VOICES OF RESISTANCE: HOW WOMEN ANTIRACIST EDUCATIONAL LEADERS ADDRESS THE TENSIONS OF LEADING FOR RACIAL EQUITY

Abstract

The doctoral participatory action research study explored what we can learn from women who combine their female ontologies and epistemologies with the lived experiences of themselves and others toward improving racial equity outcomes in their educational communities. Women in leadership share stereotypically socialized characteristics with antiracist pedagogies as they focus on transformative, collectivist, and collaborative approaches. In this study, five American women school district leaders who identify as being or becoming antiracist leaders engaged in modified cycles of participatory action research and critical feminist ethnography. The study was designed to protect and amplify women's voice in the conversation about how to transform schools and districts for racial equity. The four findings are: Collective processes require power sharing; critical conditions for engagement and learning are ever-changing; women lead through gendered marginalization, and dynamic interplay is a necessary condition for equity. The findings better inform how we can support, validate, and learn from women educational antiracist leaders who draw on their lived experiences with equity to promote positive, antiracist social change.