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Creative trouble: an exploration of elementary classroom teachers' perceptions of their roles in educational justice
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Creative trouble: an exploration of elementary classroom teachers' perceptions of their roles in educational justice
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Content
Creative Trouble:
An Exploration of Elementary Classroom Teachers' Perceptions of Their Roles in
Educational Justice
By
Alisa Rutherford-Fortunati
________________________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
December 2024
1
Acknowledgment
This dissertation is dedicated to Andrew Fortunati, for whom the injustice and hurt in the
world became too great. His passing was a reminder that we all need each other and to share the
weight we carry.
Thank you to Dr. Cathy Krop, Dr. Christina Kishimoto and Dr. Alan Green for the kind
and supportive way you guided me through this process. I am grateful for you all. I also wish to
thank all of the teachers who supported and challenged me on this journey.
Thank you to my collective cohort members who I was honored to work alongside. I will
forever hold dear our Thursday nights together learning, laughing and crying on this journey.
Finally, I want to thank my friends and family who cheered me on throughout my
educational journey. If I hadn’t walked this path with you, I would not have made it to the end.
2
Table of Contents
List of Tables 6
List of Figures 7
Abstract 8-9
Chapter One: Overview of the study 9
Background of the Problem 10
Purpose of the Study 12
Significance of the Study 13
Organization of the Study 14
Chapter Two: Literature Review 15
Justice in Education 15
Impact of Injustice and Teacher’s Roles 17
Impact on Sense of Belonging and Rate of Incarceration 17
Impact on Academic Performance 19
Teacher Identity 22
Impact of Teachers of Color on Students of Color 23
Impact of Working in an Unjust Education System on Teachers of
Color 24
White Teachers with Undeveloped Racialized Identity 27
White Teachers Moving Past Whiteness 28
Collaboration and Teacher Collective Action 32
Cross-Racial Collaboration and Collective Action 33
Those Who Engage in Educational Justice Work 36
3
Theoretical Framework 37
Conceptual Framework 42
Chapter Three: Methodology 45
Data Sources 46
Interviews 46
Participants 47
Instrumentation 49
Data Collection Procedures 49
Data Analysis 51
Credibility and Trustworthiness 51
Ethics 52
The Researcher 53
Chapter Four: Findings 55
Education Justice as Defined for This Dissertation 56
Participants 56
Research Question 1: Elementary Teachers’ Perceptions of Their Roles
in Educational Justice Work 58
Participants’ Introduction and Definitions of Educational Justice 59-64
Finding 1: Communication with Families and Students 66
Finding 2: One is the Loneliest Number 68
Finding 3: Do What You Can Where You Can 71
Research Question 2: How Are Elementary Classroom Teachers Collaborating
With Teachers Outside of Their Racial Identity in Educational Justice? 74
4
Finding 1: Race and Equity Teams (RET) and Groups 75
Finding 2: Teaching Teams 78
Finding 3: White Schools and Race and Equity Work 81
Research Question 3: What Do Elementary Classroom Teachers Perceive as
the Greatest Supports and Challenges to Their Agency in Educational Justice
Work? 84
Finding 1: Top Down Support or the Lack Thereof 84
Finding 2: Identity and Interactions With Educational Justice Work 87
Finding 3 Sustainable Practices and Systems 92
Summary 96
Chapter Five: Discussion and Recommendations for Practice 98
Discussion of Findings 99
Research Question 1: Discussion of Findings 100
Communication 100
Collaboration 101
Do What You Can 103
Research Question 2: Discussion of Findings 104
Research Question 3: Discussion of Findings 106
Connection of Findings to Conceptual Framework 108
Recommendations for Practice 110
Recommendation 1: Creative Trouble - Be a Helper 112
Recommendation 2: Community Focused 114
Recommendation 3: Increasing Sustainable Practices
5
Through Shared Knowledge and Resources 117
Limitations and Delimitations 119
Recommendations for Future Research 122
Conclusion 123
References 127
Appendix A: Screening Questionnaire 148
Appendix B: Teacher Interview Protocol 151
Appendix C: Informed Consent/Information Sheet 157
6
List of Tables
Table 1: Summary of Dr. Bettina Love’s Abolitionist Teaching Theory 39-41
Table 2: Participant Overview 57-58
Table 3: Supports and Challenges 85-86
Table 4: Summary of Key Findings and Recommendations for Practice 111-112
7
List of Figures
Figure 1: Imagine of Conceptual Framework 42
Figure 2: Examples of How Teachers Did What They Could as Elementary Classroom
Teacher 72
Figure 3: Educators Identity and the Impact on Educational Justice Related Work 88-91
Figure 4: Teachers’ Perceptions of Their Roles in Educational Justice Through
Communication Practices 101
Figure 5: The Teacher Participants Noted How They Collaborate Within Their
Educational Justice Work 102
Figure 6: Cross Racial Collaboration happening Through RET teams and
Teaching Teams, With the Dynamics of Whiteness They are Tethered to 105
Figure 7: Sustainable Practices, the Impact of Practices, Collaboration and
Administration in Either Supporting or Creating Barriers to Educational Justice Work 107
Figure 8: Image Reflections Multiplying 112
Figure 9: Image Illuminations 114
Figure 10: Image Long Lasting 117
8
Abstract
This study examines the complex relationship between educators' identities, their
perceptions of justice in education, and their role in challenging systemic inequities
through collaborative practices. The research is framed by a conceptual framework that
visualizes education as an interwoven cycle of justice, injustice and transformation, where
teachers are seen as dynamic agents within a perpetual process of recreating or changing
systems of educational injustice. The theoretical underpinnings for this study draw from
critical theory, critical pedagogy, and abolitionist teaching, all of which center the agency
of educators in confronting social injustices and transforming educational systems. The
purpose of this study was to explore elementary classroom teachers' perceptions of their
roles in educational justice, including whether they are collaborating cross-racially in this
work and the challenges and supports they have experienced in this work. Data were
collected through semi-structured interviews. Findings from this study suggest that
elementary educators feel their roles in educational justice include communication with
families and students, using their agency to modify classroom practices and working
collaboratively to support students. These findings frame recommendations for classroom
9
teachers to begin educational justice work within their own spheres of influence and to use
systems of support within their current schools to uplift and meet students’ needs.
Keywords: educational justice, teacher identity, cross-racial collaboration, critical
pedagogy, abolitionist teaching, systemic inequities, agency in education, teacher agency
Chapter One: Overview of the Study
Baynard Rustin (1987) described his relationship to activism as a belief in “social
dislocation and creative trouble” (p. 1). This dissertation borrows its beginning title from
Rustin’s words to explore the creative trouble and social dislocation of educational justice
through classroom teachers' personal narratives and perceptions of their roles in this work.
Rustin’s work as a civil, gay and human rights activist was framed by both his beliefs about his
role in attaining justice and his identity as a Black, gay man (Rustin, Carbado, & Weise, 2015).
The intersection of his identities and changing social constructs impacted the roles Rustin played
in working towards justice. Like Rustin, the roles classroom teachers play in educational justice
work have often been connected to their identities and changing social constructs (Kholi, 2021).
Understanding teachers’ current and varied roles in educational justice work is critical because of
their potential to either perpetuate or transform injustices built into the current educational
system (Freire 1970; Love, 2019). Freire (2018) frames teachers’ roles as critical creators and
re-creators in the reality of education thusly:
Teachers and students (leadership and people), co-intent on reality, are both Subjects, not
only in the task of unveiling that reality, and thereby coming to know it critically, but in
the task of recreating that knowledge. As they attain this knowledge of reality through
10
common reflection and action, they discover themselves as its permanent re-creators (p.
69).
In this study, I explored classroom teachers with varied and intersectional identities, and
how they framed their roles in educational justice through a critical and abolitionist teaching
lens.
Background of the Problem
Educational justice can be framed through legal (OSPI, n.d.), academic (Ladson- Billings,
2021) or human (Freire, 1970) praxes. Attempts to secure legal access to education can be seen
in key federal laws such as the The Civil Rights Act of 1964, The Education Amendments of
1972, Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974, Executive Order 13166, Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (OSPI, n.d.). At the state
level, further legal entitlement to public education has, in selected states, been outlined to include
all students regardless of their sex, race, color, religion, creed, national origin, sexual orientation,
gender identity, gender expression, and disability status (OSPI, n.d.). While legal access to
education may have extensive policies behind its enactment, when we move from legal to
academic praxis, persistent academic opportunity gaps can be seen between historically
marginalized students of color and white students (Ladson-Billing, 2009).
Ladson-Billings (2021) stated that student academic achievement cannot be separated
from educational justice because of the injustices enacted in students' day-to-day school lives.
She spoke to the purposeful use of the words “educational justice” as an action-oriented term, as
opposed to the phrase “social justice in education,” which often becomes talk-based (2021). The
action-oriented nature of both justice and injustice in education is seen in previous research on
11
teachers’ roles in students’ educational trajectories according to teacher expectations
(Gershenson, 2015), discipline practices (Skiba et. al., 2014), and their ability to either
marginalize or create a sense of belonging for students (Kohli, 2021). Academic achievement
may not be separated from educational justice, but humanity should be at its core. In education,
“Dehumanization, although a concrete historical fact, is not a given destiny but the result of an
unjust order that engenders violence in the oppressors, which in turn dehumanizes the oppressed”
(Freire, 2018, p. 44). Freire speaks to the way in which injustice perpetuates dehumanization, not
as a given reality, but as violent actions enacted between human beings.
It is clear then why researchers such as Brody and Davidson (1998) show that teachers
are central to changing schools due to the amount of time they spend with students and their
potential to create transformative relationships in schools, in their classrooms and beyond.
Teachers play a critical role in establishing a safe and welcoming classroom environment
through instruction and building positive trusting relationships with students (Allen et al., 2018;
Ibrahim & Zaatari, 2020; Mahoney et al., 2018-2019; Osher et al., 2016).
While this research speaks to teachers’ individual capacity to build transformative
classroom environments, Freire (2018) reminds us that, “The pursuit of full humanity… cannot
be carried out in isolation or individualism, but only in fellowship and solidarity” (p. 47). It is
only through working collaboratively as a community that teachers’ knowledge capital and
capacity can be fully utilized (Fullan & Quinn, 2016). When teachers work together, it benefits
students through the sharing of resources, knowledge, and developing accountability (Hattie,
2015). There are teachers flexing their collective change-making agency through organizing and
challenging various educational policies (Bascia, 2009). This work is happening through
grassroots groups, networks, professional associations, unions and beyond (Quinn & Carl, 2015).
12
While various forms of collaborative work may already be happening in the teaching
field, the distribution of labor is not always equitably shared in educational justice work (Kohli,
2021). The teaching field remains predominantly dominated by people who are white and female
(Taie & Lewis, 2022), yet teachers of color are often the ones that engage in unpaid educational
justice work (Pizarro & Kohli, 2020; Lisle-Johnson & Kohli, 2020). White teachers are able to
expand their teaching practices to include marginalized students (Powell et al., 2016) and can
share in the work needed to achieve educational justice, but they must be willing to reflect on,
challenge and change how whiteness perpetuates injustice in education (Zembylas, 2020;
Zembylas & McGlynn, 2012). Teachers that engage in the work of educational justice recognize
power systems, their roles within these systems and the inequities inherent in them (Picower,
2012). Each person’s role in this work may vary according to their positionality within the
dominant power structures (Okun, 2014). Thus, understanding how teachers are collaborating
with educators outside of their racial identity, and with different positions within the dominant
power structures, is critical to furthering the goals of educational justice through understanding
the different roles educators can take in achieving educational justice (Okun, 2014). Combining
teachers' collective strengths is essential to transforming current educational systems (Aguilar,
2016).
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was to explore classroom teachers’ perspectives of their roles in
educational justice work in an ethnically diverse Washington State school district. Additionally,
this study sought to illuminate how, and if, these teachers collaborate with educators outside of
their own racial identity in educational justice work and, finally, what they perceive as the
greatest challenges and supports they experience in this work. These concepts were explored
13
through qualitative interviews grounded in the theories of critical and abolitionist teaching
pedagogy.
The research questions guiding this work are as follows:
1. How do elementary classroom teachers in an ethnically diverse Washington State district
describe their roles in educational justice work?
2. How are elementary classroom teachers collaborating with teachers outside of their racial
identity in educational justice?
3. What do elementary classroom teachers perceive as the greatest supports and challenges
to their agency in educational justice work?
Significance of the Study
This research is intended to further understanding on how educational justice is being
perceived and enacted on a human level by classroom teachers, across differing racial identities,
in order to expand current knowledge on the realities of, or absence of, educational justice work
currently happening in classrooms. The focus of this study is one ethnically diverse West Coast
public school district with over 100 schools. As educational justice work is intertwined with
students’ academic (Ladson-Billings, 2021), economic (Zhang & Cowen, 2009), and personal
(Skiba et al., 2014) trajectories, it is critical to learn from those poised to transform schools
(Brody & Davidson, 1998) about the educational justice work that is or is not currently
happening and why. Classroom teachers have a critical impact on student success and learning
(Hattie, 2008). Educational justice requires students to have equitable access to learning
opportunities (Varghese, 2022). While justice-oriented teacher leadership has been studied by
authors such as Kohli (2019) and Bradley-Levine (2012), there remain gaps in the literature
around teachers’ perceptions of their roles in educational justice and how their identities impact
14
the enactment of those roles (Pham, 2022). Thus, this research seeks to expand knowledge of
how teachers perceive and enact their roles in educational justice work and bridge existing gaps
in current literature. This research may benefit district and school leaders in implementing
professional policies, practices and development to support classroom teachers’ agency in
educational justice work. It may further support classroom teachers in analyzing their own roles
in educational justice work, and for those who choose to enact these roles, their students.
Organization of the Study
Chapter 1 provided an overview of the study and broadly introduced what educational
justice is, why it is important, the role teachers’ racial identities play in this work and the role of
collaboration and collective action in educational justice work. Chapter 2 presents a review of
literature in the following areas: Justice in Education, Impacts of Injustice and Teachers’ Roles,
Teacher Identity, and Collaboration and Teacher Collective Action. Chapter 3 then outlines the
methodology used in this research study including: sample, population, interview questions, data
collection and data analysis. Chapter 4 provides the findings from this research. Chapter 5 further
discusses these findings, the implications of the findings, and the recommendations for future
research stemming from this study. References and appendices are included after the conclusion
of Chapter 5.
15
Chapter 2: Review of the Literature
Educational injustice has the potential to impact students’ academic achievement,
well-being and life trajectory. Classroom teachers' perceptions of their roles in educational
justice work, the supports and challenges they face and who they collaborate with in this work
has the potential to inform the work itself. Thus, it is imperative to study the individuals whose
classrooms students are taught within, their behavior is managed within and who may determine
students’ sense of belonging and persistence in education. This chapter will explore educational
justice, teachers’ identities, teacher collaboration and collective action as understood through a
review of literature.
Justice in Education
Justice in the context of public education is complex in nature. Learning for Justice
suggests that “Justice is, in many ways, a combination of fairness and opportunity: In a just
society or group, people have the same rights and are not punished more because of who they
are” (2020, paras. 4). Merriam-Webster defines justice as “The establishment or determination of
rights according to the rules of law or equity; the quality of being just, impartial, or fair; the
principle or ideal of just dealing or right action; conformity to truth, fact, or reason.” When this
definition is linked to education on a legal level, educational justice can be defined as meeting
the goals of public education by fulfilling all students’ educational rights according to the rules
of law or equity (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). Fulfilling these goals requires an education system that
prepares students academically for work and to be good citizens (Walker, n.d.) and promotes
student achievement, educational excellence, global competitiveness and equal access to
education (Laws and Guidance, USDOE, n.d.). Under the rules of law, all children are entitled to
an education that meets these goals through “a basic public elementary and secondary education
16
regardless of their actual or perceived race, color, national origin, citizenship, immigration status,
or the status of their parents/guardians'' (OCR, The U.S. Department of Education, n.d.). Yet,
academic opportunity gaps remain between Black and Latino students (Leavitt & Hess, 2019)
and their white counterparts (Byrd, 2020; Hung, et al., 2020; Reardon, Robinson, Cimpian &
Weathers, 2015) and incidents of racism, xenophobia and other forms of bigotry continue to be
witnessed by educators within school walls (Costello & Dillard, 2019). Just and equitable access
to academic achievement has not been achieved (Hung, et al., 2020; Ladson-Billings, 2009).
According to critical scholars such as Freire (1970) and abolitionist scholars such as Love
(2023), justice and injustice in education cannot be authentically defined in stagnant terms
devoid of the actions that perpetuate or transform our current reality.
Freire (1976) reminds us that justice is active and humanizing in nature:
An unauthentic word, one which is unable to transform reality, results when dichotomy is
imposed upon its constitutive elements. When a word is deprived of its dimension of
action, reflection automatically suffers as well; and the word is changed into idle chatter,
into verbalism, into an alienated and alienating “blah.” It becomes an empty word, one
which cannot denounce the world, for denunciation is impossible without a commitment
to transform, and there is no transformation without action ( p. 87).
Through a critical and abolitionist lens, educational justice must be defined through the
actions that oppose it and the actions that lead towards it which are intersectional (Love, 2023);
connected to student outcomes (Ladson-Billings, 2021); equitable opportunities for academic
success (Varghese et. al., 2021) and humanizing in nature (Friere, 1976). Thus, in this research,
educational justice is defined as the achievement of a humanizing education system where
students' academic success and sense of belonging are continually supported through just actions.
17
Impacts of Injustice and Teacher’s Roles
Educational injustices have many direct impacts, including on students' sense of belonging,
likelihood of incarceration later in life and their rates of academic achievement.
Impact on Sense of Belonging and Rate of Incarceration
A student’s sense of belonging in an educational setting is developed through
interpersonal, instructional and institutional factors (DeLeon et al., 2018). Learning and teaching
happen through these relationships and communities (Palmer, 2017). Teachers are central to
supporting students' social and emotional learning and wellbeing within their classrooms
(Durlak et al., 2011; Greenberg et al., 2017; Ferraira et al., 2020). With the critical role teachers
play in supporting students’ sense of belonging and emotional wellbeing in mind, Kohli’s (2021)
work is essential in centering the voices of students and educators of color that did not
experience a sense of belonging throughout their educational journeys (Kohli, 2021). Through
her scholarly articles and books, Kohli’s work spotlights the racialized educational environment
that damaged students and educators of color's sense of belonging within our public education
system and strong counternarratives of resilience, resistance and healing despite these harms
(Pizarro & Kohli, 2020; Lisle-Johnson & Kohli, 2020; Burciaga & Kohli, 2018; Kohli, 2021;
Kohli, 2018). Students of color that find or create pathways to belonging in education are more
likely to show educational persistence in both primary and secondary education (Techine et al.,
2017).
