Middle school is discursively positioned as a problem to be solved, largely because middle school students are fixed with a gaze that produces them as at-risk, and in need of advice, guidance, and role models to ensure a healthy and productive adult future. Middle school students, as “early adolescents,” are positioned as youth at a particular stage of development that has fundamental needs, linked to assumptions about their bodily, cognitive, and emotional development. Middle school teachers come to embody the hopes and fears positioned on and through middle school students, and are discursively produced themselves as “bodies of knowledge” who are said to know the bodily needs of middle school students—in turn, positioned to all be rooted in the “nature” of their development. This study seeks to trace and open up the “rhizomatic assemblage” of “middle school,” particularly as it makes certain practices, knowledges, and discourses (un)available or (im)possible to “middle school teachers.” It does so by exploring through a qualitative study of three independent school middle school teachers, along with the auto-biographical “sketches” of the author, ways in which particular bodies come to know and be known as “middle school teachers.” As the bulk of the data was being collected in the 2019–2020 school year, the global COVID-19 pandemic and racial reckoning in the United States that emerged from the murder of George Floyd both provided important new contexts to explore in terms of implications for intersectional, embodied experiences of “middle school” after March 2020. Consequently, the study explores discursive shifts and (in)stabilities across pre-pandemic and “early” pandemic contexts, particularly in remote teaching and calls to embrace and embody anti-racist practice as middle school educators. It is hoped that the exploration of discourses, discursive practices, and embodiment of “middle school” open up space and possibility in middle schools, for middle school teachers and students alike.

Antiracist teacher education in the United States has largely been situated within university-based teacher education programs over the last thirty years. This body of research documents the struggles and possibilities of preparing race-conscious educators who engage in antiracist practices that support diverse student populations. Despite this body of scholarship, there has been limited research in this area with school-based teacher education through inservice professional development (PD). Yet, there has also been an increase in antiracist and race-forward PD for teachers in schools in recent years. In turn, this study analyzes the curriculum of antiracist PD in New York City schools over the last ten years (2012-2022), seeking to understand the possibilities and tensions. Using qualitative and visual arts-based educational research methods, I interviewed 28 teachers, school leaders, and PD facilitators. In doing so, I found that the PD curricula across NYC schools largely made room for (a) building educators’ knowledge of structural racism, (b) individual reflection, and (c) changing the student-facing curriculum to be antiracist. However, there were two tangles, or complicated points of tension and contradiction. The first tangle was most visible when one looked at educators’ relationships, especially given the dominance of the carceral paradigm in schools. The second tangle highlights the tension between individual teachers and school institutions, wondering who is responsible for enacting antiracism in schools. I ultimately contend that it is not just antiracist PD that is needed in schools, but abolitionist PD.

Research on social illiteracy (Rand, 2021) and the demographic imperative (Jupp et al., 2019)—as well as teachers’ stated responsibilities in teaching about race and racism in schools (Rand, 2021)—convey the urgency of attending to both barriers and possibilities for white literacy and English Language Arts (ELA) teachers. As literacy is inextricably linked with equity, literacy classrooms mark a site of sanctioning or resisting oppressions rooted in the white supremacist status quo. Following recent articulations of critical race and whiteness frameworks—particularly white supremacy logic (Enumah, 2021)—this research aims to explore white anti-racist educators teaching in the post-2020 evolving and contested field of education. Rooted in a theoretical framework of “rehumanizing praxis,” or simultaneous inward and outward pedagogies, this inquiry prioritizes humanizing research with participants through interviews, observations, reflections, and artifacts. Situated in critical constructivist grounded theory methodology, I enacted a research design intended to explore the internal and external barriers, possibilities, and pedagogies six white anti-racist teachers experience in their endeavors to participate in liberatory education.

