| Summary |
The purpose of this study is to analyze how white women identify and enact their roles as antiracist school and district leaders for equity. We met together in a community of practice focused on antiracist growth and equity leadership. I examined my equity leadership story and captured the stories of five other white women, who are school and district leaders in eastern North Carolina, on their journeys of leading for equity. I aimed to better understand what embodying antiracism means in our context. To do so, I used participatory action research and ethnographical and autoethnographical methodology to collect and analyze data. The study was grounded in this theory of action: If we, as white women, understand how we embody antiracism, then we can better understand how to be leaders of and for equity. Two findings emerged from the study: (1) White eastern North Carolina educational leaders implicitly embodied antiracism to create more equitable and accessible public school settings, and (2) a community of practice focused on antiracist growth and equity leadership nurtured a necessary space so that white leaders moved past their fears and hesitancies toward learning and growth. As participants engaged in a necessary space, they critically reflected on their identities, contexts, and roles and responsibilities for dismantling systems of oppression in their circles of influence. As a result of uncovering and confronting the conflicts, contradictions, and ethical dilemmas that school leaders face in leading for equity in the eastern North Carolina context, we co-developed a set of practices that could inform school leaders who want to take on the mantle of antiracism as they identify and respond to equity challenges in their contexts. The implications for the study are widespread as leaders in multiple contexts understand themselves as leaders and strive in diverse contexts to enact their espoused values. Racial and gender affinity groups offer a holding space to support school leaders to examine self and understand their contexts so they can successfully act on their values. |