Multifaceted in nature, racialized harm takes many forms in an unjust education system,
including physical removal from an educational setting, which is more prevalent for students of
color (Skiba et al., 2014). Exclusionary discipline practices are disproportionately used against
historically marginalized students, including students of color, female-identified students,
18
students with disabilities and queer students ( Jayanti, 2022; Skiba et al., 2014). More recent data
from the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR, 2021) confirms persistent
patterns of Black students, multi racial students and students with disabilities being suspended or
expelled at a higher rate than their white and neurotypical counterparts. Research from OCR also
shows a more recent trend towards white boys, too, being overrepresented in K-12 students who
were suspended or expelled (2021). Additionally, according to OCR, “Approximately 52,800
K-12 students were physically restrained, mechanically restrained, and/or placed in seclusion at
schools. Boys, Black students, students of two or more races, and students with disabilities who
received services under IDEA were subjected to restraints and seclusion at higher percentages
than their overall K-12 enrollments”' (2021, paras. 14-15).
Exclusionary discipline practices not only lead to missed instructional time (Lindsay &
Hart, 2017), they also lead to an increase in the likelihood of students of color experiencing
detention later in life (Skiba et al., 2014). The school-to-prison pipeline refers to the connection
between the disproportionate number of students of color who are punished through exclusionary
discipline, such as suspension and expulsion, and the disproportionate number of adults of color
who have been imprisoned, i.e. excluded from the general population (Bacher-Hicks et al.,
2021). In their work, Bacher et al. (2021) showed that schools deemed stricter by the number of
predicted days of suspension ordered saw a direct correlation between the number of days
students were suspended for and the likelihood of their incarceration later in life. Black and
Hispanic students were disproportionately represented in student suspension, expulsions and
subsequent likelihood of incarceration during their lifetimes. In their poem, Ashley Davis and
Oompa frame the connections between school and prison as a rigged game of Simon Says for
Black and Brown students, because “Simon says if you can’t handle this classroom, how will
19
you handle your jail cell?”(2016, 00:1:41-00:1:43). A pipeline does not just have two sides
though, with exclusionary discipline in school moving straight to prison. Along the pathway,
between their correlated punishments, exclusionary discipline practices have a negative impact
on academic performance, student engagement, risk of drop out, school climate, civic
participation and encountering the criminal justice system (Davis et. al, 2022). While there are
researchers who challenge the concept of a school-to-prison pipeline (Sojoyner, 2013), there is a
greater consensus that exclusionary disciplinary practices exacerbate racial inequalities and are
tied to anti-Blackness principles in action (Fronius et al., 2019). According to Freire (2018),
Teachers and students (leadership and people), co-intent on reality, are both Subjects, not
only in the task of unveiling that reality, and thereby coming to know it critically, but in
the task of recreating that knowledge. As they attain this knowledge of reality through
common reflection and action, they discover themselves as its permanent re-creators
(p.68).
Here, too, is the theme of action as a component of perpetuation or transforming certain
systems, and both teachers and students as active participants in this process. One of the key
factors in a student's academic success and school retention rates are the educators they
encounter on their academic journey (Hattie, 2008; Kohli, 2021).
Impact on Academic Performance
Educational justice at its core requires students to have equitable opportunities for
success in academics (Varghese et. al., 2021). Classroom teachers have a critical impact on
student learning and academic success (Hattie, 2008). The human factor in providing equitable
opportunities for academic success is evident though a strong correlation between teachers'
expectations of students and the academic outcomes students achieve (Dee, 2014). In Dee’s
20
work, students were more likely to succeed in classrooms with a teacher that mirrored their racial
identity. While Dee’s (2014) research did not prove a causal relationship between teachers’
race-based expectations and student outcomes, when paired with data on the disproportionate
high number of white educators in the teaching field (OSPI, n.d.), it raises questions over the
number of students of color who are taught by teachers who do not mirror their racial identities
and how this correlates with a decrease in the likelihood of academic success. Persistent
academic opportunity gaps and inequitable academic outcomes remain between Black and
Latino students and their white counterparts (Reardon, Robinson, Cimpian & Weathers, 2015).
Additionally, patterns of disproportionately low high school graduation rates for students of color
remain (Ladson-Billings, 2021). Educational justice work is intertwined with students' academic
outcomes (Ladson-Billings, 2021) through the impact of teachers’ expectations of students’
academic success (Hattie, 2009), students’ access or barriers to enriching educational
opportunities (GAO, 2020), sufficiently-resourced schools (Springer, 2015) and how much time
students spend inside and outside of the classroom due to disciplinary practices (Neitzel, 2018).
This is how persistent inequities in access to educational resources and outcomes in school
systems between students of color and their white peers remain (Reardon, Robinson, Cimpian &
Weathers, 2015). Yet there is little research on how classroom teachers, those tasked with student
instruction and achievement, perceive and define their role in working towards educational
justice and tearing down racialized educational barriers (FACA, 2013). Barriers to quality
education for students of color are rooted in racialized caste systems, the legacy of enslavement
and the laws and actions that perpetuated these systems from the separate-but-equal era to today
(Green et al., 2021). Schools that serve primarily students of color remain under-resourced and
21
under-funded (Green et al., 2021). They are often both racially and economically segregated
(GAO, 2020).
Teachers are in prime positions to recognize these inequities and dominant power systems
in education and enact critical reflection and practices that challenge these through the
implementation of culturally responsive and critical curriculum and pedagogy (Sachs, 2000;
Sachs, 2003). While not solely responsible for achieving educational justice, teachers are indeed
tasked with supporting students' academic achievement through instruction and behavior
management (WALeg, n.d). They are poised to transform schools (Brody & Davidson, 1998).
Yet much of the critical and abolitionist research on the teacher’s role in educational justice
documents prevalent injustices and calls teachers to action, but it does not show teachers’
perceptions of their roles in educational justice (Love, 2019). From Freir’s (1976) challenge for
those who are oppressed to lead towards co-created liberation, to Love’s (2019) challenge to both
tear down and transform our current educational system towards equity, to Kohli’s (2021) more
recent work on students and educators of color, they are collectively working to challenge
injustices in the education system by expanding knowledge of teachers’ perceptions of their roles
in working towards educational justice, and their enactment of those roles as essential.
Equitable changes to unjust educational policies have been shown to be possible through
teacher research, professional associations, unions and grassroot activism (Stern, Brown &
Hussain, 2016; Quinn & Carl, 2015), such as the collective teacher action that took place in
Philadelphia after inadequate school funding led to teacher layoffs. National awareness of these
local issues was brought about by collective teacher activism and campaigns supported by the
American Federation of Teachers, which resulted in additional funding for Philadelphia schools
and lower teacher layoffs (Quinn & Carl, 2015). In the pursuit of educational justice, it is critical
22
that education inequities in areas including school funding, curriculum, instruction and
assessment are transformed to remove barriers to education for minoritized students
(Ladson-Billings, 1995; Ladson-Billings 1998; Ladson-Billings, 1998). Starting from students'
daily lives within school walls, the pedagogy that perpetuates injustices in education will not
change without teachers challenging the oppression built into the structure of education in how
students are taught (Love 2023), what is expected of them (Gershenson, 2015), the resources
they have access to (Baker, 2016) and the creation of the school environment in which they
spend their daily lives. For teachers to engage in this work, how they identify and their
understanding of that identity is critical (Picower, 2012; Love, 2019).
Teacher Identity
Engaging in the work of educational justice requires intercultural maturity development
through meaning-making and the acceptance of interpersonal differences (King & Baxter
Magolda, 2005). It requires both recognizing power dynamics formed by racialized identities and
inequities and privileges that these perpetuate (Love, 2019). Additionally, it requires the ability
for those engaging in this work from the dominant social group to work alongside historically
marginalized social groups without paternalism (Mitchell, 2008). While it is reductive to
overgeneralize teachers’ intercultural maturity based on their racial identities, there is ample
research to show correlations between racial identity and racialized bias. For example, white
teachers have been shown to have lower expectations for Black students (Gershenson, 2015). In
Dee’s (2014) study, students demonstrated greater academic achievement in classrooms led by
teachers with a shared racial identity. Gershenon et al. (2022) took this work further, showing a
predictive relationship between Black students who have had at least one Black teacher between
kindergarten to 9th grade and their school retention rates. Black students were 13% more likely
23
to graduate from high school and 19% more likely to continue to college than Black peers who
had not had a Black teacher before 9th grade (Gershenson et al., 2022).
This data is essential to exploring the connection between classroom teachers and
educational justice as students of color continue to experience prevalent barriers to their
academic success and also have a disproportionately higher chance of being taught by teachers
who do not share their racial identity (Taie & Lewis, 2022). As of the 2020-2021 National
Teacher and Principal Survey, approximately 20% of public school teachers were teachers of
color, while public school enrollment figures show that over 54% of public school students were
students of color (Taie & Lewis, 2022). Once in the classroom, teachers’ racial identities impact
the level of agency they experience in their classrooms and in school policy (Ingersoll & May,
2011; White 2018).
Impact of Teachers of Color on Students of Color
Factors influencing greater academic successes for students of color who have teachers of
color may include the unpaid racial equity work teachers of color often participate in (Pizarro &
Kohli, 2020; Lisle-Johnson & Kohli, 2020), teachers of color bringing in culturally responsive
pedagogy practices and connections to students’ home lives and cultures (Achinstein & Ogawa,
2011; Burciaga & Kohli, 2018; Kohli, 202), as well as less missed instructional time due to a
reduction in exclusionary discipline practices, as Black students are less likely to be disciplined
in an exclusionary manner by Black teachers (Lindsay & Hart, 2017). Students of color are more
likely to be seen as capable learners by teachers of color, who also understand students’
racialized experiences through their own lived experiences (Kohli, 2021). Teachers of color also
often bring in culturally responsive pedagogical approaches that connect to students’ homes and
histories through varied and not prescriptive methods (Achinstein & Ogawa, 2011; Burciaga &
24
Kohli, 2018; Kohli, 2018). As is established in the literature, the importance and need for
teachers of color, who often advocate for students and families of color, goes beyond being a role
model or tokenization (Pizarro & Kohli, 2020). Educators and students of color can be seen
throughout the history of education mobilizing for educational justice and resisting
marginalization (Kohli, 2021).
Some teachers of color specifically enter into the profession to positively influence
students of color’s educational experiences and outcomes (Banerjee, 2019; Ford & Wilson, 2021;
Glock & Schuchart, 2020). Additional reasoning may include being a positive role model for
students of color (Achinstein & Ogawa, 2012; Ochoa, 2007; Vilson, 2015) or supporting
minoritized students who mirror their own racial culture and communities (Achinstein et al.,
2010). Although having a teacher of color is a positive academic predictor for students of color,
the disproportionately low representation of teachers of color in schools negatively affects
students of color’s perception of their chances of becoming a teacher (Jacinto & Gershenson,
2021).
Impact of Working in an Unjust Education System on Teachers of Color
The percentage of teachers of color in the field remains disproportionately low (OSPI,
n.d.), and the teacher of color turnover rate remains disproportionately high compared with their
white counterparts (Ingersoll et al., 2019). Reasons given for teachers of color leaving the
teaching profession include job dissatisfaction, personal or family reasons, pursuing a different
career, school or staffing actions and retirement (Ingersoll et al., 2019). The top two reasons
being job dissatisfaction and searching for better working conditions (Albert Shanker Institute,
2015). Kohli (2021) gives ample examples of factors contributing to job dissatisfaction and poor
working conditions for teachers of color in her book Teacher of Color Resisting Racism and
25
Reclaiming Education. In this work, Kohli brings together both firsthand accounts from teachers
of color and research pertaining to the racialization of teachers of color, the toll it takes on them
and those who continue to work against these injustices. Kohli speaks to the pervasive nature of
the racialized system teachers work in.
Racism is entrenched in the structures, culture, and climate of our education system—
K-12 and teacher education. From the time they were young to their pathway through the
profession, critical teachers of Color faced messages that they do not belong in schools,
that their communities do not deserve a quality education, and that they are not capable of
being rigorous teachers or educational leaders. They confronted racial harm within school
policies and practices, as well as endured microaggressions by peers and administrators.
(p. 57)
While Kohli’s (2021) work is rich with stories of both educators and students working
towards educational justice, she notes ample examples of the racial stress, mental toll, fatigue,
isolation, anxiety, bullying and administrator apathy that pushes teachers of color out of the
teaching field. For educators of color who refuse to be pushed out of the teaching field and push
back against tokenism and tokenized expectations of their work as educators, many face
microaggressions and racialized harm in response, such as the Black female teachers studied by
Kohli (2018).
Farinde-Wu and Fitchett’s (2016) study of Black female teachers adds additional weight
to this narrative by exploring the role administrators play in job satisfaction for teachers of color.
Administrative support positively correlated with the retention of teachers of color through
positive encouragement, support in teaching students with diverse needs, recognition for their
work and support enforcing rules equitably across school sites. Enforcement of rules may seem
26
counterintuitive to the research pertaining to teachers of color being less likely to discipline
students in an exclusionary manner (Neitzel, 2018) but may relate to the disciplinarian role some
educators of color are pushed into. Bristol-Mentor’s (2018) and Brockenbrough’s (2015) work
highlighted the disciplinarian stereotyping that many Black male educators experience as they
are steered into disciplinary roles rather than the educator roles they were trained and hired to
fulfill. In addition to disciplinary roles outside of job descriptions, teachers of color often
participate in unpaid racial equity work, the emotional and psychological toil of which increases
as the intersections of their marginalized identities increase (Pizarro & Kohli, 2020;
Lisle-Johnson & Kohli, 2020).
Reflecting on over 30 years of research pertaining to the continuing shortage of teacher of
color in the education field, Goodwin (2023) notes that greater focus needs to paid to how
teachers of color are inducted into schools, their ongoing professional development, quality
teacher preparation programs, the marginalization and racism they face once in the teaching
field, supports for teachers of color once they are hired, and where teachers of color are being
hired. These factors have been found to support the recruitment and retention of teachers of
color and are important in looking deeper at the percentage of teachers of color in the teaching
field (Goodwin, 2023). For example, if we only focus on how quality teacher preparation
programs support the retention of teachers of color (Carver-Thomas, 2018; Jackson & Watson,
2021), the impact of inequitably hiring practices could be missed. Such as Klein (2017) showed
through employment data, this data showed that white teachers are more likely to be hired over
equally qualified Black teachers. This is why Goodwin (2023) calls us to look more deeply at all
of the factors influencing disproportionately low recruitment and retention of teachers of color,
stating.
27
In our fixation on the percentages of teachers of color, we have failed to turn our gaze on
ourselves—the teaching profession and teacher education establishment—to
acknowledge our own complicity in the problem and commit to self-work as well as
systemic changes designed to deliberately dismantle racist ideation, practices (hiring,
instruction, assessment, resource distribution, etc.), curriculum, and policies. (p. 1)
With these factors in mind, the majority of educators in the field today continue to be
disproportionately white and female. Educational justice for both teachers of color and students
of color cannot rest on teachers of color (Goodwin, 2023). Thus, it is important to explore the
literature pertaining to white teachers' racialized identity development and literacy, their ability
to support students of color and work collaboratively with teachers of color on educational
justice.
White Teachers with Undeveloped Racialized Identity
While white teachers may enter into the teaching field to positively influence student
outcomes, they also often bring race, racism and whiteness-based fears, bias and
misunderstandings into their work as educators (Owens, 2022; Tropp et al., 2022; Marx, 2006;
Sleeter, 2008; White, 2012). This lack of knowledge of the students and communities of color
that they are working within, outside of white identities, and their own whiteness impacts the
ways they interact with and teach students of color (Marx, 2006; Sleeter, 2008; White, 2012). In
part, this is because before white individuals actively seek to understand and develop their own
racialized identity, whiteness is centered as their ‘norm,’ which creates the illusion of otherness
that students and teachers are measured against (Utt, 2020; Bell, 2022; Giroux, 1997; Giroux,
2001; Frankenberg, 1993; Giroux, 1997; Hooks, 1994; McIntosh, 1990; Tatum, 1992). When
using whiteness as a false norm, white teachers enact supposedly color blind teaching methods
28
which become an excuse for inaction in terms of educational justice and the perpetuation of
culturally unresponsive pedagogy (Milner, 2012; Lewis, 2001; Banks, 2009). Even when white
teachers begin to openly speak about race and racism, it does not always translate into anti racistand justice-based pedagogy in the classroom (Yoon, 2012; Chubbuck, 2004). This can be due in
part to continued emotionality about their own whiteness and discomfort in confronting their
own identities on a deeper level (Zembylas, 2020; Zembylas & McGlynn, 2012). Ignorance of
their own racialized identity becomes a tool through which supposed innocence in racialized
harm and injustice can be maintained (Utt, 2020; Leonardo, 2002; Leonardo, 2009; Roediger,
1991; Roediger, 1994; Allen, 2002).
White Teachers Moving Past Whiteness
Maintaining the illusion of innocence within racialized systems of harm is a choice
(Leonardo, 2009). White teachers are able to expand their teaching practices to include
marginalized students, especially students of color (Powell et al., 2016). White teachers must
develop a knowledge base of the oppression, privilege and inequities that exist within our
education system in order to grapple with them and begin to actively work against them (Utt &
Tochluk, 2020). In fact, teachers who recognize these inequities and the power systems their
identities exist within often begin to engage in social justice work through their curriculum and
pedagogical practices (Giroux, 1983; Janks, 2010; Morrell, 2002; Simon & Campano, 2013.)
One model of how white teachers move past the myth of internalized racialized ignorance is the
Racial Identity Model, which outlines the progress of white identity development and anti racist
internalization as: contact, disintegration, reintegration, pseudo-independent,
immersion/immersion and autonomy. Utt and Tochluck (2020) summarize Helms’ white racial
identity model phases as:
29
1. Contact: Obliviousness to own racial identity
2. Disintegration: First acknowledgment of White identity
3. Reintegration: Idealizes Whites/denigrates (people of Color)
4. Pseudo-independence: Intellectualized acceptance of own and others’
race
5. Immersion/emersion: Honest appraisal of racism and significance of
White identity
6. Autonomy: Internalizes a multi-cultural identity with non-racist
White identity as its core (p. 128).
While Helms’ model can be used in a critical manner, such as in Utt and Tochluck (2020)
work, Helms’ Racialized Identity Model has been criticized as linear and reductive in nature
(Rowe & Atkinson, 1995). More recent work shows that identity development, such as the
Allies For Change model for interracial relationship development that Love (2019) brings into
their work, provides a more nuanced outline of the continual processes of learning and
engagement that are required to challenge systems of whiteness and internalize an active role in
challenging systems of injustice.
