OUR NEW BLOG SPOT: Division A has a long standing commitment to affirmative action, both individually and collectively as a membership group. As a membership group, we promote the principles of affirmative action by ensuring diversity in our subcommittee work, supporting the Jackson Scholars program, and tracking and reporting on our minority representation in our presentations. We want to do more, individually and collectively. We believe we need to start by identifying and sharing ways we uphold the principles of affirmative action in our own work and in our institutions.
This blog is a first step. We invite you to share what you are doing in your own research and practice to promote affirmative action and what you are doing to promote affirmative action in your institution. Let's learn from each other! Here are some reflections to get us started. Please post your reflections in 500 words or less by clicking "Add Comment" below.
Affirmative Action in Educational Leadership - Lisa Bass, Division A Affirmative Action Committee Chair, North Carolina State University
When I accepted the role of the Affirmative Action chair for Division A of AERA, I revisited the notion of what exactly Affirmative Action means. Not only what it means, but what it means for Division A. I came to the conclusion that the definition should be fluid and adjust to context. If the definition is bound by constructs, then it is likely to be rigidly applied. This rigidity usually ends with more constructs such as quotas and policies that are against the true intention of affirmative action on the surface and come across as unfair. Quota schemes and other manifestations of Affirmative Action have given Affirmative Action a bad name, so I have taken the liberty of framing Affirmative Action for Educational Leadership. Again, however, this comes with the understanding that the definition remains fluid.
The working definition I developed was: Generating and promoting equitable systems and programs for the end goal of educational and societal equality.
The fluidity that should characterize affirmative action can be accomplished as we adjust our work to fit the needs of disadvantaged populations. We advance the notion of affirmative action when we engage in work that is equity and social justice focused… work that interrogates complex problems and dilemmas in education toward solutions. Educational Leaders are situated to set the pace in the quest for educational equality.
As leaders in the field of education, educational leaders (Division A members), touch many aspects of school administration. We are connected to counseling, teacher education, and organizational theory, just to name a few. We can move toward accomplishing the objectives of affirmative action as we consider our spheres of influence and use our influence in just and powerful ways.
In my own work, I have focused upon the ethic of care and how students need to be cared for in different ways given their circumstances if they are to perform to their academic potential. I have sought the perspectives of both male and female school leaders, as well as elementary, middle, and high school students in order to learn how teachers and administrators should best demonstrate care. Caring can be used as an affirming action in mediating the physical and psychosocial needs of students in the school setting, and can make the difference in their academic performance.
In my service, my affirming action takes the form of educating parents to be more effective partners with schools. I am working with a local elementary school principal to provide parenting workshops for under-informed parents of kindergarten students who seek information on how to effectively parent academically successful children.
Affirmative Action as Boosting Educational Equity - Camille M. Wilson, Division A Affirmative Action Committee Co-Chair, University of Michigan
At the heart of promoting affirmative action in educational leadership lies the importance of school leaders, policymakers, and academics working to rectify systemic inequity in educational systems. While this current era of test-driven accountability narrowly emphasizes decreasing disparities in students’ test-based outcomes, I think it is crucial that we focus on the many inputs that either increase or reduce educational equity overall.
Affirmative action within preK-12 contexts can involve implementing inclusive and culturally relevant strategies to engage diverse families; de-tracking; engaging teachers and leaders in meaningful and long-term anti-bias education; reforming school discipline and special education policies when they wrongfully target and penalize students of color; and, providing high quality public school choice options that students and their families can access with adequate information and transportation. Developing and implementing these types of steps counter notions of affirmative action that erroneously reduce it to attaining diversity quotas in job hiring or university admissions. In fact, I was attracted to the opportunity to co-lead Division A’s Affirmative Action Committee because it affords me the chance collaborate with others in educational leadership to promote equity boosting in creative and non-reductive ways. Affirmative action, in essence, is equity-boosting work.
Within post-secondary educational contexts, we as academics often have opportunities to partner with K-12 practitioners through our teaching, research, and collaborative service and help them design and implement equity-boosting practices in schools. We also have the ability to exert our voice and advocate for fairness to marginalized groups when we sit at tables of power within our universities. We are able to influence decision-making with matters pertaining to what and/or who is valued in student admissions, scholarships, awards, promotion and tenure review, and university-community outreach efforts. In the broader field of academe we can also help shape conference themes, committee selections, journal editorial boards, and grant funding priorities. Altogether, this involves us striving to engage ourselves and our colleagues in critical self-reflection, dialogue, and program and policy redesign that better supports diversity, inclusion, and educational access.
A new endeavor I have undertaken that aligns with my vision of affirmative action is being part of an initiative to start a large-scale college access program. The program will help prepare urban, middle and high school students largely impacted by poverty for admission to high quality, competitive universities. The initiative is aimed at opening the educational pipeline for such students by providing them with long-term academic enhancements, mentoring, family support, and exposure to university life. My involvement allows me to collaborate with a variety of faculty ad university leaders and consider how to best accommodate students’ strengths and needs. The next phase of our work will involve partnering with K-12 educational leaders and teachers. I am playing a specific role in helping to plan the family support and community-based access aspects of the project. This effort is allowing me to honor my equity-oriented commitments and put the many lessons I’ve learned through conducting research on leadership and school-family-community engagement to work in affirmative ways.
