Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Schools: Humanizing Wellness While under Attack

Dear Colleagues,

While racialized violence is historically rooted in the fabric of American schooling, the year 2020 (and beyond) spotlighted the stark structural and institutional inequities plaguing U.S. society for Communities of Color (Anand & Hsu, 2020, Perez Huber & Muñoz, 2021).  In response to the violent and brutal murders of Black Americans at the hands of police officers, virulent anti-immigrant sentiment, and rising anti-Asian hate crimes, people throughout the nation came out onto the streets to demand justice. In response, educational institutions, major corporations, and local and national organizations made public statements in support of Black Lives Matter and denouncing anti-Blackness and systemic racism. Education has largely struggled to grapple with these issues, and research has found that many institutions have been unable to move racial equity from an institutional value to meaningful structural change (Kiang & Tsai, 2022; Meikle & Morris, 2022). Educators and administrators within K-12 settings and in colleges and universities continue to consider how equity, diversity, and inclusion can be at the forefront of practice and pedagogy (Alim & Paris, 2017; Nieto & McDonough, 2011). To further complicate racial justice and equity efforts in education, an anti-Critical Race Theory (CRT) movement has taken hold at a national level, where state legislation has mandated that schools and universities restrict their teaching of anti-racism, and even broader diversity efforts (UCLA Law School, 2021). The ensuing culture war has led to schools banning books related to race and diversity, purging ethnic studies programs, and restricting academic freedom (Cantwell & Taylor, 2022; Harris & Alter, 2023; Hartocollis & Fawcett, 2023). This attack on public education has caused fear and uncertainty in the lives of educators in schools and higher education. We also consider how equity work is informed by racial stress, trauma, and cultural taxation (Kohli & Pizarro 2022), and question how equity work impacts mental and physical wellness. The purpose of this Special Issue of Education Science is to highlight how educators and scholars engaged in equity, diversity, and inclusion research and practice navigate, resist, and heal from the socio-political backlash, as well as institutional and schooling’s attempts to appease conservative agendas. We seek research and scholarly papers to advance these conversations and knowledge inclusive of, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Highlighting how schools and/or university settings are centering humanity or humanizing in their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
• Understanding how school, institutional, and state contexts inform educators' approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion research and practice.
• Examining the experiences of Critical Race Theory scholars and practitioners within a sociopolitical context that operates as a surveillance mechanism.
• Unveiling trauma-informed strategies and/or forms of solidarity being formed to resist attacks against equity, diversity, and inclusion.
• Analyzing how the work of equity officers or new leadership models and theories have or need to shift to adequately address the current sociopolitical context.

References

Alim, S. A., & Paris, D. (2017). What is culturally sustaining pedagogy and why does it matter? In D. Paris & S. A. Alim (Eds.), Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world. (pp. 1–23). Teachers College Press.

Anand, D., & Hsu, L. (2020). COVID-19 and Black lives matter: Examining anti-Asian racism and anti-Blackness in US education. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Perspectives in Higher Education, 5(1), 190–199.

Cantwell, B. & Taylor, B.T. (2022). The right-wing attempt to control higher ed: Demolishing independent expertise is a central goal of the republican party. Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www-chronicle-com.csulb.idm.oclc.org/article/the-right-wing-attempt-to-control-higher-ed

Harris, E. A. & Alter, A. (2023). A fast-growing network of conservative groups is fueling a surge in book bans. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/12/books/book-bans-libraries.html

Hartocollis, A., & Fawcett, E. (2023, February 1). The college board strips down it’s AP curriculum for African American studies. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/01/us/college-board-advanced-placement-african-american-studies.html

Kiang, M. V., & Tsai, A. C. (2022). Failure of leadership in U.S. academic medicine after George Floyd’s killing by police and amidst subsequent unrest. Annals of Epidemiology, 65, 116–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annepidem.2021.04.018

Kohli R., Pizarro M. (2022). The layered toll of racism in teacher education on teacher educators of color. AERA Open, 8. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584221078538. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 40(2), 105–113.

Meikle, P. A., & Morris, L. R. (2022). University social responsibility: Challenging systemic racism in the aftermath of George Floyd’s Murder. Administrative Sciences, 12(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci12010036

Nieto, S., & McDonough, K. (2011). Placing equity front and center revisited. In A. F. Ball & C. A. Tyson (Eds.), Studying diversity in teacher education (pp. 363–384). Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield.

Pérez Huber, L. & Muñoz, S. M. (2021). Why they hate us: How racist rhetoric impacts education. Teachers College Press.

UCLA Law School (2021). CRT Forward Tracking Project. https://law.ucla.edu/academics/centers/critical-race-studies/ucla-law-crt-forward-tracking-project.

Dr. Susana M. Muñoz
Dr. Lindsay Pérez Huber
Guest Editors

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• racial equity
• education
• DEI backlash
• humanizing race work
• critical race theory