This study addresses university leadership and the need to affirm diversity, equity, and inclusion in order to institute organizational change for social justice. My key research question is, "What are effective ways for leaders to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion with the goal of achieving social justice?" There is much research…

Equity initiatives and critical race theory (CRT) have recently emerged as an urgent agenda for K-12 schools. Jung-ah Choi argues that CRT is a useful framework but that teaching CRT principles to young children may have deleterious effects. In particular, it could undermine two bedrock notions: educational equality and meritocracy. It is not…

Building on W. E. B. Du Bois's color line concept, I argue that white supremacy is deeply embedded in U.S. educational organizations and that White racial actors, opportunity hoarding, and the cultivation of racial ideology and racial ignorance help sustain it. In doing this, I seek to move away from the aspirational progress narratives often…

Professional development (PD) is a key catalyst for supporting educators' growth and development in education, yet evidence of PD's impact in enacting sustained change over time remains challenging to understand. In the United States context, racial inequities plague all aspects of society and are maintained by the education system. Teachers are…

African American students are underrepresented in gifted programs in American public schools. This is due in part to the teachers' role in the gifted identification process. Classroom teachers are asked to refer students for evaluation for gifted services. To effectively do this, teachers must understand the unique challenges faced by gifted…

Black community college presidents are not exempt from racialized experiences as they promote equitable student success. This study explores the unique experiences of Black leaders who advocate for policies, practices, and procedures that promote equity and social justice at their institutions and in their communities. Together, applied critical…

For decades, gifted education equity advocates have sought to ameliorate the field's longstanding issue of under-representation of students from historically marginalized communities. Little improvement has been realized in schools over this time (Peters, 2021). Recently, Novak (2022a) presented a GTCrit framework in a textbook primarily centered…

This interview-based study examines how justice-oriented K-12 administrators and teachers in Iowa make sense of the recent state-level education policy, H.F. 802. Synthesizing literature on Critical Policy Analysis and epistemic justice, we introduce Critical Epistemic Policy Analysis to understand the micro-level impact of divisive education…

Racial disproportionality in special education reflects the manifestation of modern-day segregation in our education systems (Anyon, 2009; Artiles et al., 2016; Artiles, 2022). Due to their specialized training and positionality as key stakeholders in special education eligibility processes, school psychologists are uniquely suited to impact…

Traditional validation approaches fail to account for the ways oppressive systems (e.g. racism, radical nationalism) impact the test design and development process. To disrupt this legacy of white supremacy, we illustrate how justice-oriented, antiracist validation (JAV) framework can be applied to construct articulation and validation, data…

This study examines the lack of Latina representation in senior positions within 4-year higher education institutions in the United States. It utilizes Latina/o Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) and testimonio methodology to delve into the experiences of seven Latina leaders who have reached the roles of president and provost. The research…

In this critical, political discourse analysis, we trace how two concepts, equity and quality, became discursively linked and contested in the administration of postsecondary education policy over time (1968-1994) -- a developmental process we refer to as (e)quality politics. By engaging in a historical analysis, we investigate (a) the racialized…

National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman's poem "The Hill We Climb"--among the most powerful moments of the 2021 presidential inauguration--inspired the central inquiry of the 18th Annual "Brown" Lecture in Education Research: Why are we still climbing the hill of educational equity 67 years after the U.S. Supreme Court's…

Governmental policies in the United States and beyond increasingly call for school leaders to involve local communities in decision-making, yet engagement practices have often centered the perspectives of White parents and marginalized the voices of racially minoritized families. In this comparative case study of seven school districts, we draw on…

The pursuit of racial justice in education continues to demand research that employs critical race theory (CRT). Underscoring the importance of such scholarship, this review of K-12 literature examines the trend of racial literacy in educational research. Using an interactive and recursive systematic review of research, this paper ultimately…