Managing Whiteness: The Call for Educational Leadership to Breach the Contractual Expectations of White Supremacy

Allen, Ricky Lee; Liou, Daniel D.

doi:10.1177/0042085918783819

Cited by 34 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 61 publications

(70 reference statements)

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“…Delpit (2012) emphasized, If we are serious about democracy, if we are serious about providing equal opportunity for all citizens, if we are serious about equity and justice, then we have to undo any model that obliquely serves to replicate a racist past. (p. 119) The significance of colonialism and the giddy multitude provides the premise for this paper to argue that desettling expectations (Bang, Warren, Rosebery, & Medin, 2012) and breaking the educational racial contract (Allen & Liou, 2018;Leonardo, 2013;Liou & Rojas, 2018) are necessary preconditions for social movements to fight for justice. This paper presents a form of solidarity between races based on relational equity in a co-constructed multiracial democracy.…”

Section: Aligning the Praxis Of Activism And The Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a racial project, Whiteness informs one's construction of an identity that also conceives the racial subordination of People of Color. That is, one's construction of the racial Other can powerfully affirm the knowledge of the self as a human being to determine one's consciousness (Allen & Liou, 2018). Harris (1993) noted that Whites have come to rely on Whiteness in the form of settled expectations, which are manifestations of the racial contract in the United States-including anticipated assumptions, privileges, and benefits-that reinforce their consciousness and status as a people.…”

Section: A Historical Relationship Between Whiteness and Labor Organimentioning

confidence: 99%

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Disrupting the Ideology of Settled Expectations: Forging New Social Movements to Dismantle the Educational Racial Contract

Liou¹

2020

BRE

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This paper draws on the concepts of settled expectations and the educational racial contract to provide an analysis of the current social movements calling for the improvement of teacher salaries and work conditions in K-12 schools. This paper argues that some teacher unions' lack of centering race in their advocacy to ameliorate educational inequities will not radically transform how teachers are treated in the profession, unless there is an increase in motivation to fully recognize the humanity and educational needs of Students of Color in American society. The author calls for teacher activists to reject the false consciousness of their own settled expectations and work on equal footing with Communities of Color to co-author an emancipatory educational contract on the basis of relational equity, respect, and sympathetic touch.

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Section: Aligning the Praxis Of Activism And The Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Historical Relationship Between Whiteness and Labor Organimentioning

confidence: 99%

Disrupting the Ideology of Settled Expectations: Forging New Social Movements to Dismantle the Educational Racial Contract

Liou¹

2020

BRE

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“…This traditional conceptualization of social capital assumes that there are behaviors, knowledge, networks, resources, and dispositions associated with "high-status" versus "low-status" social capital, which determine one's status and trajectory in society. In schools, the hierarchical conceptualization of social capital can be especially problematic because of many teachers' beliefs in white middle-class values that decenter those of Students of Color and contribute to the definition of whiteness as the standard of achievement and acceptable classroom behaviors (Allen & Liou, 2018). These beliefs influence how teachers view and interpret barriers to learning and how they respond to students with the appropriate expectations in the classroom (Banks & Banks, 2009;Irvine, 1990).…”

Section: Social Capital As Conception Of Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