Love (2019) outlines this as:
■ Understanding where we stand in relation to systems of privilege and
oppression, and unlearning the habits and practices that protect those systems,
which is lifelong work for all of us, without exception
■ Authentic relationships of solidarity and mutuality, which are not possible
when we try to avoid or transcend power imbalances
30
■ Honestly acknowledging and confronting those imbalances to create authentic
relationships
■ Social change work is always rooted in collaboration, humility, and
accountability
■ The interior journey into silence, mediation, inner wisdom, and deep joy is
inextricably linked to the outer work of social change (p. 118).
These characteristics, rather than being presented as a linear system in nature, represent
ways in which co-conspirators or members of the dominant social groups, such as white teachers,
can actively work to understand their own identities and work in partnership with historically
marginalized communities of color working towards educational justice and liberation.
Furthermore, these descriptions of the characteristics needed to engage in abolitionist and critical
educational practices can move beyond race based constructs to be applicable to all individuals
who have internalized systems of whiteness (Okun, 2023). Systems of whiteness can otherwise
be called white supremacy culture, which maintains systems of racialized hierarchy and harm
through the principles that Okun (2023) summarized: fear, one right way, either or and the
binary, denial and defensiveness, right to comfort and fear of conflict, individualism, progress is
move ‘quantity over quality’, worship of the written word and urgency.
FEAR
White supremacy culture's number one strategy is to make us afraid. When we are afraid,
we lose touch with our power and become more easily manipulated by the promise of an
illusory safety.
ONE RIGHT WAY along with PERFECTIONISM* PATERNALISM
OBJECTIVITY* & QUALIFIED
31
The belief there is one right way to do things. Connected to the belief in an objective
"perfect" that is both attainable and desirable for everyone. Connected to the belief that I
am qualified to know what the perfect right way is for myself and others.
EITHER/OR & THE BINARY*
Reduces the complexity of life and the nuance of our relationships with each other and all
living things into either/or, yes or no, right or wrong in ways that reinforce urgency, one
right way perfectionist thinking, and abuse of power.
DENIAL & DEFENSIVENESS
The habit of denying and defending against the ways in which white supremacy and
racism are produced and our individual or collective participation in that production.
RIGHT TO COMFORT & FEAR OF CONFLICT
The internalization that I or we have a right to comfort, which means we cannot tolerate
conflict, particularly open conflict.
INDIVIDUALISM*
Our cultural story that we make it on our own, without help, while pulling ourselves up
by our own bootstraps, is a toxic denial of our essential interdependence and the reality
that we are all in this, literally, together.
PROGRESS IS MORE* & QUANTITY OVER QUALITY*
The assumption that the goal is always more and bigger with an emphasis on what we can
"objectively" measure as more valuable than the quality of our relationships to all living
beings.
WORSHIP OF WRITTEN WORD
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Honoring only what is written and even then only what is written to a narrow standard,
even when what is written is full of misinformation and lies. An erasure of the wide range
of ways we communicate with each other and all living things.
URGENCY
Applying the urgency of racial and social justice to our everyday lives in ways that
perpetuate power imbalance and disregard for our need to breathe and pause and reflect
(2023, paras 41-50).
One way in which white supremacy culture can be challenged is through teacher
education programs focused on developing white teachers’ awareness of racism and how it is
woven into the fabric of schools and their ability to become actively anti racist in their teaching
practices (Amos, 2016). Programs that do this involve opportunities to become aware of their
own belief systems, bias and prejudice; integration of effective culturally responsive teaching
practices that are adaptable to diverse settings; and, finally, discussions and research focused on
the impact teachers’ beliefs and bias have on students’ academic, social and psychological
wellbeing and trajectory (Kumar & Lauermann, 2018). Beyond the benefits these types of
teacher education programs have on white teachers’ identity development, regardless of teachers
racial identity, truly transforming educational systems requires collaboration and collective work
(Fullen & Quinn, 2016).
Collaboration and Teacher Collective Action
Teachers collaborating and combining their collective strengths is essential to
transforming injustices in our current educational system (Fullan & Quinn, 2016; Aguilar, 2016).
Fullen and Quinn (2016) state that collaboration “is at the heart of system transformation” (p.
12). Collaborative sharing of knowledge benefits students because it can scale up what each
33
individual knows and the resources available to them by bringing together teachers' knowledge
bases (Hattie, 2015). Collaboration is a capacity builder, as it increases the effectiveness of the
work done and the sustainability of that work (Fullan & Quinn, 2016).
Collective teacher activism mobilizes resources and elevates teacher voices at the school,
district, and state level (Grossman, 2010). Teachers regularly utilize their agency in challenging
and engaging with educational policies at varied levels, but the greatest visible change happens
when teachers engage with education policy through organized and collective change-making
efforts (Bascia, 2009). This is reflected in Kohli’s work where teachers of color cited working in
communities of resistance and organizing with other educators focused on justice as essential in
making progress towards educational justice (2021). Indeed, many grassroots teacher
organizations have used their collective agency to create broader change within the education
system (Quinn & Carl, 2015). Yet, research that looks at both collective teacher agency and
teacher collaboration across differing racial identities remains less robust.
Cross-Racial Collaboration and Collective Action
There remains little research on how educators are collaborating with teachers outside of
their racial identity on educational justice work, as much of the past research on cross-racial
teacher collaboration and collective action has focused on social justice issues and centered
allyship from the dominant social groups (Broido, 2000; Broido & Reason, 2005); the foundation
of this allyship being an understanding of their dominant cultural identities (Abes, Jones &
McEwen, 2007) and the intercultural maturity necessary to create bridges between themselves
and others of differing racial identities (King and Baxter Magolda, 2005).
Teachers from the dominant social group, in most cases white teachers, must be confident
and grounded in their understanding of themselves and not threatened by the identities of others
34
in order to engage in collaborative work focused on allyship or social justice actions (Reason &
Broido, 2005). This work requires unlearning the white supremacy cultural norms of right to
comfort and fear of differences (Okun, 2023) in order to work alongside historically
marginalized groups without paternalism (Mitchell, 2008). As Frier notes, for the oppressor to
truly work alongside those who have been oppressed, they must not bring a sense of generosity,
but instead be part of transforming systems of oppression through true trust.
The fact that certain members of the oppressor class join the oppressed in their struggle
for liberation, thus moving from one pole of the contradiction to the other... Theirs is a
fundamental role, and has been throughout the history of this struggle. It happens,
however, that as they cease to be exploiters or indifferent spectators or simply the heirs of
exploitation and move to the side of the exploited, they almost always bring with them
the marks of their origin: their prejudices and their deformations, which include a lack of
confidence in the people's ability to think, to want, and to know. Accordingly, these
adherents to the people's cause constantly run the risk of falling into a type of generosity
as malefic as that of the oppressors. The generosity of the oppressors is nourished by an
unjust order, which must be maintained in order to justify that generosity. Our converts,
on the other hand, truly desire to transform the unjust order; but because of their
background they believe that they must be the executors of the transformation. They talk
about the people, but they do not trust them; and trusting the people is the indispensable
precondition for revolutionary change. A real humanist can be identified more by his trust
in the people, which engages him in their struggle, than by a thousand actions in their
favor without that trust (1976, p. 60).
35
The collective organizing and characteristics needed to collaborate across racial
differences outlined and utilized in Love’s (2019) work focuses on the consistent recognition,
integration and reconciliation of inherent power dynamics and individual positionality within
these power structures. Okun’s (2023) theories pertaining to white supremacy culture challenge
individuals participating in social justice work to do so without paternalism by unlearning the
white supremacy characteristics of perfectionism, objectivity and a sense of being qualified to
lead in the right way. For white individuals, some might call this setting down the white
saviorism mantle (Vanderbilt, 2022). White individuals can engage in collective work with
communities of color if this work takes place through complex, respectful, mutually beneficial
relationships that are transformational and not transactional in nature (Edwards, 2006).
Transactional relationships focus on self interest while transformative relationships grow from a
balance of power and recognition of worth, dignity and the need for collective transformation
(Taylor, 2023). Taylor states that transformation in this context is started: “By honestly
examining the structures that perpetuate inequality and recognizing our own accountability in
dismantling them, we can pave the way for transformation and the creation of an economic
system that loves and repairs the damage done to marginalized communities'' ( n.p).
While much of the past research has focused on the work of white participants working
towards allyship, Freire (1970) noted that although our liberation is tied together, historically
those who have been oppressed have had to work to liberate not only themselves but also those
who oppressed them. The oppressor can join those who have been oppressed in this work by
trusting those who have been oppressed in their humanity and understanding their own
experiences of injustice (1970).
36
There have been people of color and white folx who have worked in collaboration
towards social justice (Okun, 2014), and there are already classroom teachers collectively
working toward educational justice through grassroots groups and networks, professional
associations, activist groups and unions (Quin & Carl, 2015; Taylor, 2011), but the work and
impact of that work is not the same for all. For example, when Black women engage in
educational justice work that goes against accepted cultural norms of whiteness, they may face
opposition from school leadership, critique and stress related to this opposition (Hancock et al.,
2020). A conflict may arise between how their justice work and standards-based instruction
interact, raising stress levels and increasing outside criticisms (Hancock et al., 2020). The work
of attaining justice and the risk in doing so differs according to racial identity and positionality
within these power structures (Okun, 2014). Love (2019) states that working collaboratively
requires understanding your own racial identity in relation to systems of oppression and
collectively doing the work to transform those systems of oppression. Picower (2009) says that
teachers need to get active, bring one's whole self to the classroom and develop allies and
solidarity within their teaching communities. Friere (1976) calls those who have been oppressed
to be leaders in liberating us from unjust systems of education, with oppressors who challenge
the internalization of this role at their sides. A theme among these scholars and theorists is the
importance of being in right relationships across differing racial identities, with trust and
commitment to transformation.
Those Who Engage in Educational Justice Work
The work of transforming systems of injustices into just educational systems involves a
lifelong process of continued identity development and community engagement (Sensoy &
DiAngelo, 2009). Those who engage in this work need to have strong personal and political
37
beliefs about justice that lead them to engage in grassroots justice work (Picower, 2012). When
teaching for justice, educators need to analyze social and institutional inequities and recognize
how their positionality, privilege, and oppression are woven into their pedagogy to work towards
justice (Kelly & Brandes, 2010). In this work, as in all educational communities, teacher
collaboration creates collective accountability, momentum and continuity (Brody & Davidson,
1998). In highly effective collaborative communities, a great deal of emotional intelligence is
involved in having “trusting relationships, interpersonal communication, flexibility….empathy,
decision making……assertiveness,....managing anger, dealing with unexpected change, and
resilience” (Aguilar, 2016, p18). These are built through both inner and outer work.
While past research outlines injustices in our education system and the potential attributes
of educators working to right these injustices (Love, 2019; Kohli, 2019), additional personal
narratives and new conflicting counternarratives (Gibson, 2020) are needed for classroom
teachers. This dissertation aims to broaden the knowledge base on how classroom teachers
perceive their involvement in educational justice work. This research will further understand
how educational justice is being perceived and enacted on a human level, across differing racial
identities, by elementary classroom teachers in a West Coast public school district today.
Theoretical Framework
Theoretical frameworks are the foundation upon which research topics, questions,
literature reviews, design approaches and analysis plans are built (Grant & Osanloo, 2014;
Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The theoretical frameworks that underpin this research are critical and
abolitionist in nature. Critical theory frames the foundation for this research because it seeks to
understand systems of power and inequity, question dominant narratives and highlight
marginalized voices (Gartman, 2013). It also recognizes systems of power distribution that
38
perpetuate inequities and works to transform those systems from unjust and inequitable to just
and equitable (Kemmis, 2006). Critical theory stems from the Frankfurt school and theorists
deeply examining different aspects of society with a focus on emancipation and justice (Kemmis,
2006). Many specific theories have developed under the umbrella of critical theory; the most
closely tied to this research is critical pedagogy born from theorists such as Paulo Freire, Henry
Giroux and Bell Hooks. Critical pedagogy centers the role of teaching in challenging social
injustices and centers students and educators in transforming the educational world (Friere, 2018;
Giroux, 2011). Paradis et al. (2020) elaborates that,
Critical theory assumes an ontological position in which reality is shaped over time by
structures such as social, political, cultural, economic, ethnic, and gender constructs.
These structures, and other institutional and cultural forces, interact dynamically to form
the tapestry of social life. Social structures are elaborate and can determine one’s thinking
and behavior, often unconsciously (p. 842).
Although there is not a specific theoretical framework pertaining to educational justice
(Levinson, 2022), abolitionist teaching as defined by Love (2019) could be argued to be one of
the theories that help define educational justice under the critical theory umbrella, as Love’s
abolitionist teaching theory centers eradicating injustices inside and outside of schools and the
agency of collective groups of teachers in doing this work (Love, 2019). Abolition as a
movement and theory involves eradicating injustices in the pursuit of equity and justice, with
roots in ending enslavement, the prison industrial complex and other systems of power that
perpetuate inequities. Abolitionist teaching theory as coined by Love (2019) is summarized in
Table 1.
39
Table 1 Summary of Dr. Bettina Love’s Abolitionist Teaching Theory
Solidarity in eradicating injustice “The practice of working in solidarity
with communities of color while drawing
on the imagination, creativity, refusal,
(re)membering, visionary thinking, healing,
rebellious spirit, boldness, determination, and
subversiveness of abolitionists to eradicate
injustice in and outside of schools” (p. 2).
Agency in choice “Choosing to engage in the struggle for
educational justice knowing that you have
the ability and human right to refuse
oppression and refuse to oppress others,
mainly your students” (p.11).
Accountability “Abolitionist teaching asks us to be
accountable for the pain we have caused
others, to restore justice, and call into
question our liberal politics. . . . Abolitionist
teachers have to hold themselves and their
colleagues to a level of accountability that
focuses on justice, love, healing, and restoring
humanity” (p. 122).
40
Refusal “Refusing to take part in zero-tolerance
policies and the school-to-prison pipeline”
(p. 11).
Theoretical connections to critical and
justice frameworks
“Embrace theories such as critical race theory,
settler colonialism, Black feminism,
dis/ability, critical race studies, and other
critical theories that have the ability to
interrogate anti-Blackness and frame
experiences with injustice” (p. 12).
Tearing down - transformation “Abolitionist teaching is as much about
tearing down old structures and ways of
thinking as it is about forming new ideas, new
forms of social interactions, new ways to be
inclusive . . . new ways to resist . . . new
ways to maintain order and safety that abolish
prisons . . . new ways to show dark children
they are loved in this world, and new ways to
establish an educational system that works for
everyone” (pp. 88-89).
41
Freedom “The ultimate goal of abolitionist teaching is
freedom. Freedom to create your reality,
where uplifting humanity is at the center of
all decisions . . . equal rights, liberties, and
citizenship for dark children, their families,
and their communities” (p. 89).
Critical theory, critical pedagogy and abolitionist teaching frame this study through
centering injustice, the humans these injustices impact and teachers’ collective agency in actively
working against injustice in our education system.
42
Conceptual Framework
Figure 1 Imagine of Conceptual Framework
A conceptual framework weaves together concepts, research, and theoretical frameworks
to show the relationship and interaction between these factors (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017). This
advances our knowledge on the concepts, research and theoretical frameworks tied together in
the conceptual framework (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017). Unlike theoretical frameworks, which
are included in the construction of conceptual frameworks, conceptual frameworks are created
by the researcher rather than found in existing research (Maxwell, 2013). For this conceptual
framework, a celtic tree of life provides the foundation for my visual representation. While the
43
tree of life has been used in many differing cultural myths to denote a connection between
worlds, cycles, moments of death, life and change, I chose the celtic tree of life both for its
interwoven and circular structures and as a recognition of my own positionality as a white
researcher with roots in Scottish celtic ancestry, among others. The conceptual framework for
this work centers education at its core, through which students and classroom teachers are
connected. Different branches within the framework show connections between teachers and the
nexuses of justice and injustice within the larger system of education and their connections to
racial identity. The links and the relationships between each node on the tree may be suggested
but remain interwoven and undefined enough for the perceptions of the viewer to begin to define
these relationships through their own perceptions. As Freire (1970) reminds us, we are indeed the
creators and recreators of reality. As this work centers on classroom teachers’ perceptions of
their roles in educational justice and the narratives of how they live those roles in their daily lives
as educators and through cross racial collaboration, some openness in interpretation of the
relationship between concepts noted in the conceptual framework is important. Love (2019),
Kohli (2019) and Okun (2023), to note only a few of the scholars cited in my review of this
literature, all remind us that working towards educational justice and unlearning systems of
whiteness and oppression within oneself is a continual and non-linear process. Thus, the
relationship between a teacher’s identity and either perpetuating injustices or choosing to act in
alignment with creating a just and equitable education system is not fixed in nature. Much like
Kendi (2023) notes, “racist and anti-racist identities are not fixed identities” (p. 10), but choices
and actions that take place over time. One choice may be racist and the next choice anti-racist.
My conceptual framework refutes any notion of a fixed state of being and leans into the complex
nature of actions and choices in relationship to educational justice, racial identity and
44
collaborating across racial identities. This is shown through using a circular and interwoven
visual to illustrate the potential both for change and repetition of cycles.
45
Chapter Three: Methodology
This study explored classroom teachers’ perceptions of their roles in educational justice
work, how they collaborate with teachers outside of their racial identity and the challenges and
supports they experience in participating in educational justice work. This chapter outlines the
qualitative methodology that was used, the process used to gather data through semi-structured
interviews, the recruitment process for selecting the six elementary school classroom teachers
who were interviewed and the inductive data analysis process used. The methodology, including
data collection and analysis, was guided by the credibility, trustworthiness and ethical strategies
and structures outlined in the final sections of this chapter.
The research questions that guided this study were:
1. How do elementary classroom teachers in an ethnically diverse Washington State district
describe their roles in educational justice work?
2. How are elementary classroom teachers collaborating with teachers outside of their racial
identity in educational justice?
3. What do elementary classroom teachers perceive as the greatest supports and challenges
to their agency in educational justice work?
Overview of Methodology
To support gathering data that was grounded in participants’ personal experiences, the
research design was based on a qualitative narrative inquiry structure. This research orientation
supported the collection of rich data intended to expand understanding of teachers’ perceptions
of their roles in educational justice, but not intended to be generalized to a larger population
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Qualitative data was collected through 45- to 60-minute
semi-structured interviews with six elementary classroom teachers. Participants’ demographic
46
identities varied in relation to their gender and racial identity as well as their ages and years of
experiences which was intended to support engaging with classroom teachers with both
divergent and intersecting lived experiences. Qualitative research design supports the exploration
of how participants make sense of the world around them and often focuses on a specific context
(Lochmiller & Lester, 2017), which here pertains to classroom teachers and how they made
sense of their roles in educational justice work.
Data Sources
This study utilized data gathered directly from participants through one-on-one
semi-structured interviews. This data illuminated participants’ perceptions of their roles in
educational justice work through how they enacted these roles, if they collaborated with people
outside of their racial identity on this work, and their lived experiences of the supports and
challenges they experienced in this work.