This blog is a first step. We invite you to share what you are doing in your own research and practice to promote affirmative action and what you are doing to promote affirmative action in your institution. Let's learn from each other! Here are some reflections to get us started. Please post your reflections in 500 words or less by clicking "Add Comment" below.
Affirmative Action in Educational Leadership - Lisa Bass, Division A Affirmative Action Committee Chair, North Carolina State University
When I accepted the role of the Affirmative Action chair for Division A of AERA, I revisited the notion of what exactly Affirmative Action means. Not only what it means, but what it means for Division A. I came to the conclusion that the definition should be fluid and adjust to context. If the definition is bound by constructs, then it is likely to be rigidly applied. This rigidity usually ends with more constructs such as quotas and policies that are against the true intention of affirmative action on the surface and come across as unfair. Quota schemes and other manifestations of Affirmative Action have given Affirmative Action a bad name, so I have taken the liberty of framing Affirmative Action for Educational Leadership. Again, however, this comes with the understanding that the definition remains fluid.
The working definition I developed was: Generating and promoting equitable systems and programs for the end goal of educational and societal equality.
The fluidity that should characterize affirmative action can be accomplished as we adjust our work to fit the needs of disadvantaged populations. We advance the notion of affirmative action when we engage in work that is equity and social justice focused… work that interrogates complex problems and dilemmas in education toward solutions. Educational Leaders are situated to set the pace in the quest for educational equality.
As leaders in the field of education, educational leaders (Division A members), touch many aspects of school administration. We are connected to counseling, teacher education, and organizational theory, just to name a few. We can move toward accomplishing the objectives of affirmative action as we consider our spheres of influence and use our influence in just and powerful ways.
In my own work, I have focused upon the ethic of care and how students need to be cared for in different ways given their circumstances if they are to perform to their academic potential. I have sought the perspectives of both male and female school leaders, as well as elementary, middle, and high school students in order to learn how teachers and administrators should best demonstrate care. Caring can be used as an affirming action in mediating the physical and psychosocial needs of students in the school setting, and can make the difference in their academic performance.
In my service, my affirming action takes the form of educating parents to be more effective partners with schools. I am working with a local elementary school principal to provide parenting workshops for under-informed parents of kindergarten students who seek information on how to effectively parent academically successful children.
Affirmative Action as Boosting Educational Equity - Camille M. Wilson, Division A Affirmative Action Committee Co-Chair, University of Michigan
At the heart of promoting affirmative action in educational leadership lies the importance of school leaders, policymakers, and academics working to rectify systemic inequity in educational systems. While this current era of test-driven accountability narrowly emphasizes decreasing disparities in students’ test-based outcomes, I think it is crucial that we focus on the many inputs that either increase or reduce educational equity overall.
Affirmative action within preK-12 contexts can involve implementing inclusive and culturally relevant strategies to engage diverse families; de-tracking; engaging teachers and leaders in meaningful and long-term anti-bias education; reforming school discipline and special education policies when they wrongfully target and penalize students of color; and, providing high quality public school choice options that students and their families can access with adequate information and transportation. Developing and implementing these types of steps counter notions of affirmative action that erroneously reduce it to attaining diversity quotas in job hiring or university admissions. In fact, I was attracted to the opportunity to co-lead Division A’s Affirmative Action Committee because it affords me the chance collaborate with others in educational leadership to promote equity boosting in creative and non-reductive ways. Affirmative action, in essence, is equity-boosting work.
Within post-secondary educational contexts, we as academics often have opportunities to partner with K-12 practitioners through our teaching, research, and collaborative service and help them design and implement equity-boosting practices in schools. We also have the ability to exert our voice and advocate for fairness to marginalized groups when we sit at tables of power within our universities. We are able to influence decision-making with matters pertaining to what and/or who is valued in student admissions, scholarships, awards, promotion and tenure review, and university-community outreach efforts. In the broader field of academe we can also help shape conference themes, committee selections, journal editorial boards, and grant funding priorities. Altogether, this involves us striving to engage ourselves and our colleagues in critical self-reflection, dialogue, and program and policy redesign that better supports diversity, inclusion, and educational access.
A new endeavor I have undertaken that aligns with my vision of affirmative action is being part of an initiative to start a large-scale college access program. The program will help prepare urban, middle and high school students largely impacted by poverty for admission to high quality, competitive universities. The initiative is aimed at opening the educational pipeline for such students by providing them with long-term academic enhancements, mentoring, family support, and exposure to university life. My involvement allows me to collaborate with a variety of faculty ad university leaders and consider how to best accommodate students’ strengths and needs. The next phase of our work will involve partnering with K-12 educational leaders and teachers. I am playing a specific role in helping to plan the family support and community-based access aspects of the project. This effort is allowing me to honor my equity-oriented commitments and put the many lessons I’ve learned through conducting research on leadership and school-family-community engagement to work in affirmative ways.