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About this paper symposium
| Panel information |
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| Panel 1. Context: Cross-Cultural, Neighborhood, and Social |
| Paper #1 | |
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| A systematic review of race-conscious systemic and mindset approaches to reduce racial inequities in school discipline | |
| Author information | Role |
| Kamilah Legette, University of Denver, United States | Presenting author |
| Yoli Anyon, USA, San Jose State University | Non-presenting author |
| Abstract | |
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A large body of evidence, amassed over more than four decades, illustrates that Black youth experience punitive discipline in school at higher rates than do their White peers (Santiago-Rosario et al., 2021; Zinsser et al., 2022). Racial disparities in school discipline are especially pronounced when considering exclusionary discipline based on rule infractions that are subjective and prone to racial bias. For instance, in one large school district, Black students received office discipline referrals categorized as “habitually defiant” at up to 8 times the rate for their White counterparts (Legette & Anyon, 2023). These disciplinary patterns are exacerbated by systematic conditions in which Black youth are overrepresented in educational environments that are racially segregated, have authoritarian climates, and rely on security or surveillance to manage developmentally normative behaviors (Anyon et al., 2023). These racialized experiences in school have implications for students' academic trajectories, peer and teacher relationships, school withdrawal, and entry into juvenile justice (Carter Andrews & Gutwein, 2020; Legette, 2020; McCarter et al., 2019). Despite evidence that structural inequalities and racial bias contribute to school discipline disparities, most interventions aiming to reduce them focus on changing children’s behavior or teaching adults strategies to incentivize student compliance with dominant norms (Welsh, 2023). These strategies do not address racism as a driver of discipline disparities. Given the roles that individual and systemic racism paly in perpetuating racial discipline gaps, disrupting school inequities requires explicit attention to educators’ racialized beliefs and to school policies (Aldana et al., 2019; Legette, et al., 2023). In this presentation, we present results from a systematic literature review focuses on race conscious approaches designed to reduce schooling agents’ racially biased mindsets and disrupt inequitable systems. This study advances knowledge about antiracist practices in schools by summarizing available scholarship about how to address the contextual factors that drive discipline disparities. Data Methods and Analysis. Figure 1 provides an overview of the identification, screening, eligibly, screening, and eligibility of the included studies. The overarching criteria for inclusion were: 1) empirical research published in a peer-reviewed journal; 2) focused on professional practice in K-12 public schools in the United States; and, 3) included at least one finding that outlined a race-conscious approach to improving school discipline or school climate. We used Dedoose software to code included publications for key concepts and attributes, then identify trends across this literature in two distinct ways. First, we generated descriptive statistics about code application and study characteristics across the articles included in the review (n=62). We also considered qualitative patterns in how codes overlapped or co-occurred among all of the excerpts or examples we extracted from within the articles (n=191). Results. Strategies for increasing school professionals’ understanding of racist systems (84%) were somewhat more common than those focused on their racially biased mindsets (76%) (See Table 1). However, most articles (n=37, 60%) described approaches that incorporated both forms of race-consciousness. The most common intervention strategies involved school professionals building relationships with students (66%), using specific curricula, programs or pedagogical tools (66%), or participating in professional development, coaching or mentoring. Nearly all studies in our review included approaches implemented in classrooms or schools (98%), whereas far fewer involved district, state or national initiatives (29%). In contrast to strategies for improving schooling agents’ recognition of racial bias, those that strengthened professionals’ awareness of racist systems more often involved policy and advocacy (50% v. 40%) and decision-making with families or students (25% v. 15%). A macro scope of implementation was also more prevalent among approaches that emphasized structural inequities compared to those that centered racial bias (31% v. 26%), particularly at the state level (8% v. 4%). |
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| Paper #2 | |
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| Identifying and changing racialized patterns in school and other contexts: Racial Regularities | |
| Author information | Role |
| Blair Cox, New York Univeristy, United States | Presenting author |
| Diane Hughes, USA, New York University | Non-presenting author |
| Abstract | |