Interviews
The interview protocol was built around the three core research questions for this study
and grounded in critical and abolitionist pedagogy. The interview protocol was specifically built
so that participants with varied identities could authentically share their personal perceptions and
lived experiences in regards to educational justice work. I chose to use a semi-structured
interview protocol in order to facilitate data collection that was centered on my core research
questions and also provide space for participants to elaborate on their own narratives.
The interview protocol had 11 open-ended questions that focused on how participating
classroom teachers individually identify their roles in educational justice work, their experiences
with collaborating on this work with individuals outside their racial identities and the challenges
and supports they have encountered in engaging in this work.
47
Participants
The target population for this study, and corresponding interviews, was 10-12 elementary
classroom teachers in an ethnically diverse school district in Washington State. After a three
month active recruitment process, the research pool was reduced to six candidates. There were
approximately 100 schools operating in this district at the time of the study, about 70 of which
served elementary age students (OSPI, 2023). Approximately 1,800 out of the 3,000 full-time
classroom teachers serving this district worked with PreK-5th Grade students (NCES, 2023). In
attempting to recruit 10-12 elementary classroom teachers, I utilized a mixture of network,
snowball, convenience and purposeful sampling methods (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). At the
time this research took place, I had been working in the target district and the connected
educators’ union for close to three years. My employment in this district and membership in the
education union gave me access to both optional and required professional development
opportunities focused on educational equity and justice. One of the professional development
opportunities I was participating in was part of district-wide foundational coursework that all
educators are required to take within three years of entering this district. This course was
grounded in the work of Zoretta Hammond (2014), Gholdy Muhammad (2020) and the
Danielson Framework (2007), which all focus on culturally responsive and equity driven
teaching practices. Through this course, I was connected in small groups with teachers from
across the district. This provided a network opportunity to recruit educators who met my study
parameters or who could recommend other educators within the district who also meet the study
parameters. The educators union serving this district also had a race and social justice-focused
department that put on regular professional development training, which I had attended in the
past. Through attending these sessions, I was able to identify key individuals within the
48
organization who met my study criteria and could identify other individuals within the district
who meet the study parameters. Additionally, as I had been working in this district for
approximately three years, I had made connections with educators at the school I was working at
and schools I had worked at in the past who could recommend participants who met the study
criteria. Through the district-based course I was taking, our union social justice center, and
recommended participants from past educators I had worked with, I both verbally and through
email presented my study and the opportunities to participate in the study. To ensure participants
met the study criteria and to begin the informed consent process when potential participants were
identified through network resources and the snowballing process, I included an initial contact
letter in my emails where I identified myself, the purpose of the study and provided a short
recruitment questionnaire. This questionnaire was structured to support the purposeful selection
of classroom teachers with limited commonalities in terms of social identities, work site
locations and other key demographic information (see Appendix A). The three essential criteria
for participating in the study were as follows:
Criteria #1 Currently working as a classroom teacher
Criteria # 2 Working with elementary-age students
Criteria # 3 Working in the specific public school district to which the study is limited
Additional criteria for ensuring participants had limited cross demographic
commonalities is outlined in Appendix A. Although I had originally intended to use these
demographic criteria to recruit 10-12 participants, due to low participant response over three
months of recruitment, I used these criteria to reach out to as many educators as I could within
the district who had varied work site locations, gender, race and age demographics to support a
purposeful sampling process that reflected the demographics over as much of the district as was
49
possible with the population of participants I could reach and who were willing to participate in
the interview process. Approximately 200 potential participants were contacted during the study
recruitment period, with only seven participants responding and six who were willing to
participate in individual interviews. Low participant response could have been affected by
teachers’ work obligations, concerns over job security due to potential school closures taking
place during this period, teachers’ concerns over their ability to answer study interview
questions or other additional factors.
Instrumentation
A semi-structured interview protocol was used to record the perceptions of elementary
classroom teachers on their role in educational justice work. The interview consisted of eleven
open-ended questions that all participants were asked. Appendix B contains the interview
protocol, with an outline of how each interview question connects to the research questions. The
interview began by exploring the participants' backgrounds in education and continued through
their perceptions on working towards educational justice.
Data Collection Procedures
The initial data collection process began with a recruitment questionnaire structured to
collect demographic information from potential participants, additional contact details and
information on their interest in participating in this study (see Appendix A). Participants could
also choose to complete the demographic questions during the interview, if I knew that they met
the study criteria. Five of the six participants chose to complete the demographic questions
during the interview. The pool of individuals who received the information sheet and initial
recruitment questionnaire was gleaned from individuals who volunteered or were recommended
for the study through my current work site, education union social justice network, the required
50
foundational course I was participating in as an educator, and teachers I had worked with in the
district. This allowed me to reach and recruit six participants all of whom were identified through
network sampling supported through my current work site, teachers I had worked with in the past
or who were recommended by individuals within my social network (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
The total potential pool of participants was 1,700 through the union social justice network and
district focused foundational courses. This became limited to teachers within my districts’
required course and teachers recommended by past or current colleagues, which created a
participant pool of approximately 40 potential participants. The initial recruitment questionnaire
was structured to gather specific data needed to determine if the individual who received the
questionnaire met the study participation criteria (Merriam, 2009). If the number of interested
potential participants who met the criteria had exceeded the intended study pool of 10-12
participants, then participants would have been purposefully selected to limit the number of
commonalities in their work history and work location. Although the data were not intended to
be generalized to a larger population, the six participants who volunteered to participate were
representative of aspects of the teacher demographics within the study population, including the
prevalence of both female and white teachers within the district. Qualitative data were collected
from these participants through 45- to 60-minute semi-structured interviews. Before the
interview, participants were given the study information sheet that specified the potential risks
involved in participating in the study, the type of data being collected, and how the data were
going to be protected and used (see Appendix C). Once six participants were identified, Zoom
was utilized for the interviews and initial transcription processes. All participants consented to
being recorded through Zoom services. Additionally, I took handwritten notes during the
interviews to ensure that there were multiple forms of data to ensure credibility and the accuracy
51
of the data collected. If participants had not agreed to being recorded and transcribed digitally, I
informed them that I would take detailed field notes and provide the participant with a copy of
the notes to look at before analyzing them, in order to ensure their accuracy. The data collected
was intended to enrich my understanding of different teachers’ perspectives on their roles as
elementary classroom teachers in educational justice work.
Data Analysis
The data analyzed were obtained through semi-structured interviews with six elementary
classroom teachers (Lochmiller & Lester 2017; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The data, in the form
of transcripts and notes from the interviews, were analyzed through an iterative process where I
identified common themes and contradictions present in participants' responses. This process
began with multiple readings of the transcripts from the Zoom transcription and my handwritten
fieldnotes. I printed out copies of the transcriptions that were highlighted and annotated for
connections to the overarching research questions and according to response themes. Both a
digital spreadsheet and paper notebook were used to capture participant responses according to
both themes and contradictions or counternarratives to these themes. This form of open coding
and analyzing the data through an iterative process was paired with continual reflexivity to check
my own research biases during the analysis process (Maxwell, 2013; Cresswell, 2013).
Credibility and Trustworthiness
Ensuring that the final research findings were credible and trustworthy began with the
initial collection process and moved through the analysis, interpretation and reporting phases of
the research process (Merriam & Tisdell, 2020). An important strategy used throughout all of
these phases involved my reflexivity to my own positionality, bias and assumptions related to the
collection, analysis and interpretation of the data (Merriam & Tisdell, 2020). Developing
52
credibility and trustworthiness in my research began by transparently reflecting on my own bias
and positionality. In order to ensure this process happened throughout my research, I utilized
self-reflection and careful selection of participants with limited demographic commonality
(Merriam, 2009). Otter.ai was used to support this bias and reflection process by using this
transcription tool to summarize the interviews and themes present in the interviews and check
my own coding findings against the generated summaries. Member checking was also included
to support my credibility and trustworthiness as a researcher. Member checking was utilized in
the collection and initial analysis phase of the study and involved opportunities for participants to
check that the information collected during the one-on-one interviews was accurately represented
(Gibbs, 2018). Participants, as needed, were given the opportunity to review their interview
transcription and notes to ensure that they were accurate. The study was carried out according to
the procedures outlined by the USC Internal Review Board (IRB) in order to ensure the integrity
of the research process.
Ethics
The research conducted for this study was approved through the USC Institutional
Review Board. It was reviewed to ensure the research would be conducted according to ethical
and institutional standards and regulations. The research was conducted according to the plan
submitted to the IRB. All data collected through the recruitment questionnaire and following
interviews were obtained and stored in a manner that ensured participants’ confidentiality was
protected. Participants who filled out the initial questionnaire only saw the information that they
submitted in their questionnaire. When participants were offered the opportunity to member
check their interview transcripts, as needed, they only had access to their own password
protected file, which was separated from other participants’ password protected files.
53
Participants of the initial questionnaire and interview were given an information sheet on the
study pertaining to their rights regarding voluntary participation in the study, confidentiality in
the study and the risks associated with the study. They were given these sheets to review before
starting the questionnaire and the interview. They were provided with time to ask any questions
they may have had pertaining to the information sheet and this study. Participants were asked for
their consent to record the interview using Zoom video and transcription before the interviews
began. The recording was then stored in password protected digital files and deleted after my
dissertation passed the final defense process. Although I work within the district this study pool
was being recruited from, I had no supervisory relationships with the participants in the study.
My USC email account was used to disseminate questionnaires and schedule interviews to
ensure that participants understood this research was completed by a doctoral student at USC and
did not feel pressure to participate in the study.
The Researcher
As a researcher integrating reflexivity into my work throughout the research process, I
focused on being aware of and transparent on how my positionality may have impacted my work
as a researcher including data collection, analysis and interpretation (Creswell & Creswell,
2018). I mirrored some aspects of my participants’ demographic identity and positionality and
not others. For instance, I was and am an elementary school classroom teacher in the same
district that participants were working in, but I recognized that other aspects of my positionality
influence my experiences and interpretations of those experiences. As a researcher, my identities
as white, female, queer and neurodiverse have impacted my experiences in education and my
career as an educator. The work I have done to understand my own identities supported me in
engaging in educational work, but my bias and privilege related to my positionality needed to be
54
continually checked as well. This process of reflection made me particularly curious as a
researcher on different interpretations of elementary classroom teachers’ roles in educational
justice work.
55
Chapter 4: Findings
The focus of this research was to expand our understanding of elementary classroom teachers’
perceptions of their roles in educational justice work. This study focused on elementary
classroom teachers in an ethnically and economically diverse district in Washington State. At the
time of the study, Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) students made up the majority
of the student body at approximately 51% of enrollment, with white students representing the
rest of the student body (OSPI, 2024). It is important to note that these student body
demographics vary depending on school locations with some schools having a higher percentage
or either BIPOC or white students, which is addressed in the limitations of this study (OSPI,
2024). After receiving approval from the Internal Review Board (IRB) at the University of
Southern California, teachers were recruited through convenience and network sampling
methods. They then participated in a semi-structured interview that focused on three key research
questions:
1. How do elementary classroom teachers in an ethnically diverse Washington State district
describe their roles in educational justice work?
2. How are elementary classroom teachers collaborating with teachers outside of their racial
identity in educational justice?
3. What do elementary classroom teachers perceive as the greatest supports and challenges
to their agency in educational justice work?
While individual participant’s definitions of educational justice are detailed below, the definition
used for this dissertation and the key factors it entails are reviewed here to frame the findings in
Chapter 4 and the discussion of these findings in Chapter 5.
56
Educational Justice as Defined for This Dissertation
Through a critical and abolitionist lens, educational justice must be defined through the
actions that oppose it and the actions that lead towards it which are intersectional (Love, 2023);
connected to student outcomes (Ladson-Billings, 2021); equitable opportunities for academic
success (Varghese et. al., 2021) and humanizing in nature (Friere, 1976). Thus, in this research,
educational justice is defined as the achievement of a humanizing education system where
students' academic success and sense of belonging are continually supported through just actions.
This chapter begins with an introduction to the study participants and their experiences in the
education field. Following this introduction, a detailed exploration of the findings gleaned from
the interviews is presented through both the commonalities and contradictions noted across
participants’ interviews, viewed through this definition of educational justice.
Participants
Participants were recruited over a three month period that included the final two months
of the 2023-2024 school calendar and the first month of the following summer break. After
receiving IRB approval, teachers were contacted through a district-wide required professional
development course I was participating in, principal networks, teacher-wide emails at my
current school site, text message to teachers who were in my current or past school sites,
Facebook posts covering networks of friends and teachers in the area, and the local teachers’
union network. From the initial methods of network recruitment in the professional development
course, union network, school network and introductions from my principal, no teachers
responded. Following this, text messages were sent directly to teachers at my current work site
and previous worksites, with five of the eight individuals contacted responding. All five
respondents met the study criteria and all followed through with interviews conducted over
57
Zoom. Additionally, from the Facebook post, an acquaintance sent the study to additional
teachers in the district, one of whom then contacted me by email, met the study criteria, agreed to
do the interview, and followed through with the interview over Zoom. The total number of
participants recruited for the study totalled six, and all gave their consent to be recorded. A
summary of their demographic information is included in Table 1, with participants’ names and
worksite names assigned pseudonyms.
Table 2 Participant Overview
School Site
[Location]
Teachers Years in
Education
Years as
Elementary
Teacher
Roles Held Current grade
level
Skywood Ms. Blue 6 years 5 years Tutor; 4th,
1st and K
GenEd
Teacher
Kindergarten
Crawford Ms. Salmon 10 years 10 years 3rd, 4th, K
GenEd
Teacher or
Long-term
Sub
Kindergarten
Crawford Mr. Red 4 years 4 years 1st, 3rd, 4th
GenEd
Teacher;
Leader Codre
Member
Teacher
3rd Grade
Sunline Ms. Orange 10 years 8 years Instructional
Assistant; 1st,
2nd, 3rd
GenEd
Teacher
5th Grade
Crawford Ms. Green 7 years 7 years 4th, 5th 5th Grade
Grassland Ms. Purple 31 years 16 years Instructional Kindergarten
58
Aid;
Administrator
; Instructional
Coach;
Kindergarten
GenEd
Teacher
Pseudonyms align with colors used while analyzing data.
Research Question 1: Elementary Teachers’ Perceptions of Their Roles in Educational
Justice Work
This research question explored elementary classroom teachers’ perceptions of their roles
in educational justice work in an ethnically diverse Washington State school district. This was
explored through asking participants about their definitions of educational justice, their
perceptions of their roles in educational justice, and the day-to-day enactment of those roles.
Data collection focused on firsthand accounts of the classroom teachers’ perceptions of the
presence or absence of educational justice work currently happening in their classrooms. The
data gathered begins to bridge the gaps in literature around teachers’ perceptions of their roles in
educational justice and how their identities impact the enactment of those roles (Pham, 2022).
The questions and prompts used, as shown in Appendix B, included, “How would you describe
educational justice to someone who had never heard the term?,” “Where does this definition
come from for you?,” and “How would you describe your roles in educational justice work as an
elementary classroom teacher in this district?”
Through the teacher interviews participants shared their definitions of educational justice,
presented below, and three key findings arose. All participants felt they had a role in educational
justice work, with some shared beliefs of those roles in addition to contrasting beliefs on those
roles. Thus, the discussion of the findings includes commonalities noted in the interviews as well
as contradictions amongst participants’ perceptions.
59
Participants’ Introduction and Definitions of Educational Justice
Each interview began with gathering background information about participants, their lives
outside the classroom, identities, and definitions of educational justice. As presented, their
definitions varied, which is important in contextualizing their perceptions of their roles in
educational justice and in connection with the definition of educational justice framing this
dissertation work..
Ms. Blue
Ms. Blue centered her time outside of school around a close-knit family, including two teenagers
who were being educated in the same district in which she was teaching. She described herself as
social and outgoing, from neighbors to friends to extended family, and prioritized trips and time
spent together. She identified as a white woman, a parent in the public school system and not
religious, but respectful and curious about other people’s belief systems. Ms. Blue was a career
changer who shifted into education after becoming active in her children’s schools and becoming
aware of the different experiences of people in education. To support her family financially and
seeking greater personal fulfillment, she found a teaching program that was connected to this
district, which was “justice oriented.” In reflecting on why she entered the teaching field, she
said, “I think… my ideas were… not fully formed when I started… I went through the program
[and] realized how much growth I needed to make [and] how much was being asked of me…a
lot of my ideas were challenged by my cohort mates.” This theme of learning through connecting
with other educators was prevalent in Ms. Blue’s interview, including her reasons for continuing
in the education field and the benefits she saw in the social and intergenerational interactions
with families, students, and different communities. Ms. Blue stated her definition of educational
justice began to develop during her teacher education and master’s program, through the social
60
justice focused frameworks that were introduced and the focus on communication and
connections to the families she would be serving. In Ms. Blue’s own words, “Educational justice
means that the time students spend at school… [is] valuable to them and to their communities.
[That there is] a purpose for it in their present and their futures… it’s not just about the
curriculum.” She went on to clarify that educational justice involves going beyond instructional
skills to teaching and talking about things that are important to all groups, including students of
color, refugees and immigrant families. Further, she described educational justice as creating
educational experiences that support “the desire and ability to make change in the world.”
Ms. Salmon
Ms. Salmon described her world outside of school as centered on her family and maintaining
these strong connections in her life. Another core community connection for her was found
through her dedication to judo where she had earned a black belt and regularly taught and
participated in this Japanese martial art. Along with a love for her family and her identity as a
Japanese American, she included reading, yoga, running, plants and hanging out with her cats
and husband as important parts of her life outside of school. Ms. Salmon identified as a Japanese
American, female, agnostic and liberal. She felt that the “collectivistic culture” and family she
grew up within impacted her career choices and path in education. She stated, “My mom was a
teacher… my grandma was a teacher… and on my mom’s side [there are] multiple teachers. My
grandma set up her guest bedrooms with … a board and little desks and so my sisters and I
would play school all the time. I was always the teacher.” With many role models in her family,
she grew up with opportunities to practice teaching through both play and through working with
her family. In becoming a Judo instructor, her love of teaching became evident. Ms. Salmon’s
fulfillment through teaching and the connections to her collectivist cultural grounding could be
61
seen in her definition of education justice. Ms. Salmon stated that she felt, “Educational justice is
when every student is receiving the resources and services that they need to be a healthy,
productive member of society.” She continued to specify that this looks different depending on
income and needs, expressing, “In lower income areas that provide medical…food services…and
academic support…Students in areas that are more affluent it’s like helping them have empathy
and more social and emotional [skills].” While she grappled with whether “schools should have
to provide all of those things,” she stated, “The reality is that it is the institution that can touch
the most children’s lives.”
