Preparing Antiracist School Leaders in a School Choice Context

Abstract

Aspiring school leaders must be equipped with skill sets to facilitate the critical examination of district policies that reproduce inequities. Policies such as school choice, which have racial and socioeconomic implications for educational opportunity, require leaders to operate from a social justice identity while seeking to enhance their sense of efficacy in antiracist leadership behaviors. In this study, we examined how graduate students in a leadership preparation program developed their racially aware identities while professionally embedded in a district that utilizes school choice policies and practices. Our findings illustrate the intentional work necessary to develop school leaders with antiracist identities.