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Although adolescents receive explicit messages about race from parents, teachers, and peers, they also develop beliefs and attitudes about race and the meanings associated with racial group membership from racialized patterns they observe across varied settings, called racial regularities (Hughes & Watford, 2021). These patterns might pertain to racial inequities in opportunity, housing, resource distribution, unfair treatment, academic placement, and so-on. These racialized patterns (a) rarely exist by chance but are maintained because they benefit those who have the power to change them and (b) are important targets for change needed to achieve anti-racism within settings. In the current study, we coded text from qualitative interviews with an ethnically diverse sample of adolescents interviewed 3 times (6th, 8th, and 11th grade) over the course of middle school and high school to identify (a) whether or not observation of a racial regularity was evident in adolescents’ narratives and (b) the content of the regularity that adolescents observed. The sample included 230 adolescents: 126 identified as a girl, 59 identified as African American, 55 identified as Chinese, 46 identified as Dominican, 13 identified as Puerto Rican, 54 identified as white, and 3 identified as another race. Students attended six different schools, but a majority (41%) attended a school that contained racially segregated academically-tracked programs. To be coded as a racial regularity, text needed to (1) contain reference at least two units, one of which was a racial group (e.g., Black versus white students; Dominican individuals versus police), (2) Include social content that is comparative, relative, or relational (3) identify a setting in which the regularity was observed (e.g., school, classroom, neighborhood), (4) identify the social nature of the regularity (e.g., differential job opportunity; differential treatment) and (5) reference the ongoing or repeated nature of the regularity. In all, 38% of adolescents referenced at least one racial regularity that they had observed in at least one of their interviews. White students were the most likely to identify racial regularities, followed by Black and Puerto Rican students, Dominican students, and Chinese students. In the presentation, we present coded data on the settings in which regularities were most often observed (e.g., school = 106; society =36), the racial groups named as units (e.g., Blacks (69%); whites (59%)), and the social nature of the regularity (e.g., differential treatment of groups [24%], academic placement [20%]). We also discuss the implications of using racial regularities as levers of change in pursuit of racial equity. |
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| Paper #3 | |
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| Who can talk about racism? Evaluations of Black and White teachers advoating for structural change | |
| Author information | Role |
| Phia S. Salter, Davidson College, United States | Presenting author |
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Grace Rivera, USA, University of Mississippi Jaren Crist, USA, Gustavas Adolpus College Rebecca Schegel, USA, Texas A&M University |
Non-presenting author |
| Abstract | |
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As many anti-racism scholars have noted, dismantling racism will require systemic intervention and structural change across many domains (e.g., Buchanan et al., 2021; Roberts & Rizzo, 2021; Wilcox et al., 2022). For example, scholars have called upon psychologists to engage with systemic understandings of racism in the criminal justice system (Rucker & Richeson, 2021), health disparities (Thurston et al., 2023; Volpe et al., 2019), interpersonal interactions (e.g., Skinner-Dorkenoo, 2021), and education (DeCuir-Gunby & Schutz, 2014). In this presentation, I discuss three experimental studies that explore who can talk about social inequality in educational contexts. Across three studies, (Study 1 N = 617, general adult sample; Study 2 N = 522, parent sample; Study 3 N = 330, teacher sample) we examine how applicants for a teaching position are evaluated when they invoke different narratives regarding who or what is to blame for racial disparities (i.e., individuals vs. systems). We hypothesized that evaluations of teachers would differ depending on teacher race (Black/White), their message about the source of educational disparities (social inequalities/personal responsibility), and evaluator political orientation (conservative/Liberal). Together these studies reveal several barriers to addressing structural racism in the classroom for teachers. Results revealed that conservatives evaluated Black and White teachers who emphasized social inequalities less favorably, overall, than teachers who emphasized personal responsibility. In contrast, liberals evaluated teachers who emphasized social inequality more favorably than those who emphasized personal responsibility, but only when those teachers were White. Evaluators were more ambivalent in their evaluations when the teachers who emphasized social inequality were Black. Qualitative analyses of evaluators’ open-ended responses suggested that among liberals, applicant race affected the ways in which evaluators drew upon personal responsibility, system blame, and colorblind narratives to make their evaluations. Whereas Liberals praised White teachers (and awarded them with jobs) when they explicitly confronted racism, they did the opposite for Black teachers. Instead of praising Black teachers for confronting racism, they praised them for not blaming a broken system for social inequalities and applauded them when they avoided mentioning racism. These findings highlight the difficulties some Black teachers may face when discussing issues of racism and social inequality, even in conversation with those who ideologically agree that structures are complicit in racism. Understanding how and why people, particularly dominant group members, respond to teaching and learning about racial inequalities is vital to tackling the challenges to the status quo that these critical and important conversations make visible. |
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Identifying and changing setting level process to promote anti-racism
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Paper Symposium
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| Session Title | Identifying and changing setting level process to promote anti-racism |