Mr. Red
Mr. Red’s time and energy outside of school was focused on his family, including his partner and
parenting two young children. His youngest was going to kindergarten soon, and his oldest, a
third grader, was homeschooled and is navigating the school and the world with multiple
disabilities. Mr. Red stated, “A lot of our experiences with parenting have been through the lens
of multiple disabilities… that range from epilepsy to learning disabilities [such as] ADHD and
possible dyslexia… mild servial palsy… [and] very high social..and generalized anxiety.” When
not managing the complexities of life or enjoying family time, Mr. Red enjoyed the physicality
of gardening and disc golf.
While Mr. Red came from a family with many educators, with over 70% of his father’s
family, including his father and brother, in the education field, it was not the career he was drawn
to first. He decided to join the education field after transitioning away from a music career and
working with a counselor to navigate what the next step in his life would be. Early on in his
career journey, he discovered the importance of collaboration in any path he chose, which
factored into his decision to become a teacher along with the opportunity to be home with his
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family during the summers. Mr. Red identified as a straight white male who grew up in a middle
or lower middle class family, a father, a parent, co-parent, husband, spouse, and someone who is
gregarious and adhd-minded. Since entering the field a little over four years ago, Mr. Red said he
liked the intensity of the job and working with a strong team and in a welcoming work
environment. His definition of educational justice had developed through conversations and
work at his current school site on alignment across classes. Mr. Red clarified that teachers have
their individual ways of teaching but that his school was working to make sure that content and
support systems were consistent across the school so students’ needs were identified and met.
Mr. Red said, “Educational justice… is about providing every student with the things they need
to be successful in whatever settings that they’re in…Educational justice is bringing everyone to
the table and in that process… they’re given the tools to learn and to learn from each other and to
learn from teachers what they need to have to [understand] how they're going to navigate life.”
Ms. Orange
Ms. Orange loved to travel and spent most of her free time outdoors with friends. When outdoors
she enjoyed sea kayaking, skiing, hiking and camping. Through her interest in the outdoors she
has been able to lead long outdoor trips, which have supported her leadership and teaching skills
in the classroom as well. Finally, when indoors, she enjoyed puzzles (jigsaw, crosswords,
sudoku, etc.) as well as cooking delicious meals.
Ms. Orange stated her desire to be a teacher started from a young age through playing
school and intergenerational relationships with kids younger than herself. While her interest in
teaching developed young, she expressed that her students have sustained her desire to continue
in a teaching career. She identified as straight, white, female and jewish. Her definition of
educational justice came from what she felt she could control within her classroom. Ms. Orange
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stated, “Educational justice is making education right and making sure that all kids have equal
access to an education as well as making sure I’m teaching… a variety of things to kids …
making sure I’m reaching out to all of them [and teaching] kids in the best way for them.” Ms.
Orange noted that she may not be able to control laws always, so she gravitates towards what she
can control, “being able to adjust my teaching as I learn things is more powerful to me… what
I’m teaching or how I’m teaching.”
Ms. Green
Ms. Green’s life outside of school was grounded in her community, including close relationships
with her family who were in her home state and friendships she had made since moving to the
Northwest. She expressed loving being outdoors in the mountains, running, hiking, swimming,
and paddle boarding or spending time inside making textiles through fabric arts like crocheting
and knitting. Becoming a teacher was written in the stars for Ms. Green, as she stated, “I can’t
remember not knowing I wanted to be an elementary teacher… even when I was really young I
would force my sister to do math tests and [I would] be… the teacher grading [them].” Ms.
Green loved school and the idea of teaching, but it was really in her teacher education program
and through self reflection that her definition of educational justice developed. Ms. Green
identified as a White cisgender female, educator, partner, sister, and daughter. Ms. Green said,
“Educational justice… [is] systems that are put in place to allow students to have an equitable
access to learning. [It is about] finding ways to take down [barriers] and work so that students
have an equitable school system.” Through the highs and lows of teaching, Ms. Green said
reflecting on student growth at the end of the school year, connecting with other teachers and the
ability to work hard, but also having breaks during the school year, have supported her continued
work in education.
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Ms. Purple
During her time outside of school, Ms. Purple liked to spend time outside with her partner and
dogs. Often you would find her gardening, mediating, doing yoga and listening to music,
connecting with friends and family or attending local soccer matches. She focused on keeping a
balanced sleep schedule and life. The foundation her parents build as public educators, along
with her older brother who also worked in public education, supported her journey into
education. Ms. Purple stated that her stamina in the education field has come from, “seeing the
impact that we as educators, at every level, have on society and the future. [I am] dedicated to
helping basically shape the world we are living in and the future we can live in too.” Ms. Purple
identified as a hispanic and latina, both Spanish and Mexican American. At 57, the majority of
her life had been dedicated to education, stemming from her family connections, the work of
Cezar Chaves, and seeing the lengths that farm workers she was working beside during college
were going through to get their children an education. Her definition of educational justice
developed from this foundation and her work over her career. Ms. Purple stated that due to
devoting the majority of her educational career to early childhood education, she focused her
definition of educational justice on the “students and families we serve [such as] wraparound
services for children and families… [asking] What can we do to help families? [In terms of]
academics… social economics or housing… having an alliance in the building that can advocate
or watch out [for them]. [To] guide them as they begin the early year of the journey of
academia.” Within her classroom, she stated she has also worked to create “a beautiful little
bubble of just community [by] making sure that… everyone genuinely feels welcome.”
Looking across the participants’ definitions of educational justice, the broadness and
potential scale of this work entailed ensuring that every student's time at school is meaningful
65
and beneficial to both their present and future. Educational justice involved more than just
teaching academic skills; it required addressing the diverse needs of all students, including those
from marginalized backgrounds, such as students of color, refugees, and immigrant families and
making sure all students felt welcomed and included in their school communities. This included
providing necessary resources and support, such as medical and food services to students and
families in lower-income areas or emotional and social skills development for students and
families in more affluent areas. Educational justice, as defined by the participants, also involved
creating systems and services that removed barriers and offered equitable access to education for
all students, ensuring they received the support needed to succeed and contribute positively to
society. Participant’s definitions of educational justice aligned with the definition of educational
justice used for this study in regards to removing barriers to students’ academic success and
access to opportunities, being student-centered and centering students' needs as holistic human
beings. While not directly addressed in all participant definitions, all participants did also note
during interviews the importance of integrating their knowledge of their students’ identities into
their teaching practices, which is addressed in this study’s working definition of educational
justice. The main prongs of educational justice that were not highlighted in participants'
definitions of educational justice, but were included in the working definition for this study
included dismantling systems of oppression, and evaluating and reflecting on the effectiveness of
equity and justice for all students.
With this combined summary of all participants’ definitions of educational justice,
participants discussed their roles in educational justice work. Three key findings emerged related
to how they described their roles.
66
Finding 1: Communication with Families and Students
All six participants spoke about
communication with families and students
as part of their daily practices related to
educational justice. All participants noted
both regular communication with families
and how they chose to communicate with
students as active choices they were
making to either support student wellbeing
or their academic success. Ms. Blue noted she felt that, “The emphasis [in my teacher
preparation program] on family communication has been the best preparation to be a culturally
responsible and social justice-oriented teacher.” This contrasted with her experiences as a parent
with students in the same system, where little communication was received from her children’s
teachers. Now as a teacher, she noted that her role as a parent also helped her understand the
importance of communication, “Because I'm a parent, I also know what would have helped me to
hear.” Beyond communication as an important factor in keeping families informed, the majority
of teachers interviewed also noted communication with families as critical to relationship
building. “Making connections with the families and building those positive relationships should
be more important than our standardized testing and things like that,” Ms. Purple noted. Teachers
noted examples of family communication practices including: emails, phone calls, family visits
to the classroom, home visits and family conferences or kinder days. Ms. Salmon noted that
opportunities for parents and community members to come into the classroom created, “a bridge,
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because so many families come with their own expectations of what that school to home
relationship looks like” and building partnerships with families was critical to the success of
students.
In addition to communicating with families, how teachers intentionally interacted with
and communicated with students was a strong theme throughout all interviews regarding their
roles in educational justice. Mr. Red noted that he intentionally worked to create a balance
between being a data driven teacher and also interacting with students in a way that met their
social and emotional needs.
I worked a lot this year [on] using the data that I was collecting to have a better sense of
where my students were at. I had to be really kind of neutral…then when I was
interacting with the kids… I gotta know whatever that kid is gonna need and put that hat
on as an educator…watching for social-emotional issues or for things that are impacting
their academic performance… Or is there…stuff that's going on at home that I don't know
about?... I have to be kind of an investigator to find out the root of problems.
Communicating with students and families to understand their needs was noted by all
teachers interviewed as integral to supporting their students in school. The forms this
communication took with students were noted as: one-on-one conversations, small group
conversations, whole class circles or home visits. The forms communication took with families
were noted as: emails, phone calls, families visiting the classroom, home visits, yearly
conferences and additional meetings when needed.
Participant interviews noted that prioritizing communication with students and their
families provided pathways to make connections with students and learn about them holistically
as human beings. Additionally, they felt that how they spoke to students impacted their students'
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sense of empowerment and agency in the school setting. Participants felt that communicating
with students was key to uncovering their needs and helping them to meet those needs.
Participants' perspectives on their roles in educational justice, related to this finding,
focused on meeting students' unique academic and social needs, understanding their identities,
humanizing and empowering students within the classroom, and providing data for teachers to
reflect on their teaching practices. Steps taken after communicating with students and families
varied and in some cases relate to other prongs of educational justice including removing barriers
to academic success and personal wellbeing or creating greater belonging within the classroom,
but interviews did not provide robust data in this area. Additionally, participants did not
reference how communication with students and families supported the dismantling of
oppressive systems in education or providing equitable access to opportunities for students,
which are key tenets of educational justice as defined in this study.
While all six teachers referenced communication as important to achieving students’
academic and social success in class, they also noted that fulfilling these needs in relationship to
educational justice could not be solely achieved by the classroom teacher alone. All participants
spoke about education as a collaborative rather than individualistic pursuit.
Finding 2: One is the Loneliest Number
While participants felt individually
communicating with students and their
families was part of their educational justice
work, they all highlighted that meeting all
students' needs was only accomplished
through a team effort. Ms. Salmon noted that
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when she began building relationships with student’s families, she always communicated that,
“We are on your child's team together." In the various school communities she has worked in,
this often took the form of support for students inside and outside of the classroom through
family or community involvement. Beyond family and community support, during participant’s
interviews, school-based support and a cohesive school environment were highlighted as keys to
collaboratively working towards educational justice through meeting students’ needs and
providing equitable access to resources.
One of the ways participants noted collaboration as a key to meeting students needs was
through the sharing of best practices. In improving his own teaching practice, Mr. Red said, “I
really learned the most from just seeing what other teachers are doing and talking with other
teachers.” Ms. Orange spoke about how professional development helped her to create more
culturally responsive lesson plans, “During our PD days… we have conversations about race and
equity…as a school we've come together to do different art projects, and we have committees to
talk about and to create entire lesson plans that all kids will learn.”
Beyond professional development and learning from fellow educators, participants noted
how collaboration enabled them to share the weight of meeting all students’ needs and their
wellbeing as educators. Mr. Red spoke about collaborating with his teaching partner as essential
to not only his teaching practices but also his job satisfaction.
In participating in educational justice work and meeting students’ needs both
academically and emotionally, teachers expressed that their roles are far greater than they could
achieve on their own. Additionally, if a focus on achieving these goals did not go beyond their
classrooms, not only would all students’ needs not be met, but the classroom would become a
bubble within a larger sea of issues. Ms. Blue elaborated that collaboration allowed educators to
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work together to address issues affecting the greater school population and increased her sense of
agency as an educator. Mr. Red spoke directly to the importance of relying on resources available
in order to not take on additional roles such as social worker or parent for students. On a human
level, Ms. Purple said, related to students and families feeling a sense of belonging within school
communities “if only a few are willing to make it really welcoming and be invested in things …I
think it's gonna be a tough, tough road for us.”
In summary, teachers noted how working collaboratively with other educators was
essential to solving issues schools were facing, increasing educator agency, providing access to
resources for students and ensuring the schools were welcoming places for all students.
Participants' responses varied in their connections to educational justice but showed the greatest
connections to collaboratively supporting students' academic success and personal well being
through working with others that provide access to both school-based and wrap-around services.
Robust data was not provided by participants regarding additional steps taken if resources were
not available or provided. Additionally, participants did not specifically note how working
collaboratively to support students’ academic and social needs related to dismantling oppressive
systems, reflecting on justice and equity for all students, centering students' identities or was
humanzing in practice, key tenets of the definition of educational justice underlying this study.
While participants expressed that working towards meeting students’ academic and social
needs was a collaborative effort, they also suggested that starting this work with the choices they
personally had the agency to make was important.
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Finding 3: Do What You Can Where You Can
The third finding that emerged related to
Research Question 1 was that teachers felt an
important part of their current role in
educational justice was to do what they could
where they could. Their perceptions of what
that meant varied including: intentionally
creating student centered classroom
communities; communicating with families;
communicating and relationship building with students; collaborating with colleagues;
advocating for student needs with administrators and interventionists; participating in race and
equity teams inside or outside of the school; including teaching materials that reflected the
students in the classroom; creating lessons to be more culturally reflective and student-focused;
being data centered; challenging families or colleagues if needed; sharing their experiences with
students; welcoming in families and students’ experiences, being reflective about their identities
as educators and listening to students.
Figure 2 depicts the three most common things that participants noted they could and did
do in their classrooms to support students, which were key components participants noted in
their definitions of educational justice. These practices related to the dismantling of oppressive
systems within the classroom, affirming student identity, creating student-focused lessons and
actively integrating self-reflective practices both for bias and to intrograte one's own identity in
relationship to bias or other injustices within the classroom.
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Figure 2
Examples of How Teachers Did What They Could as Elementary Classroom Teacher
Additionally participants such as Ms. Blue spoke about using her identity as a white
person to challenge white families that pushed back on the culturally responsive lessons she
taught, as well as advocating with her administrator to create a more inclusive school and
culturally responsive teaching practices. Ms. Purple also spoke about advocating for her students
and their families on a humazing level both through working with her administrator and also
creating a race and equity team at her school.
The findings for Research Question 1 showed participants believed that educational
justice work could begin with using their agency as teachers within their spheres of influence,
and that it was important to work collaboratively and communicate broadly amongst educators
within a school community to meet students’ needs. What participants deemed their sphere of
influence and their level of active engagement within that sphere varied. The complexity of how
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teachers expressed their agency was seen in their differing responses to whether teachers viewed
their sphere of influence within their classroom, school or beyond these communities and the
levels to which they advocated for students' needs or worked to create a humanizing environment
for students. The findings for Reach Question 1 showed connections between participants'
perspectives on their roles in educational justice and this study’s definition of educational justice
in relationship to meeting students' unique academic and social needs, understanding their
identities, and creating humanizing and empowering classroom environments. Participants
emphasized the importance of communication with students and families, but they also noted
that this alone was insufficient for achieving educational justice. As referenced in the conceptual
framework for this study they highlighted this work required collaboration. Participants
specifically spoke about collaborating with other educators to ensure students' success, provide
access to resources, and create inclusive and welcoming schools. While they highlighted the
importance of working together, they did not elaborate on how these efforts dismantled
oppressive systems or promoted equitable access to opportunities as related to the achievement
of educational justice as defined in this study. Participants also acknowledged that fulfilling
students' needs and supporting educational justice work involves various stakeholders, and that
their influence and engagement with students' needs varied depending on the context.
Participants understood their sphere of influence differently, with some viewing it as
confined to the classroom, school and others seeing it as extending beyond these contexts. While
they recognized the need to work collectively, the teachers interviewed felt that starting with
initiating collective efforts within their personal sphere of influence was essential to advancing
educational justice. Many of the areas where these educators felt they did or did not have agency
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relate to findings for Research Question 3. The supports or barriers teachers perceived to their
educational justice work are discussed further in the findings for Research Question 3.
One key theme throughout the findings to Research Question 1 was that participants felt
that collaborating with key stakeholders in students' academic lives was important in promoting
their academic success and wellbeing. In continuing to elaborate on the role collaboration plays
in educational justice work, Research Questions 2 aimed to explore if teachers were
collaborating with educators outside of their racial identity, and, if so, what form that
collaboration took.
Research Question 2: How Are Elementary Classroom Teachers Collaborating With
Teachers Outside of Their Racial Identity in Educational Justice?
The majority of participants were collaborating or had collaborated in the past with
teachers outside of their own racial identity. Interview questions related to Research Question 2
included, “What role does collaboration play in your work on educational justice, if any?” “How
would you describe cross-racial collaboration on educational justice at your school? Or (if not
happening) “Can you share what you imagine this work would look like if you were
collaborating with people outside your racial identity?” Two findings emerged in relation to how
this work took place through race and equity teams or groups and within teaching teams. An
additional finding was that while most participants had participated in cross-racial collaboration
related to improving culturally responsive practices, teaching content and equity work within
their schools, this cross-racial work was dependent for most participants on the racial
demographics of their school’s teaching staff. Meaning that the majority of participants may not
have specifically sought out cross-racial educational justice focused collaboration opportunities.
Other factors that impacted cross-racial collaboration related to educational justice were the
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willingness of school staff to engage in this work, the school environment, and administrative
support focused on this work.
Finding 1: Race and Equity Teams (RET) and Groups
Three out of the six teachers interviewed
were currently on race and equity teams
within their school buildings, and one of
these three was actively engaged in a
multiracial educational justice focused
professional learning community outside
of their school building. Of the three
participants who were not currently on
race and equity teams, two participated in the race and equity training at their schools and one
participant, Ms. Orange did not currently have a race and equity team at her school but noted
collaboration that happened with parents and students outside her racial identity. All of the race
and equity teams noted were teacher run with some degree of administrative participation. One
of the three race and equity teams had received support through the district. This happened after
Ms. Purple’s principal reached out directly to the central office staff involved in race and equity
team training. Of the three race and equity teams, one was solely composed of white staff,
although participants’ identities varied in terms of gender, sexual orientation, and belief systems.
Ms. Green, who was working on a solely white race and equity team, collaborated with teachers
outside of their racial identity in other spheres, including educational justice focused networks
outside of her school and through their teaching teams that included teachers outside of their
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racial identities. Although only one of the three race and equity teams was composed of solely
white staff, the other two were also composed of mostly white staff. Cross-racial collaboration in
these groups included unpaid work such as planning and leading race and equity focused
professional development, sharing resources, and planning and implementing school-wide social
justice focused curriculum. Although some formal race and equity teams existed within the
district in this study, which included stipends for the extra work participants put into race and
equity work, none of the race and equity groups’ participants in this study received these
stipends. Ms. Salmon, who was not on the race and equity team at her school but had participated
in the training that had come out of their collaboration, noted a shift in staff potentially through
this work, stating, “I don't know if it's because I've just gotten to know these people better. Or if
there truly has been some perspective shifts, but it seems like we're moving in the right direction
as a staff… I think I could credit [one of her teaching team on RET] a little bit I know her heart
and her intentions.” Ms. Green, who is on the RET team that Ms. Salmon noted, stated the
benefits of working collaboratively on this race and equity team,
I just think that when you intentionally have teachers working together and building
social justice, curriculum and brainstorming… It gets you to really dive into those social
justice standards and think a little more holistically and vertically about the entire school
and the trajectory of students…Having conversations with the smaller RET team, but also
as a staff, you know, and even just opening up those opportunities is a really big step
forward.
