Becoming an Antiracist School Leader

Eradicating systemic racism in our schools requires a systemic response. This book describes an adaptive framework that includes ten tenets for developing structural and curricular antiracist leadership. In three parts, school leaders are asked to: Know Themselves through self-reflection and racial autobiography; Distinguish Knowledge From Foolishness through critical race ethnography and an exploration of racial identity development; and Build for Eternity by using a model for student-centered antiracist leadership development. Providing a combination of scholarly and practical examples, readers will learn how to foster academic success, cultural proficiency, and critical consciousness in all learners. The text features a comprehensive, three-year critical ethnographic study of a Midwestern high school and its ups and downs with antiracist leadership. This resource offers both a vision and everyday guidance to any educator committed to an antiracist democracy, educational love, student empowerment, leadership development, liberatory teaching and learning, and racial equity.

Book Features:

• Introduces a ten-point model for antiracist leadership development with practical applications for the leaders of systems, schools, and student groups.
• Describes an adaptive framework for approaching antiracist school leadership through reflective racial autobiography, critical ethnographic research, and student-centered leadership development.
• Examines a high school attempting to enact antiracist leadership, including analysis of the environment through a critical race theory lens and a breakdown of interviews with 30 leaders through the lens of their racial identity development.
• Contains ten personal narratives from a diverse group of antiracist leaders who detail a rich tapestry of a high-functioning school district in St. Louis Park, MN.

Patrick A. Duffy is the director of teaching, learning, and leadership in the St. Louis Park Public Schools and an adjunct professor in educational leadership at the University of Minnesota. Patrick is an Arab American.

Contents (Tentative)

Series Foreword

Introduction

1. My Racial Autobiography

2. Historical and Antiracist School Leadership Perspectives
A Very Brief History of Antiracism in the United States
A Very Brief History of AntiRacism in Public Education
Perspectives: Racial Identity
Identity Development and White People
Identity Development for People of Color
Identity Development for Multiracial People
Theoretical Base: Critical Race Theory

3. Engaging in Antiracist Leadership
Safe and Sacred Space
Staff Collaboration

4. Critical Race Theory at Midwest High School
Interest Convergence
Whiteness as Property
Critique of Liberalism
Permanence of Racism

5. Racial Identity Development at Midwest High School
White Racial Identity
Identity Development for People of Color
Conclusion

6. Tenets for Sustaining Antiracist School Leadership
Systemic Implementation
Support from the Top
Common Language and Protocol
Identity Development

7. The Story: A Gilded Age of Anti-Racism
Prologue: Philadelphia
Year One
Year Two
Year Three
Epilogue: New Orleans
Deepening Antiracist Leadership
Shared Experiences
Active Anti-Racist Leadership
Active Anti-Racist Leadership
Community/Family Engagement
Conclusion

Appendix

References  549

Index  570

About the Author  571