Perennial concern about racial inequities in US K-12 schooling has intensified since the pandemic and racial reckoning of 2020. In suburban school districts, which have become more racially diverse (Chen et al., 2021), school board members play a pivotal role as policymakers whose choices affect the education of minoritized students.
Drawing on the sensemaking perspective from sociology (Weick, 1995) and social construction of policy targets from political science (Schneider et al., 2014), this multiple case study explores how school board members in three suburban New York districts make sense of changing student demographics and develop related policy.
I find suburban school board members’ expressed support for equity, aligned with institutional expectations, coexists in tension with negative ideas about minoritized students and limited understanding of racism. Combined with institutional ideas about the narrow role of the board and heightened attention to actual and potential feedback from white groups, this results in limited benefits to the education of minoritized students. The state’s Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework (2019a), intended as a guide, has little impact in these settings.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:columbia.edu/oai:academiccommons.columbia.edu:10.7916/nxpr-0c70 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | LoBue, Ann |
| Source Sets | Columbia University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Theses |
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