While Ms. Green applauded this step forward and Ms. Salmon also felt this work was
benefiting staff, Ms. Green also noted that at one of her previous schools a social justice focused
curriculum had been built and implemented by staff but was not being used at her current school
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site. Staff needing to take on the responsibility of planning educational justice focused
curriculum and implementing professional development (PD) focused on creating equitable and
anti-bias classrooms, beyond what was provided by the district, was seen at all participant’s
school sites. If not started by staff and supported by administrators, the informal race and equity
teams participants spoke about would not exist, such as in the case of Ms. Orange’s school which
did not currently have a race and equity team, either formal or informal.
One participant was the teacher who actively chose to start her school's RET. Ms. Purple
started her school’s race and equity team this year when she noted microaggressions taking place
towards new, Spanish speaking students at her school. In contrast to other participants'
experiences in working on informal race and equity teams, the RET at her school did receive
some support from the district. Ms. Purple shared,
I was able to get two other colleagues on board to start the RET team and we met with
someone from the district equity and race team, and [our administrator] participated in
that PD and is definitely supportive of it, and wants to do more. When I pointed out to her
my colleagues are really bringing in their own resources of things that they want to
explore, my administrator got a hold of some new curriculum that the district is
considering implementing.
Ms. Green, whose RET was not currently receiving district support, said that her work in
an outside professional learning group had helped her to bring additional resources to her school
and also feel connected to others doing this work. Ms. Orange, who, as noted, did not have a
RET at her school noted that the parent and teacher organization at her school had worked to
bring in more diverse cultural representation at the school, such as in celebrating the Lunar New
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Year. She felt these were important but surface level collaborations as they focused on isolated
cultural events.
In regards to the connections participants made to the different prongs of educational
justice, participants spoke to student identity-affirming professional develop work, RET work
around justice and equity in the school and improving student belonging, as well as PDs around
staff reflections on their own identities and teaching practices focused on identity and systems of
oppression. Not noted in participants' responses was how the effectiveness of the equity and
justice focused work was evaluated, how they felt this removed barriers to opportunities for
students or their students' responses to this work. Ms. Green did note some parent pushback on
culturally responsive lessons, and Ms. Purple also noted some staff resistance to the RET work
that was starting in their school. Other participants did not directly reference these types of
issues.
Finding 2: Teaching Teams
Five out of the six participants
interviewed had or currently were
working on teaching teams with
teachers outside of their racial
identity. All participants that had
engaged in a form of cross racial
collaboration noted positive
experiences, with caveats regarding
whether their fellow teachers were
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committed to this collaboration or hesitant in this capacity. Participants noted sharing resources,
broadening their perspectives and collaborating on teaching lessons. Ms. Blue noted, “One thing
that my teaching partner has always done is basically use picture books to teach about race, skin
color, gender, identity, disability … all these things and observances of holidays… And I'm like,
oh, okay, I'm gonna do it too, partly because we're trying to give both of our classes the same
experiences.” Ms. Blue noted that as it was her first year on this teaching team, she tried to find
different ways to contribute and collaborate, but often her teaching partner had resources already
ready to go and was very open about sharing them. Beyond resources, participants discussed how
they had learned from collaborative teaching and perspective broadening discussions that arose
with colleagues sharing differing racial identities. Ms. Green, for example, had team taught with
one of the multilingual teachers in a previous school,
She actually came in one day and did a lesson where she taught the entire thing in
Vietnamese. And the kids realized learning something in a language you don't speak was
really hard. It opened a really good discussion about our multilingual learners and the
challenge they overcame and how resilient we can be. We did a lot of things where we
collaborated together, and it was really valuable, having her input from the multilingual
educator perspective. We had a lot of good conversations just about challenges she's
faced as an educator, too. She was gonna be doing her principal internship the next year,
and she faced the racism of people being like, Oh, I don't know if that's right for you. I
don't know if you have the temperament for that, or things like that.
Like Ms. Green, Ms. Blue and Mr. Red, who are all white educators, spoke about learning about
the experiences of being an educator of color directly from their teaching partners who shared
their experiences with them. This form of sharing took place after the participants had built a
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trusting relationship with their teaching partners. The ways in which collaboration took place in
supporting educational justice-focused inclusive teaching practices centered on educators of
color sharing their experiences and knowledge. Additionally, Ms. Salmon and Ms. Purple spoke
about these experiences as teachers of color working with white teachers. The positive
experiences that they had were built on authentic relationships where all individuals respected
each other and were willing to grow. In Ms. Salmons’s words,
I think we all come from a place of curiosity, and again, respect for one another… I
really trust and respect my team…Even when I disagree. I can assume the best and
know we're gonna get to some sort of agreement, even if it doesn't turn out the exact
way I wanted it to or you know… so if someone says something that I see a
completely different way, I never think well it's because you're a bad person or
because you're racist… I just know that you've had a different life experience…
Ms. Salmon went on to say that her current teaching team was willing to engage in
discussions and ask questions coming from a place of trust and respect which had been built over
time together. Ms. Purple spoke in more detail about her current work collaborating with three
white colleagues, one being her principal, on their RET work, which again started from their
collective willingness to engage in open conversations and work together to address issues.
Although different from Ms. Salmon who said she saw positive movement forward in the staff at
her school regarding race and equity work and inclusive teaching practices school wide, Ms.
Purple noted that she had only found the two teachers on their RET team and her administrator to
be currently invested in this work and had in fact received pushback from other staff on site.
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Finding 3: White Schools and Race and Equity Work
Out of the six participants interviewed,
four identified as white and two
participants identified as BIPOC,
including Japanese American and
Hispanic. The white participants who had
collaborated with teachers outside of their
racial identity noted the positive ways in
which this had broadened their
perspectives and supported inclusive practices within their classrooms. The two BIPOC teachers
noted the positive ways in which collaborating with teachers outside of their own identity had
impacted their teaching, but also shared the complexity of being a BIPOC teacher working in
predominantly white schools. While the district of focus is in an ethnically diverse city, as with
teaching staff across the nation, the staff within this district is predominantly white. All six
participants interviewed worked in predominantly white schools both in terms of their students
demographics and teaching staff. These dynamics in relationship to race and equity work had
raised issues of identity, isolation and challenges with teacher buy-in.
Ms. Salmon discussed the impact of her personal identity and journey being brought into
her professional life as well as the impact of conversations before she got to know staff members,
With all the race and equity work that just happens in [this district], my identity as a
Japanese American is much more put at the forefront…I've never been in a place that
does so much recent equity work and is so white…. there have been times…all the race
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and equity work makes me feel more lonely than I ever have because I didn't identify so
strongly as a minority before. Especially being [white] passing, I think it's that never with
my students, but with staff and colleagues it's kind of like well, ‘Are you a person of
color enough?’ I talked to my family back home. They're like why are you guys talking
about this kind of stuff at work?...I am grateful for it in a lot of ways and I get a lot of
anxiety when we have race and equity days because… at previous schools it was always
well meaning but… You know intention versus impact… I remember at the beginning of
the year, there was a conversation about a student from two years ago that [that was a
student of color with exceptional needs]… we failed this kid…and I was really upset. I
was like, ‘oh my god, where am I. Some of the things that were said, I was like ‘this is
rough’ …..I didn't think the whole staff was that way. But there are some key individuals
that I was like, wow…
Ms. Salmon noted that after she got to know the staff better, she recognized that, although
the initial conversation staff had regarding a student they felt they had failed was very
challenging to hear, her perspective about staff members involved had changed over the years in
a positive way. She was unsure if this was due to developing relationships or the work that the
RET team was doing schoolwide.
Ms. Purple similarly spoke to her experiences,
Moving to Seattle [and] in the current school that I’m working at was a little bit of a
shock and awakening… [it is] predominantly wealthy and caucasians, with a few asian
families, last year we had very few Latin families. [When newcomer families began to
arrive this year] and I saw the reaction of the staff…. they’re not used to others. It’s a
little bubble in an urban city that is so diverse… I started to notice how my colleagues
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were treating the new students as they were rolling into [the classes]. [O]ne of my
colleagues directly,[said] ‘I don't know why they put him in my class…you're Spanish’,
and I'm like because my class is already maxed at 20, and you have openings and they’re
all our students so you know. So, that just made me have more conversations with my
administrative like, look, we need to put focus back on race and equity team because
there are little microaggressions happening with no ill intent, but if I’ve been
uncomfortable and I know these people I can't imagine how students and families might
be feeling…
After Ms. Purple worked with her administrator to start a RET team and recruited two other
colleagues to collaborate on this work, the reception from the greater staff demonstrated
resistance and defensiveness. Ms. Purple spoke to these experiences,
Some people have already voiced, ‘Oh, gosh! We do not need a RET team.’...’we've had
so much of the Zarata, Hammond shoved down our throats,…’ or ‘I just don't have the
bandwidth to do this’… It gives me a little bit of a pit in my stomach,... if everybody isn't
willing to, just dip their toes in…then what kind of changes can be made? It's just
little…ripples in the water, if not everybody is willing to even go near it, you know, and
that's gonna be my biggest challenge…
While both Ms. Salmon and Ms. Purple did note positive experiences with cross racial
collaboration either in teaching teams or RET work, they highlighted that cross racial
collaboration is not happening in all settings and that even in cases when it is not all voices or
experiences may be considered. The importance of spotlighting Ms. Purple and Ms. Salmon’s
experience is best described in Ms. Purple’s words, “Microaggressions are like mosquito bites,
some people don't get bit at all. But some people get bit quite often, and when you're getting bit
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more and more, the irritation is there.” In alignment with centering marginalized voices, creating
greater sense of belonging for marginalized groups and dismantling systems of oppressions, this
finding was critical in exploring educational justice and educators’ perceptions of their roles in
this work and the impact of this work on them.
Research Question 3: What Do Elementary Classroom Teachers Perceive as the Greatest
Supports and Challenges to Their Agency in Educational Justice Work?
In exploring participants’ perceptions of the greatest supports and challenges to their
agency in educational justice work, collaboration, or lack thereof, was again a strong theme,
connected to other findings for Research Questions 1 and 2. Three specific findings to Research
Question 3 emerged during the interviews. Questions pertaining to Research Question 3
included, “What would you say are the greatest supports to your agency in educational justice
work?” and “What are the greatest challenges to your agency in this work?” Participants' answers
centered on the need for administrative support, the importance of teacher identities, and
sustainable practices. These were all expressed as supports in teacher agency or barriers in
participating in educational justice work.
Finding 1: Top Down Support or the Lack Thereof
All participants noted the importance of
administrators’ support in being able to
engage in educational justice work inside
their classrooms and schools, through
their race and equity teams, and in their
classroom practices. Examples included
administrators' capacity to facilitate their
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agency to modify lessons, to be more inclusive of student identities and interests, and making
space for staff-wide race and equity work. Additionally, school administrators were noted as
influential in creating school communities focused on collaboration. Beyond school site specific
administrative support, district wide and central office support were also noted as important in
participating in educational justice work. This was related to resources available through the
district and higher job security in relation to the risk of being fired for participating in culturally
responsive practices or advocating for students.
Table 3 includes ways in which participants have found their school administration and
district level support helpful in developing their sense of agency in educational justice work. All
participants felt overall that their current administrator was supportive of this work, but three out
of six participants noted that past administrators had created barriers to this work through the
systems they mandated or lack of follow through on support for students.
Table 3
Supports and Challenges to Race and Equity Work, Themes and Supporting Quotes
Teachers Focus: Supports/ Challenges
Ms. Blue Admin buy-in to race and equity work
Admin open to discussions, change and accountability when errors are
made
Teachers have different levels of time available
Ms. Salmon Principals supportive of teacher and trusting of their abilities as
educators
Systems are not sustainable
Mr. Red Admin and team follow through
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Lip service and non-consistent systems for supporting students
Ms. Orange Safety in being able to talk about race, equity and issues that are
important to educational justice
Teaching from your own experiences and identity
Teaching about identities outside of one's own identity
Ms. Green Admin has a huge role in the agency teachers have in their jobs, the
expectations teachers face, and the school environment that is created
The time needed and resources needed
Ms. Purple Supportive school administrator
District level support
Staff buy-in and engagement in the work and issues with
microaggressions in the school
The majority of participants spoke about the overwhelming nature of educational
justice work at the classroom, school, district, state and country wide levels. An important
note in regards to the scale of this work and moving educational justice forward are the
forces pushing back against this work and how both educators and administrators respond
to this pressure. Although Washington State has laws protecting the right of its schools to
teach unbiased and inclusive curriculums (Liias et al., 2024) teachers noted there is still
push back at times on educationally justice focused, culturally responsive and inclusive
practices from outside forces, fellow educators and students’ families. A few teachers
discussed the pushback they had received for including educational justice focused lessons
and practices in their classrooms, and how administrators reacted to this pushback. Ms.
Blue explained that her positionality as a white woman had helped her to directly
challenge white families who pushed back on some of the culturally responsive teaching
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lessons she was implementing. Although these challenges had not stopped her from
including culturally responsive lessons in her classroom, in addition to her beliefs about
their importance she also had administrative support in this area. How administrators
content with this pushback can either support educators in continuing to engage in
educational justice work or create greater barriers to engaging in this work. For instance
when Ms. Purple spoke to her principal about microaggressions in their school and asked
to start a race and equity team (RET) her admin supported this effort and helped the RET
to get some resources to do their work. The action was initiated by Ms. Purple, but no
barriers were erected by her principal. Ms. Green on the other hand noted the negative
impact a restrictive school culture, created by a previous admin, had on teachers’ agency
in modifying the curriculum and collaborating in their work. As seen in these two
examples and noted in all participant’s interviews, the school culture administrators help
create impacts teachers’ agency in engaging in educationally justice focused practices.
Finding 2: Identity and Interactions With Educational Justice Work
Participants expressed aspects of
their identities as both something
that supported their agency in
educational justice work and
something that had created
challenges. Teachers expressed
how their identities had impacted
their journeys as educators and the
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development of their ideas about the role of teachers and the teaching practices they focused on.
Finally, they noted that their identities also impacted how they engaged in educational justice
work and, in many cases, the practices they needed to instill in order to engage in the work. The
majority of the white teachers interviewed noted equity focused teaching programs, reflection on
their identities, and continued work to understand their identities in regards to educational justice
as important in supporting their agency in this work. Both BIPOC teachers noted how their
experiences growing up, their racial identities and the communities they grew up within
impacted their decision to become a teacher and how they related to students. Figure 3 presents
participants' self described identities and their relationship to their work on educational justice.
Figure 3
Educators Identity and the Impact on Educational Justice Related Work
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90
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These figures and participants’ descriptions of their identities in relation to educational justice
work spoke to how their identities, including age, family, racial and gender impacted their
relationship to educational justice work as educators. While all teachers expressed their dedication
to their students’ success and wellbeing, both within their classroom and through collaborative
practices, the sustainability of their educational justice work was also an important part of
participant interviews. In returning to the definition of educational justice being used in this study,
only a few participants noted how their identities impacted their agency or relationship to
dismantling systems of oppression. While all participants did speak about their identities in
relation to aspects of educational justice, such as what they teach about or how they teach, no
participant directly referenced how their identities impacted their agency in dismantling external
systems of oppression. Here I specify external systems of oppression because a number of
participants did speak about reflecting on their own bias and privilege as white individuals, which
could be seen as dismantling internal systems of oppression. Additionally, obligations within and
outside of the classroom were impacted by participants' identities such as the ways in which they
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engaged in educational justice work and the time and energy they felt were available outside of
the classroom.
Finding 3 Sustainable Practices and Systems
The umbrella of sustainable practices
and unsustainable systems was a
common thread throughout all
participant interviews. Some key factors
noted by teachers in relationship to
sustainability of educational justice
work were time, capacity, and staff turn
over. Other factors that impacted
teachers’ ability to engage in
educational justice work included responsibilities they had outside of school hours, whether
professional development time was being devoted to race and equity work and the time taken up
by the other expectations on teachers’ shoulders. All of these impacted their perceived capacity to
engage in educational justice work. In addition to these factors, sustainability or perception of
their ability to engage in this work was impacted by the potential risk related to this work
including losing their jobs or the emotional toll of the work.The teachers discussed their
perceptions of the challenges and supports to educational justice work in relationship to both
themselves and the feedback they had received from other teachers.
The theme of time and energy arose throughout all participant interviews, both as a
challenge to their educational justice work and the sustainability of these practices. Ms. Salmon
broke it down in this way,
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The biggest challenge that comes to mind is the lack of time, lack of time and energy and
resources… the needs are so great… If I could have a smaller class, I could spend more
time with each student, I could spend more time with each family, I would spend less
money on supplies…I have had the best work life balance I've ever had in my whole life
this past year. And it's because.. they're the most privileged I've ever taught… I don't need
to spend hours and hours and hours after school, but I could…we are so limited to what
we can do with the time, energy, money [and] resources that we have. And that is only
exacerbated with the more needs kiddos have.
In addition to class sizes impacting the amount of time participants noted they could spend
with students, supplementing curriculum and creating educational justice focused lessons also
required additional planning time. “... I have to put in a lot of extra research investigating and
trying to pull things together and get ideas,” Ms. Green noted in relation to creating lessons that
were culturally responsive and educational justice focused. Additionally, the ability to create and
implement these lessons was impacted by inflexible systems that impacted educator autonomy,
such as standardized testing. Ms. Green elaborated on this, “I feel like a lot of autonomy to me, at
least… from my 4th and 5th grade perspective feels lost with the emphasis on standardized testing
and how that feels like big end goal…with the policy level…anytime I read something about…an
education initiative or how schools are doing it's always these test scores. [They] don’t unpack
these things.” Ms. Green noted that the focus on test scores does change what educators need to
focus on in the classroom and that test scores do not fully show what is happening inside schools.
Participants that felt more autonomy in their daily teaching practices noted professional learning
groups and teacher collaboration as factors that made implementing educational justice focused
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teaching practices and lessons more sustainable. Ms. Blue referenced her professional learning
group stating, “they’re supporting others who are like, ‘I’m the only one in my school who thinks
this way.’... that is really hard to do on a day to day basis, so I appreciate that I have colleagues
that are similarly minded.”