In the years since the advent of the Black Lives Matter movement, American art museums have increased attempts to address the racial inequities that persist in the field. These inequities impact all aspects of museum work, not least of which education. Because museum educators are often seen as the conduit between museum collections and audiences, the work of implementing anti-racist programming often falls to them. However, the museum education field is majority White, and while there is a rich body of literature treating the adverse impacts of Whiteness on classroom teaching practices, very little exists on how Whiteness might manifest in gallery teaching practices specifically for White museum educators. Utilizing participatory action research, practitioner inquiry, and a White affinity group model, this qualitative study explores aspects of Whiteness that impact the gallery teaching practices of four White museum educators. Our research questions seek to understand better how Whiteness manifests in our teaching specifically in the context of single visit field trips, how those impacts might shift depending on the racial demographics of the groups we are teaching, what questions come for us as a White practitioner-researcher group dedicated to undermining Whiteness in our teaching, and how, if at all, does participation in such a study impact how we think about and implement anti-racist teaching in our practice. As per the research traditions guiding this study, I treated myself as a participant alongside three other White museum educators, and together as a practitioner inquiry group we co-generated our research questions and agreed to our research methods. These included the formation of a digital space in which we could communicate with each other, observations of our teaching, reflective writing responding to the observations, and conversations in the digital space based on these writings. This period of data generation was followed by interviews between myself and each participant as well as a focus group with all of us. Findings surfaced various avoidance techniques we each employed in our teaching to avoid race talk or push our anti-racist teaching more deeply. Our avoidance pointed to perceived tensions we felt between our trainings and the demands of anti-racist teaching, as well as the limitations of the single visit field trip model. Findings also surfaced anxiety when discussing Blackness in particular, as well as problematic assumptions about both White students and students of color we work with. Analysis of these findings provide insights into the ways art museum pedagogies in addition to critical emotional pedagogies might be deployed towards anti-racist teaching, as well as the emotional qualities of naming and dismantling Whiteness as White practitioners. While the findings are limited to the four museum educator participants and the specific contexts in which we work, this study points to ways we might begin to develop deeper understandings of how Whiteness might impact gallery teaching practices. More importantly, in the tradition of practitioner inquiry, this study raises important questions around how visitors of color experience Whiteness in museum education programs, how professional development might be reimagined for museum educators, as well as ways to rethink the traditional single visit field trip model to better accommodate anti-racist learning goals.

Despite evidence highlighting the crucial role of principals in driving school change and creating equitable learning environments, there remains a need for more robust research and operational guidance concerning principal anti-racist leadership development and practice. Recent studies have indicated Principals were not only unprepared to lead in schools with predominantly minoritized students and unable to articulate meaningful discourse around racial equity and implement policy that would respond to racial issues, but they also had not received anti-racist leadership preparation and support. (Gooden & O’Doherty, 2015; Khalifa et al., 2016; Miller, 2021; Young et al., 2010). Therefore, the purpose of this exploratory study is to partly address this issue and contribute to the existing body of research on principal anti-racist leadership development and practice. I posed the following questions to guide my research: 1. How do urban secondary school principals say they have been prepared and supported to be anti-racist leaders? 2. How, if at all, do these principals say they implemented anti-racist practices in their schools? 3. How, if at all, do these principals say it is having impact on reducing racial disparities in their schools? This study examines principal perceptions and experiences receiving preparation and support to be anti-racist leaders, and the extent to which it may be used to inform practice and pedagogy for reducing racial disparities in schools. Specifically, as six principals attempt to enact anti-racist leadership in low-income urban secondary school settings serving a majority of students of color, this study utilizes insights from Welton et al. (2018) and draws upon a significant body of literature to examine their journey, reflecting on their anti-racist leadership development, practice, and impact. This study draws on the essential nature of anti-racist leadership, which involves recognizing the significance of race within educational settings, elevating racial awareness, and actively working towards dismantling racial disparities (Aveling, 2007; Brooks & Watson, 2019; Diem & Welton, 2020; Lewis et al., 2023). It examines racial identity development and self-reflection as integral components of anti-racist leadership preparation and development, and classifies participants’ interview data according to Cross’ (1995) The Psychology of Becoming Black" (Tatum, 1997) racial identity model and Helm’s (1995) White racial identity model. The study further explores the extent to which participants engage in anti-racist leadership practices and how they say it is having impact on reducing racial disparities in schools, by referencing Welton et al.'s (2018) anti-racist leadership conceptual framework. This framework, encompassing both individual and systemic levels - attitudes, beliefs, policies, and practices - guided my investigation into informing anti-racist principal practice for reducing racial disparities in schools. The study concludes by theorizing how its findings can be used to better understand the intersection between principals’ anti-racist leadership development, practice, and impact. This study is significant because it contributes towards operationalizing Welton et al.’s (2018) anti-racist leadership conceptual framework, elucidating principal anti-racist preparation, development, and practice, and methods to accomplish it. By investigating the extent to which participants engage in anti-racist leadership practices and their impact on reducing racial disparities within schools, this research offers practical insights for advancing racial equity in predominantly Black and Brown secondary schools. Such contributions not only provide valuable guidance for current principal anti-racist leadership practices, but may also spark new thinking and approaches for further research and ongoing efforts towards systemic improvement in anti-racist educational leadership.