressions 338 Making Assumptions About Students and Their Backgrounds 339 Suggestions for Addressing Microaggressions in the Classroom 340 Index 343 __Justice in Search of Leaders: A Handbook for Equity-Driven School Leadership__ is a guide for educators who are committed to equity-driven teaching, leading, and policy-making, and would like to operationalize socially just school practices for all children. Moving beyond a heroes and holidays approach to addressing racism, bias, injustice, and a cluster of isms, it provides a deeper understanding of the causes of structural inequities in schools, and suggests approaches for deconstructing them. The book includes a frank discussion of race, racism, social dominance, and implicit bias, and encourages both objective and subjective analyses of how they infect school practice. America’s ambivalent response to race, racial identity development, the nature of prejudice, and how humans form values and develop belief systems is explored in some depth. There is also a critique of Whiteness as a socio-political concept as it relates to power and privilege, and as a demographic reality as it relates to institutional discrimination in schools. The book is not a critique of white people, and it is important that readers make that distinction. This leads to a discussion of the tricky and challenging process of changing beliefs, values, and attitudes as they relate to school leadership and teaching, and how all of this is connected to the power dynamics in schools. __Justice in Search of Leaders: A Handbook for Equity-Driven School Leadership__ encourages educators to acknowledge that we all have racial identities and biases that inform professional practice, and to reflect on the significance of this. It means thinking deeply about socially abhorrent subjects which make us uncomfortable and cause us to retreat to the safety of our comfort zones. This is necessary because for most under-served students, there is no retreat and no safety; there are only discomfort zones.