In addition to professional learning groups and similarly minded colleagues supporting
classroom teachers’ sense of autonomy and ability to continue teaching lessons that they felt
reflected their educational justice practices, parents' responses to culturally inclusive lessons also
supported teachers in continuing these culturally affirming and responsive lessons. Mr. Red
affirmed,
It's honestly the positive affirmation of families and students… I can see that students like
learning about different people and different cultures…I haven't had anyone say to my
face, so why are we why are you talking about this? I've never had anyone complain…
overwhelmingly, families are grateful for the inclusive conversations that we have.
While most of the participants spoke about how time affected what they could do within
school hours, they also spoke about factors affecting whether they could participate in additional
unpaid educational justice work or groups outside of school hours. Participants noted that outside
flexible time or inflexible obligations affected whether they could participate in additional
educational justice work. Ms. Blue noted that due to being a career changer and the age of her
children, she had been able to carve time out for educational justice work outside of school hours,
“Sometimes I have the availability and access to give more of my outside time, which I know a
lot of teachers are very protective of… you can’t do 90 hour weeks,” she said. Mr. Red noted the
reverse experience as a career changer, as due to the age of his children and their needs, time
outside of school needed to focus solely on his family.
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Regardless of whether participants chose to or were able to participate in educational
justice work outside of school hours, the resources they and their students had access to during
school hours were noted and the complexity of student needs as a factor impacting the energy and
time they felt they had to give to educational justice work. A number of participants noted that
they grappled with whether schools should be expected to meet all students' needs. As Ms.
Salmon noted in trying to meet students' academic, physical, health and wellbeing needs, “I
wrestle with [if] should schools have to provide all of those things, but the reality is that it is this
institution that can touch the most children's lives. And I think if we want a society that is healthy,
and well rounded, then that is the best way to get to that..”
Ms. Green additionally highlighted school funding as one of the factors affecting the
resources and sustainability of programs and services as well as inequitable distribution of
resources, “...how schools are being funded, different types of schools, and how that funding is
being allocated is a big one that I just think about a lot…Just historically, how anywhere really,
there have been systems that are just set up… whether it's redlining or [other factors].” Mr. Purple
also echoed the importance of being aware of the systems that have been put into place and who
is deciding on those systems in regards to the political climate for education and the need for
people to become active participants in dismantling oppressive systems in education, “I think it's
really really important for people to pay attention … [at] the national and regional [levels]. That's
really the only way that we're gonna get the work done for the future of our diverse
learners…People willing to take the risks.”
Where resources are focused, whether it be time, energy, money or ability to take risks
with one’s career or positionality, participants spoke to the ways pockets of knowledge, resources
and privilege negatively impact engagement and sustainability of educational justice work. As
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Ms. Salmon noted, “...I've just been part of so many staffs [where] all of the institutional
knowledge is inside individuals…. So once they leave, it's like a vacuum… that is what leads to a
lot of inequities [when] individuals are working so hard [on equity or justice], but then they
leave… And I think it's because we lack sustainable systems.” This is similar to what Ms. Purple
noted when discussing the lack of buy-in she was experiencing with the RET team she started at
her current school. Change is challenging if everyone is not willing to take the steps to change
and create systems that embrace all learners, meet their needs and affirm their identities.
Summary
This study of six educators' perspectives on their roles in educational justice work produced the
following key findings:
1. Communication: All participants emphasized the importance of communication with
families and students as a crucial part of supporting students' well-being and academic
success. This communication was seen as a collaborative effort where teachers worked
with families and school site teams to meet students' needs.
2. Role and Efforts: Teachers reported that their role in educational justice involved various
efforts such as creating student-centered classrooms, engaging in race and equity teams,
advocating for students, and being reflective about their practices. Their approaches to this
work varied, including working in cross-racial teams and addressing students' diverse
needs.
3. Collaboration and Diversity: While most participants had positive experiences working
with teachers outside their racial identity, the effectiveness of such collaboration often
depended on the willingness of all participants to engage in these collaborations with
openness and authenticity.
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4. Supports and Challenges: Major themes affecting teachers’ engagement in educational
justice included administrative support, personal identity, and sustainable practices. Areas
affecting sustainability included time constraints, risk of job loss, and teacher turn over.
Further, participants discussed resistance to educational justice work both among some of
their colleagues as well as from families.
Overall, the study highlighted the complex dynamics of implementing educational justice
work and the significant role of collaboration and systematic support in these efforts. The critical
and abolitionist lens on educational justice that this study uses centers on actions that oppose
justice and the actions that lead towards it, it is connected to student outcomes, equitable
opportunities for academic success and is above all humanizing in nature. Beyond the conceptual
framing of this definition are the concrete prongs related to dismantling oppressive systems,
affirming students’ identities and belonging, reflecting on and evaluating effectiveness of equity
and justice centered practices and work in relationship to academic and personal success and
wellbeing as well as access to opportunities. In looking at the findings for this study and
participants' responses, participants firmly centered the collective nature of this work, but also put
boundaries on their own spheres of influence in this work. They spoke of supporting students’
academic work and personal well being within their classrooms and collaborating with others to
remove barriers to opportunities for both students’ academic and personal wellbeing. Few
participants spoke to how they reflected on or evaluated their effectiveness in these practices or
worked to dismantle oppressive systems beyond their classroom. This connects to the findings for
Research Question 1, where participants expressed their belief in doing what you could where you
could and the complexities of deciding where their agency began and ended. This is discussed
further in Chapter five.
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Chapter Five: Discussion and Recommendations for Practice
This chapter discusses the research question findings and implication of those findings
grounded in the conceptual framework noted in Chapter 2 and the literature discussed in Chapter
1 and Chapter 2. The findings are used to frame recommendations for both expanding or
adapting current practices and to guide areas for future research. This chapter concludes with a
reflection on the contributions and impact of this study within the larger research field from
which it emerges.
It is important to note that while this research was taking place, additional laws were put
into place to ensure educators in Washington State are teaching anti bias and inclusive
curriculums, through Bill 5462 which sets forth a mandate for Washington public, charter and
tribal schools to include curriculum that is non biased towards and inclusive of marginalized
groups including, “various racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, people with differing
learning needs, people with disabilities, LGBTQ people as the term is defined in RCW
43.114.010, and people with various socioeconomic and immigration backgrounds” (Liias et al.,
2024. p.2). While some participants noted that they did worry at times about losing their jobs
through teaching about diverse identities and in a culturally responsive manner, the 5432 law
adds to protections regarding anti-bias and inclusive teaching practices regarding Revised Codes
of Washington (RCW). Bill 5432 adds to mandates for the instructional materials committee,
duties of the superintendent of public instruction and state learning standards. Bill 5462 also
expands and codifies Washington state laws that mandate that educational institutions must
prohibit discrimination based on protected classes and ensure that instructional materials and
curricula are inclusive and free of bias. The law emphasizes the importance of reflecting the
histories, contributions, and perspectives of historically marginalized and underrepresented
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groups in the selection of instructional materials, course design, and state learning standards.
This includes people from various racial, ethnic, religious, socioeconomic, disability, LGBTQ,
and immigrant backgrounds.
The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) is tasked with
screening for inappropriate bias when developing or revising state learning standards and
ensuring that concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion are incorporated. This law also
requires that school districts adopt inclusive curricula and select diverse, age-appropriate
instructional materials that reflect the varied backgrounds of students. Furthermore, this
law calls for the development of diagnostic tools that are easy to use and provide results
that can be easily shared with parents and students. These tools must assess students'
academic progress without bias related to learning styles, race, ethnicity, or gender.
The inclusion of this law is critical in that teachers' agency to include humanizing,
identity affirming curriculum is not only legally protected in Washington, but it is
mandated. This is important to note in exploring the findings from this study.
Discussion of Findings
This section explores the study’s findings within current literature and the study’s
conceptual framework, centered on the following research questions:
1. How do elementary classroom teachers in an ethnically diverse Washington State district
describe their roles in educational justice work?
2. How are elementary classroom teachers collaborating with teachers outside of their racial
identity in educational justice?
3. What do elementary classroom teachers perceive as the greatest supports and challenges
to their agency in educational justice work?
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Research Question 1: Discussion of Findings
This study centered elementary classroom teachers’ perceptions of their roles in
educational justice work and how they enacted those roles. Participants' approaches to this work
varied, but all centered on addressing students' diverse needs through communication practices,
collaboration with other educators, and focusing on doing what they felt they could do on a
day-to-day basis within their spheres of influence.
Communication
Participants’ expressed beliefs in the importance of communication with families and
students, which is aligned with prior research related to the critical role teachers play in creating
safe and welcoming classrooms through relationship building practices (Allen et al., 2018;
Ibrahim & Zaatari, 2020; Mahoney et al., 2018-2019; Osher et al., 2016). Participants spoke
about implementing teaching, communication and management systems within their classrooms
that focused on supporting students’ social and emotional wellbeing (Brody & Davidson, 1998;
Durlak et al., 2011; Greenberg et al., 2017; Ferraira et al., 2020) as well as their sense of
belonging within the classroom (Kohli, 2021). They spoke to the reflective practices they used
that had helped them recognize inequities in education, which had helped them shift both
teaching practices and systems within their classrooms (Sachs, 2000; Sachs, 2003) to support
more effective communication and address these inequities. Figure 4 summarizes this study’s
main findings in relation to teachers’ perceptions of their roles in educational justice through
communication practices.
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Figure 4
Teachers’ Perceptions of Their Roles in Educational Justice Through Communication Practices
Context for communicating with students and families noted by participants included
relationship building, learning about families and students, and sharing students academic and
social development in school. While the importance of learning about students' identities was
noted, participants did not speak about using communication practices to learn about students’
sense of belonging in the classroom and school community. Additionally participants did not
reference if or how they engaged students in developing their definitions of educational justice or
in evaluating the effectiveness of justice focused practices in their classrooms. Centering and
engaging student voices was not directly addressed by participants. Communication practices
and knowledge gathered from student’s families or guardians, in regards to evaluating the
effectiveness of equity and justice focused practices, was also not noted.
Collaboration
Additionally, all participants spoke about the importance of collaboration in sustaining
and improving their work as teachers in order to meet their students’ needs, which was in
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alignment with their definitions of educational justice. Participants' collaboration is critical to
meeting their students’ needs through research supported practices, including knowledge sharing
(Hattie, 2015) and the capacity building (Fullan & Quinn, 2016) that took place through this
collaboration. This collectivistic understanding of the need for collaborative work pushes against
the white supremacy culture of individualism that exists in the United States and education
(Okun, 2023). Additionally, working with other teachers was seen by educators as a source of
both community support and building greater collective power to both serve students on a daily
basis and advocate for changes on a larger scale, as noted in the work of both Quin and Carl
(2015) and Taylor (2011). The following figure summarizes findings around the groups of adults
that study participants noted they regularly collaborated with in order to support students’
academic and social wellbeing.
Figure 5
The Teacher Participants Noted How They Collaborate Within Their Educational Justice Work
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As shown in Figure 5 support services, administrative staff, teaching teams and
families/guardians were all referred to as collaborators in students' success from participants'
perspectives as classroom teachers. Collaboration was tied into supporting teachers in including
identity affirming and culturally responsive lessons, student centered lessons and practices as
well as providing grounds for reflecting on justice and equity for all students. How collaboration
supported teams in evaluating the effectiveness of equity and justice focused teaching practices
and systems within the classroom and schools was not addressed by participants beyond the use
of academic data.
Do What You Can
Participants spoke about navigating the overwhelming scale of educational justice work
that is needed at the school, district and state levels through focusing on their own spheres of
influence and the students that they currently served in their classrooms. This connects to the
definitions of educational justice aligned with student academic outcomes (Ladson-Billings,
2021; Varghese et. al., 2021) and a humanizing education system that recognizes the way in
which inequities are both created and challenged on a daily basis (Friere, 1979).
The ways in which participants noted they “did what they could” on a daily basis were in
alignment with past research into culturally responsive pedagogy and classroom management
practices (Sachs, 2000; Sachs, 2003), teachers roles in transforming schools through daily
practices within their classrooms (Brody & Davidson, 1998), supporting student wellbeing
(Brody & Davidson, 1998) and sense of belonging (Kohli, 2021), and providing the public
education that students are legally entitled to (OCR, The U.S. Department of Education, n.d.).
While the practices noted were in alignment with best teaching practices, the level to which
participants pushed outside of their own comfort levels (Okun, 2023) and explored their own
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identities (Zembylas, 2020; Zembylas & McGlynn, 2012) and relationship to systems of
inequalities (Love, 2009) was not immediately evident in the findings to Research Question 1.
Participants focused on the importance of using their agency as educators but also saw that
agency as limited. With the adoption of Bill 5462 in March 2024, while this study was taking
place, the limits of their agency in implementing culturally responsive curriculum has vastly
decreased. How this will impact future research in this area and teachers' perceptions of what
they can do inside the classroom to create justice focused learning environments is an area for
future research. Where participants drew the line between when they were or were not
“Choosing to engage in the struggle for educational justice knowing that [they] have the ability
and human right to refuse oppression and refuse to oppress others” (Love, 2019, p.11) varied
and will be discussed further in areas for future research. Here it is important to note that for all
the key tenets of educational justice, according to this study’s working definition, to be achieved,
all oppressive systems must be dismantled, barriers to opportunity and academic success
removed, as well as students' educational experience becoming identity affirming and
humanizing and centered on their wellbeing. This by its very definition is beyond the scope of
one person, the classroom, the school or even a district. Thus, the complexities of where each
participant views their sphere of influence ending or where they choose to draw the line.
Research Question 2: Discussion of Findings
How participants collaborated across differing racial identities varied as this cross-racial
collaboration took place in different contexts including race and equity teams, teaching teams
and through collaboration between families and educators. All but one participant noted that they
were currently collaborating with educators outside of their racial identity. Past research on cross
racial teacher collaboration focused primarily on alliship from the dominant social group of
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white participants (Broido, 2000; Broido & Reason, 2005). All white participants noted how they
reflected on their own identities and biases, but they did not note the power dynamics,
complexities or relationship as allies or co-conspirators with educators of color, which Love
notes is critical in becoming a co-conspirator with people of color (Love, 2018). The educators
of color, on the other hand, spoke about ways in which working with white educators had led to
both a sense of marginalization or authentic partnerships and collaborations depending on those
colleagues’ commitments to the continual process of unlearning systems of whiteness and
oppression (Love, 2019; Kohli, 2019) and the trust built in authentic relationships (Love, 2019).
Thus, Figure 6 depicts how whiteness was connected to how cross racial collaboration took
place. Whiteness played a role in participants’ cross racial collaborations regardless of
participants’ racial identity in alignment with the persistence of white supremacy culture (Okun,
2021) within education systems (Freire, 2012; Leonardo, 2009; Love, 2021).
Figure 6
Cross Racial Collaboration happening Through RET teams and Teaching Teams, With the
Dynamics of Whiteness They are Tethered to
When productive cross racial collaboration
took place, white participants noted how
they had challenged and reflected on their
own identities (Picower, 2012; Love, 2019)
and learned from educators and scholars of
color (Kohli, 2021; Friere, 1976). In these
cases educators of color noted that
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productive cross racial collaboration took place when white participants built trusting
relationships with them and were also willing to be vulnerable and authentic in their interactions.
Research Question 3: Discussion of Findings
The supports for and challenges in educational justice work that participants noted in
their interviews were woven throughout their responses to Research Questions 1-3. The majority
of support they experienced in their educational justice work, that has been discussed thus far,
included collaboration, communication, and reflection on their identities for white participants.
Further, administrative support and school culture were noted by the majority of participants as
key factors that influenced their agency as an educator. This related to their educational justice
work through how their administrators supported or restricted the modification of curriculum to
reflect their students’ identities or collaboration with other educators. This connects to previous
research on the importance of administrators in creating positive working environments for
educators and retaining teachers, particularly educators of color, including support during the
educators induction process and the professional development these administrators provided
(Goodwin, 2023).
Additionally, one of the greatest challenges participants noted was the lack of sustainable
practices in place to support educators’ focus on educational justice work. Educators noted
limited time, risk of job loss, resistance from colleagues or student’s families and teacher
turnover as factors limiting sustained efforts and momentum towards educational justice.
Ontological positions have shaped and perpetuated inequitable educational systems over time
(Paradis et al., 2020), and it will take time to dismantle and recreate humanized and just
education systems (Love, 2019), but as the educators interviewed noted, the demands on
educators consume and constrain the time they have to give to educational justice focused work.
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Additionally, when teachers are dedicated to this work, teacher turnover creates vacuums when
they leave and their knowledge capital and collaborative energy leave with them (Full & Quinn,
2016; Hattie, 2015). Figure 7 is a visual representation of the ways in which administration and
sustainable practices either support or create barriers to educational justice work.
Figure 7
Sustainable Practices, the Impact of Practices, Collaboration and Administration in Either
Supporting or Creating Barriers to Educational Justice Work
As noted in Chapter 4, while participants focused on the challenges they experienced as
classroom teachers within the contexts they have experienced, the larger challenges that
educators faced in engaging in educational justice work and achieving gains in this area was
limited in my findings. Ms. Purple did note that she felt teachers and schools were under attack,
thus requiring those engaged in educational justice work to be willing to take risks and move
outside their comfort zones. Additionally, Ms. Blue noted the importance of the professional
learning community she was engaged with outside of her school community because it supported
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educators who felt they were the only ones at their school sites engaging in educational justice
focused work. While not affirmed by all participants, additional political and social factors
pushing back against moving public education towards justice exist, including the pervasive
white supremacy culture (Okun, 2021), as well as systems of oppression which benefit the
oppressor (Freire, 2018) and limit students’ freedom to reach their fullest potential (Love, 2019).
Connection of Findings to Conceptual Framework
Both the theoretical and conceptual frameworks for this study supported my data analysis
and recommendations through framing the definition of educational justice underlying the study
and through understanding teachers’ agency in both challenging or recreating cycles of injustice
within the education system. The framework also left space for teachers' concepts of their agency
and space for how they enacted their roles within the classrooms to vary, without researcher bias
constraining their narratives, through focusing on educators both as individuals with agency and
as a connected community perpetually moving through a cycle of change and creation. For
example, participants spoke about their individual experience but also recognized the role
collaboration played in their work. The conceptual framework for this research centered
education, highlighting the interconnectedness of students and educators. In the findings,
educators spoke about communication and relationship building as central to supporting students
in the classroom. The conceptual framework held teachers as integral parts of an ongoing cycle
of transformation within the tree of life, symbolizing the intersections of their identities and their
roles within education. Educators within the study also discussed this relationship from their own
perceptions of their identities. The conceptual framework emphasized that those within the
education system are both creators and recreators of reality, with teachers' roles defined by their
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actions and choices, particularly through cross-racial collaboration and the processes of
perpetuating or unlearning systems of oppression.