W. E. B. Du Bois's Concept of Sympathetic Touch as a Mediator of Teachers’ Expectations in an Urban School District

Liou¹,

Rojas

2019

Teachers College Record

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Background/Context Research has shown teachers’ expectations of students to be a powerful predictor of the racial opportunity gap. Yet, many teachers continue to profile White students and Students of Color very differently in schools when it comes to intellectual capacity and motivation to learn. One of the major ethical challenges of teachers’ expectations is how sympathy is constructed in the classroom. Too often, teachers exhibit sympathy through feeling pity for the life challenges facing low-income Students of Color, a dynamic that can result in the lowering of expectations via anticipation of school failure. Purpose/Objective Inspired by W. E. B. Du Bois's (1935) concept of sympathetic touch, the purpose of this article is to introduce asset-based instructional practices rooted in sympathy as a method for confronting systemic problems of pity and deficit thinking which perpetuate low teachers’ expectations. There is a pressing need for an antiracist framework within which teachers can communicate sympathy in an appropriate manner that still hold students to high expectations for learning. This study intends to fill the gaps in the literatures of teachers’ expectations of students, social context of education, urban education, and teacher education by reenvisioning a way to effectively meet the needs of America's diverse school populations. Participants The study was conducted with a sample of nine teachers from low-income, racially segregated neighborhoods in a large urban school district. These teachers were selected for the study based on the following criteria: (1) minimum of three years of teaching experience; (2) working with a majority of Students of Color; and (3) perceived by either their principals and/or counselors to have a positive impact in the classroom and positive relationships with their students. The participants were screened based on these criteria before their participation in the study. We then drew on the literature to inform the final selection of the teachers. Research Design This case study was conducted over the span of one year and included semistructured interviews, three rounds of teacher reflection prompts, informal observations, and a collection of archival data such as course syllabi, lesson plans, lists of ongoing activities related to content instruction, flyers or other materials related to these activities, examples of students’ assignments, and photographs of classroom activities. Data Collection and Analysis All the data from the interviews, journal responses, and documents were prepared, analyzed, and categorized into codes that were in alignment with the research questions. The coding process was done through both hand-coding techniques and the use of the NVivo qualitative data analysis software program. The codes were then analyzed for patterns and themes across the data to document the ways in which the teachers defined and fostered sympathy with students. In addition to using multiple sources of data for triangulation, we validated our findings by engaging teachers in continuous member-checking during the academic year and a debriefing session to enable them to provide feedback regarding the accuracy of the themes found in the data, as well as additional comments regarding their ethics of classroom expectations. Findings/Results Teachers reported that their expectations and awareness of Students of Color's racialized contexts, as well as their position and responsibilities within those contexts, were important factors in their perceived effectiveness. The study discovered that the ethics and practices of sympathetic touch manifested in the forms of equitable student-teacher relationships, empowering curriculum, and the centrality of students’ voices in the construction of knowledge. Specifically, teachers’ sympathetic touch was found to be an important mediating factor in how their expectations were communicated to students in the classroom. In the context of this school district, these teachers reportedly fostered sympathetic practices through high expectations focused on equity, community, and students’ cultural wealth as the basis to generate knowledge in the classroom. Conclusions The results of the present study underscore the importance of asset-based conceptions of sympathy as a mediator of teachers’ expectations in the classroom. Teachers and school administrators’ ability to reframe and redefine sympathetic practices with students is a key factor in improving the educational experiences of diverse populations.

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“…Since school leadership plays a significant role in any equity and justice initiatives, administrators need knowledge and skills to assist teachers in establishing positive expectations for students. Currently, the processes in which students are hierarchically positioned in the educational system further perpetuate White students' epistemic superiority and the reproduction of Students of Color as the racial subordinate (Allen & Liou, 2019). The enduring relationship between race and academic achievement has established a default racial order that informs school administrators' conscious and unconscious beliefs about students (Noguera, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward a Theory of Sympathetic Leadership: Asian American School Administrators’ Expectations for Justice and Excellence

Liou

Liang

2020

Educational Administration Quarterly

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Purpose: This qualitative case study illuminates the leadership practices of four female Asian American administrators in urban schools. Due to their underrepresentation in leadership roles, the need is pressing for research to capture concrete exemplars on beliefs and practices of sympathy based on an asset-oriented approach to school leadership. The study’s research questions include (a) How do Asian American school administrators define their social justice beliefs and expectations for their school community? (b) How do these four Asian American school administrators communicate their expectations through sympathetic leadership to resist deficit models of education? Method: This study includes four research participants from two states. Data collection includes two rounds of in-depth interviews, field observations, reflective memos, and archival sources. Data analysis is guided by inductive approaches. Findings: Research findings demonstrate how Asian American school administrators define social justice through four relational practices with their community: (a) develop intimate knowledge of students and their racialized history, (b) enact asset-based sympathy as a condition of solidarity, (c) form connections based on relational equity to counteract White supremacy, and (d) prepare students for an equitable future through intellectual rigor. Implications: This study contends that leadership must begin with an epistemic shift from racial indifference and deficit thinking to the practice of sympathetic touch. Social justice revolution in schools and society starts when the minds and expectations of the leaders and those they serve become one and the same.

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Managing Whiteness: The Call for Educational Leadership to Breach the Contractual Expectations of White Supremacy

Cited by 34 publications

References 61 publications

Disrupting the Ideology of Settled Expectations: Forging New Social Movements to Dismantle the Educational Racial Contract

Disrupting the Ideology of Settled Expectations: Forging New Social Movements to Dismantle the Educational Racial Contract

W. E. B. Du Bois's Concept of Sympathetic Touch as a Mediator of Teachers’ Expectations in an Urban School District

Toward a Theory of Sympathetic Leadership: Asian American School Administrators’ Expectations for Justice and Excellence

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