When you say diversity, do you mean Black students? Navigating challenges of racial inclusion in elite schools

Racial climate reform in independent schools: How coping self‐efficacy buffers systemic and proximal racial stress for students of color

“…Studying the experiences of SOC in PWIS makes this study unique given the ways private schools have struggled for decades to reform their histories, curricula, and student enrollment of racial and gender exclusion (DeCuir‐Gunby et al, 2012). Academic and social learning success for SOC and their families within PWIS have been hampered by the unavoidable stress of trying to cope effectively with racial microaggressions from peers and educators (Anderson & Stevenson, 2019; Bolgatz et al, 2020; Keddie et al, 2021; Rhett, 2004; D. Slaughter‐Defoe et al, 2012), whether the school racial climates are positive or not. Understanding how SOC can be prepared for the academic rigor of these elite K‐12 schools is just one hurdle toward achieving their diversity goals.…”

“…Conversely, this theoretical frame asserts that school RS dictates the climate and is implicit through institutional policies and practices (Arrington et al, 2003; McDonald et al, 2012; Purdy, 2016; Saleem & Byrd, 2021). In no other context are these racially stressful challenges as troubling for SOC as in predominantly White independent schools (PWIS) (Clonan‐Roy et al, 2021; Keddie et al, 2021; Kramer, 2008; Kuriloff & Reichert, 2003; Slaughter‐Defoe & Johnson, 1988).…”

“…hampered by the unavoidable stress of trying to cope effectively with racial microaggressions from peers and educators (Anderson & Stevenson, 2019;Bolgatz et al, 2020;Keddie et al, 2021;Rhett, 2004;D. Slaughter-Defoe et al, 2012), whether the school racial climates are positive or not.…”

Gender Justice within Elite All-Boys Schools? Possibilities of a Whole-School Approach

“…This critical analysis and clarification are important. Research indicates that there is a lack of clarity about what social justice is and looks like in elite schools—for example, success tends to be attributed to hard work and talent rather than opportunity and economic privilege (Howard, 2010; Keddie et al, 2021; Khan, 2011). This meritocratic view of success fails to recognize the structural disadvantages and power inequalities that lead to injustices of homophobia and heterosexism, and thus does little to disrupt gender, heterosexist (class and racial) privilege (French, 2017; Gaztambide-Fernández, 2009a).…”

“…In practice, this may include the allocation of financial and staffing resources to promote gender and other forms of justice across the school (Our Watch, 2022). The elite schools in Keddie’s research (2020, 2021) supported gender and racial justice through appointing African American women to senior-level executive positions to embed equity within the school’s policies and practices. These appointments were indicative of the schools’ commitment to gender and racial justice and provided valuable professional learning and capacity building for administrators and teachers that led to policy and pedagogical change (e.g., the updating and dissemination of a sexual consent policy, diversity and inclusion training and workshops for teachers and students, and the facilitation of many equity-focused student-led activities and events).…”