The conceptual framework by focusing on relationships, creation and connections
supported the exploration of finding by allowing interactive themes to emerge, but also
challenged me as a researcher to ensure that both complementary and contradictory experiences
were included in my analysis. During the reflection, bias checking, and data coding process, the
interwoven branches of teachers, students, and identity allowed me to highlight teachers’
perceptions of their roles in educational justice; the cross racial collaboration that was taking
place; and the supports and challenges they have experienced in this work. This framework
helped me to leave space for the different relationships to educational justice that educators
expressed without judgement as a researcher on those varying relationships as it centered
teachers and students as human beings within the education system.
While the conceptual framework and theoretical frameworks that it stemmed from
supported my data analysis, some of the areas of research featured in my literature review that
were also present in my conceptual framework were not directly discussed by participants, such
as the impact of injustices in discipline practices or low teacher expectations of students.
Additionally, after completing this study, the importance of including the potential dissonance
between the scale of injustices within the education system and the importance that educators felt
in starting to work on educational justice from within their own classrooms could be included in
the conceptual framework. Finally, the relationship between educators' concepts of their agency
and how this translated to the daily enactment of their roles was another theme that the
conceptual framework helped me to explore but was not depicted in the original visual for the
framework.
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Recommendations for Practice
The purpose of this study was to explore elementary classroom teachers’ perceptions of
their roles in educational justice work, their experiences with cross racial collaboration in this
work, and the challenges and support they have experienced to foster this work. How participants
enacted their roles, the ways they were able to collaborate cross racially and the supports and
challenges they experienced frame the following recommendations. These recommendations for
practice are not set forth as a recipe for achieving educational justice but rather as tools the
teachers interviewed perceived as integral in meeting their students' academic and social needs.
The following recommendations require time and can be best accomplished with a shared
workload and collaboration. According to participants, their roles in educational justice work
require a commitment to:
1. Prioritizing regular communication and relationship building with students, families
and colleagues
2. Working as a team through professional development, sharing resources, advocating
for support, establishing and participating in Race and Equity Teams (RET), and
supportive teaching team
3. Creating sustainable systems through shared knowledge, workload and time
The following table summarizes the key findings from this study and the subsequent
recommendations for practice that emerged from these findings.
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Table 4
Summary of Key Findings and Recommendations for Practice
Elementary Classroom Teachers’ Perceptions of their Roles in Educational Justice
RQ1: How do
elementary
classroom teachers
in an ethnically
diverse Washington
State district
describe their roles
in educational justice
work?
RQ2: How are
elementary classroom
teachers collaborating
with teachers outside of
their racial identity in
educational justice?
RQ3: What do elementary
classroom teachers perceive
as the greatest supports and
challenges to their agency in
educational justice work?
Key Finding 1 Communicating with
families and
students, working
with others to meet
their students needs
Race and Equity Teams;
Educational
Justice-Focused Groups;
Teaching Teams
Not all educators buy into
race and equity and
educational justice work or
are impacted by this work in
the same way;
Administrators can impact
the culture and time for
collaboration positively or
negatively; administrators
impact the systems created
in schools and teacher
agencies in creating
justice-focused systems
within their classrooms
Key Finding 2 The work needs to be done collaboratively. It is important to do what you can
where you can, including modifying teaching, creating equity driven student
systems in your classroom and school
Key Finding 3 Teacher identity impacts how teachers engage in and experience educational
justice-focused work
Recommendation 1
Creative Trouble - Be a Helper. Start small, think big, and grow through
reflection
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Recommendation 2
Community Focused. School as a community hub for services
Recommendation 3
Increasing Sustainable Practices. Through shared knowledge and resources
Figure 8
Reflections
Multiplying, by Alisa
Rutherford-Fortunati
Recommendation 1: Creative Trouble - Be a Helper. Start small, think big, and grow through
reflection
As Mr. Rogers's mother advised him, when something is wrong “look for the helpers
[because] you will always find people who are helping” (Rogers, 2023). The findings from this
study show that there are elementary teachers who are choosing to take action where they feel
they have the agency to do so. Participants spoke to the importance of starting from where they
were at and doing what they could within their spheres of influence to support students' academic
progress and personal well-being in their classrooms. The work of scholar Adrienne Marie
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Brown (2021) speaks to how small actions can spiral out and spread through Emergent
Strategies, like fractals spiraling out.
Fractal: The relationship between the small and the large. The large is made up of
the smallest things, patterns repeat at scale. Help people see, celebrate, and build
on the small shifts they are making. (p.15)
The importance of the small day-to-day actions Brown (2021) and the participants in
this study spoke about are supported by research showing classroom teachers have a daily
impact on their students' educational outcomes (Hung et al., 2020) and sense of belonging
within the classroom (Allen et al., 2018). Thus, teachers who are not currently working on
educational justice within their own classrooms could begin to do so through daily small
practices that can continue to grow through integrating reflective work into their teaching
and planning time. A focus on integrating reflective practices comes from how participants
spoke to the importance of reviewing student academic data and self-reflection as tools they
used to ensure they were creating spaces where their own biases or assumptions were
checked and students were supported. In addition, the literature reviewed showed that white
teachers’ reflection on their own identities supported their development as culturally
responsive teachers (Picower, 2012) and consistent student data collection as a best practice
to support student growth and improve teaching practices (Burn et al., 2023). Thus, the
recommendation is that teachers can put educational justice work into action by doing
regular self and student check-ins to reflect on both students’ academic and personal
well-being and how they can modify or adapt their teaching methods and the classroom
environment to better support those needs. While there is data showing the importance of
teachers’ collecting data, reflecting on their teaching practices and also on teachers’
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reflecting on their potential biases, such as towards student behaviors (Owens, 2023), this
study’s findings bring these ideas together to highlight the importance of teachers working
on educational justice through small actions in their own classrooms supported by regular
student and self check-ins in order to reflect on their current practices and the best way to
support their students academic and social wellbeing. While this work can seem
overwhelming, participants felt starting small can provide meaningful changes for students
and space in which the educational justice movement can grow. While emergent strategies
show a potential for powerful change (Brown, 2021), we should also be wary of using the
idea of small movements forward to maintain one's comfort or allow current oppressive
systems to remain in place.
Figure 9 Illumination, by Alisa Rutherford-Fortunati
Recommendation 2: Community Focused - School as a community hub for services,
uplifting students’ needs
115
As recommendation 1 notes, when teachers know what students' needs are in terms of
both academic and personal well-being, they can work within their classrooms to build
classroom communities that support students' academic success and well-being. An important
aspect of knowing these needs, that was not directly addressed by participants, is the inclusion of
students in defining their needs and what educational justice truly means to them. Learning about
students and centering their voices may be done by individual classroom teachers at times, but
study participants noted that they could not then meet their students’ needs alone. They felt that
collaborating with families, students and fellow educators was essential. For instance, Ms.
Salmon noted that educational justice is not only about academics, but students' overall needs.
Ms. Purple, in order to understand her students’ needs, noted the importance of doing home visits
to learn about the communities she served and finding out what services they required in order to
ensure students attended school. Mr. Red similarly noted that there was no way he could do
everything for his students and that making sure they got the support they needed was always a
team effort. Thus, the second recommendation is that teachers work together to uplift students’
needs, help students find services, and create more opportunities for schools to be community
hubs. While all participants noted the importance of working collaboratively to support students'
academic and social wellbeing they also noted the challenges that limited time, resistant
educators, families or administrators and limited resources can create. Of these factors I want to
highlight buy-in from all key stakeholders and resources for students. The groundwork for
creating this buy-in and sourcing the resources necessary for this work will look different from
context to context depending on where resistance arises and how well resourced the school in
question is. Regardless of the context, creating a humanizing school culture where students are
known and deeply cared for will be critical in this work. As Douglas and Nganga (2013) spoke to
116
in their work on radical love “When we choose real love, we refuse to work within the system.
We don’t play by The Rules. In real love, we choose to speak not in the language of competition
and violence, but in that of cooperation and compassion. The language of real love is simple and
straightforward” (p. 63). They go on to state that real love requires action, just as educational
justice requires action.
A place that classroom teachers can start this work is through their school interventionist,
meetings with administration, social workers, counselors, paraprofessional and special education
staff to spotlight student needs and work collaboratively to put the services they need into place.
For example, many schools have some form of intervention meetings around students' academic
or behavioral interventions, such as a Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). MTSS by its
very definition “builds on a public health approach that focuses on organizing the efforts of
adults within systems to be more effective. MTSS helps to ensure students benefit from nurturing
environments and equitable access to instruction and supports that are differentiated to meet their
unique needs” (OSPI, n.d.). These systems could be utilized beyond instructional and behavioral
supports to include holistic approaches to supporting students’ health, wellbeing, attendance and
belonging in the classroom through increasing the inclusion of educators providing not only
academic supports but also wrap-around services such as the school psychologists, counselors,
nurses, parents and teacher organizations and/or local community groups. The MTSS structure is
a framework that could be utilized to meet students needs (OSPI, nd), but what needs are
considered collaboratively may vary from school to school. Formalizing the inclusion of those
providing wrap around services could be used to increase schools’ capacities (Fullan & Quinn,
2016) to support students beyond academics and behavior interventions. One of the key findings
of this study was that participants recognized their need to work collaboratively to meet their
117
students’ needs. Classroom teachers are the adults who generally spend the most time with
students, so even if they cannot meet all students’ needs alone, they have an important role to
play in highlighting those needs and advocating for them to be fulfilled. Through communicating
with families and students and their larger school community of colleagues on a regular basis,
classroom teachers build bridges between school and home. They can use these bridges and the
MTSS systems at their schools to help link students and families to school and community
services that remove barriers to their academic success as well as their physical and social
wellbeing, including physical, emotional and academic needs.
Figure 10 Long Lasting, by Alisa Rutherford-Fortunati
Recommendation 3: Increasing Sustainable Practices Through Shared Knowledge and
Resources
While recommendations 1 and 2 focus on areas teachers can address within their
classrooms and the systems that currently exist, based on study findings and grounded in
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previous research, the third recommendation focuses on the long-term goal of providing the
resources necessary to meet students’ academic and personal wellbeing in an educational setting.
Participants noted that they had limited time during their days and after school. At a state level,
providing greater funding and resources to expand the number of staff supporting students would
reduce teacher workload and provide more time for teachers to prioritize these educational
justice-based practices and to collaborate on educational justice-based work outside of their
classroom or school building. Laws within Washington State mandating that non-biased
curriculum and pedagogy be in place (Liias et al., 2024) may provide rationale for additional
funding to be directed to this work although resistance to providing additional funding may still
remain. In states where no mandates or protective laws exist additional funding for these
practices is likely to be far greater (Brown, 2024).
While resistance to greater funding for schools is already an issue in many states
including Washington State (Aune, 2024), so too is the mandate to improve student academic
outcomes (28A.655 RCW Findings, n.d). Providing funding for additional staffing could reduce
class sizes which has been shown to improve student academic outcomes (Baker, 2016).
Additional funding could also be used to pay educators for hours devoted specifically to race and
equity work, collaborating with colleagues and communicating with families.
While some time is currently set aside for these activities in the district studied, greater
time allotments to this work, release time for teachers, and reduction of educator workload may
provide additional time for educators to devote to participating in educational justice work and
developing best practices in this area, such as Ms. Purple, Ms. Green and Ms. Blue who are all
devoting extra unpaid time to race and equity work at their school sites or through outside
organizations. Teachers such as these, especially teachers of color, have been documented as
119
doing unpaid race and equity work which supports their students farthest from educational
justice (Kholi, 2019). Being paid for the work they currently do would monetarily recognize the
importance of this educational justice work. For instance, important issues both participating
teachers of color brought forward in this study provide evidence that race and equity teams may
need to gather further data from educators and students of color on their needs and experiences
pertaining to the race and equity work taking place within the district. This third
recommendation arises from experiences, such as those of Ms. Salmon, for whom the race and
equity working taking place has, at times, led to a greater sense of isolation as a person of color.
Additionally, this recommendation arises from the microaggressions that Ms. Purple has
experienced and witnessed her students experiencing within their school.
All teachers spoke about their limited time, the inability to do everything, their lack of
agency at times in changing things and the need for knowledge and resources to be shared
amongst teachers so that all students' needs can be met. Through increasing funding to both
reduce teacher workload and pay teachers for the additional time they put into educational justice
focused work, an important investment can be made towards improving student outcomes
(Baker, 2016 ) and creating sustainable race and equity-focused work within schools.
Limitations and Delimitations
The limitations, factors that were outside of my control, and delimitations, boundaries
that were needed to complete this research (Creswell, 2014), are addressed here. The factors
outside of researchers’ control create limitations around their studies (Crewell & Creswell,
2018). Limitations pertaining to this study included participants' comfort in sharing their stories
and answers, and the limited previous research pertaining to classroom teachers’ perceptions of
their roles in educational justice. Additionally, participants were limited to those willing to
120
volunteer for the study, with enough available time to do so, and the teacher demographics
within the district studied. Response rates to participant inquiries were low, and due to
program-related time constraints, the participant numbers were reduced from 10-12 to six. Due
to the lack of response from network sampling methods, participants in my various teaching
networks, using both convenience sampling and snowball sampling methods were needed. This
meant that the participant pool became heavily weighted towards participants I currently work
with or have worked with in the past, with five out of six participants being within the limits of
this network. As the majority of participants previously or currently work with me, this could
have created pressure to respond in a manner participants thought I wished them to (Baumeister
& Leary, 1995) or, in the inverse, created a sense of trust which allowed participants to share
more openly. Furthermore, while the research population existed within a diverse school district,
a history of redlining and segregating factors has and continues to influence school populations
according to location (Bazzas, 2023). While some participants interviewed had worked in
schools with a majority BIPOC student population, all participants currently worked in schools
with a majority white student and educator population. While addressed in the delimitations
below it is also important to note this study was limited to classroom teachers’ perceptions of
their roles in educational justice work, thus educators' answers were focused on what they as
teachers needed to support their students’ academic and social wellbeing rather than what
students felt they needed. Additionally, findings may also not be transferable to states that lack
the legal protections and mandates Washing State has enacted pertaining to including protected
classes of people and ensuring their inclusion in curriculum and success within the academic
sphere (Liias, 2024). Finally, participants that responded to interview requests and were willing
121
to participate in the study may also have had a stronger educational justice focus in their work
than those that did not respond.
In addition to limitations, each study must have delimitations set forth. Delimitations are
those factors that can be controlled by the researcher, including the district, participant pool and
intention of the research (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). This study was done in one district in
Washington State. The participants were all elementary school classroom teachers, and the
number of interviews was limited to between 10-12 participants, although six interviews were
completed. The research focused on teacher’s perceptions of their roles in educational justice so
it did not include student or family perspectives of the issues addressed. The research gathered
was qualitative in nature and not intended to be generalized to a larger population of classroom
teachers but could be utilized to help inform similar future studies in other areas of the country
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2020). Information gathered can only be said to reflect the experiences and
perceptions of study participants, but has expanded our current knowledge base on this topic.
While I chose a relatively large pool of participants, as a first time researcher new to recruiting
participants, additional time and resources may have been needed to recruit the desired number
of participants and increase internal validity through a larger set of participant interviews
(Lochmiller & Lester, 1979). Additionally I chose one district within one state to focus on so the
study’s findings may not be mirrors in other districts or states. How participants were identified
through network and snowball sampling methods and the study’s focus on educational justice
narrowed participants to those comfortable discussing their roles in educational justice, which
may have led to a pool of participants that were already engaging in educational justice work.
This pool of participants may not reflect the larger population of elementary classroom teachers
within the district the study was conducted.
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Recommendations for Future Research
Due to the limitations presented by the number of participants, future research needs to
call on a larger interview population to expand the knowledge gathered and increase internal
validity or generalizability of findings (Lochmiller & Lester, 1979). Additionally, gathering a
larger research pool with no potential social relationship or biases towards the researcher
(Baumeister & Leary, 1995) may provide additional validity to the research gathered. Due to the
influence of historic redlining and other segregating factors (Bazzas, 2023), future research
should also take into account these factors and seek to gather educators’ perspectives from both
majority white and majority BIPOC school communities across this and other districts. Future
research could also seek to replicate or test the educational justice focused practices participants
noted they put into place with a population of educators not currently implementing these
practices to study their impact on student academic and social wellbeing. This could include
implementing practices such as increasing family communication and time for teacher
collaboration.
The personal stories both educators of color interviewed for this study shared and their
experiences related to working in majority white schools provide grounds for future research to
center the voices of more educators of color. Their important perspectives could inform race and
equity team training practices as well as provide additional support for educators in contexts
where they are minorized. Additionally, as the study was limited to classroom teachers’
perceptions of their roles in educational justice work, additional research is needed to include
student and community voices in exploring their definitions of educational justice, how they
perceive their own roles in it as well as classroom teachers’ roles in working towards educational
justice.
123
Finally, it is important to note that nationwide due to changing political climates,
teachers' agency in modifying curriculum or the ability of school systems to center educational
justice in meeting their students’ needs and wellbeing may be affected. While Bill 5462 in
Washington State has recently expanded protections for protected classes of students and
codified the mandate to include unbiased and inclusive curriculum in all Washington State
Schools, this is not true nationwide. Future research could be used to explore the connections
between policies being enacted and teachers’ perceptions of their roles and agency in educational
justice work both in Washington State and nationwide.
Conclusion
This study explored elementary teachers’ perceptions of their roles in educational justice
work and how they enacted those roles. In this study educational justice is viewed through a
critical and abolitionist lens and must be understood through both the actions that hinder it and
those that advance it. These actions are intersectional (Love, 2023), connected to student
outcomes (Ladson-Billings, 2021), offer equitable opportunities for academic achievement
(Varghese et al., 2021), and are rooted in humanizing values (Freire, 1976). As such, this study
defined educational justice as the creation of an education system that prioritizes humanity,
consistently supporting students' academic success and sense of belonging through just and
equitable actions. Through semi structured interviews, participants centered their roles in
educational justice work on communication between teachers, families, and students in order to
foster student well-being and academic success. Not consistently represented in participants'
responses to interview questions were their perceptions of their roles in centering students’
voices, dismantling greater systems of oppression and evaluating the effectiveness of their
124
educational justice work. Future research into these areas would expand our understanding of
classroom teachers' perceptions of their roles in educational justice.
Participants framed their roles as starting from their classroom through creating student
centered and responsive classrooms and through effective collaboration with their fellow
educators based on mutual openness and authenticity. However, participants felt that challenges
such as administrative support, personal identity, and lack of sustainable practices, including
time constraints and teacher turnover, significantly impacted their ability to engage in and sustain
this work.
While the recommendations gleaned from this study are followed in a straightforward
manner, the creative trouble this work will require is far more complex. Ultimately, study
participants' responses focused on intentional, small-scale changes as a foundation for broader
systemic transformation in educational practices. While the complex world of educational justice
reaches far beyond the classroom, the scope of this may be overwhelming for many elementary
educators. Yet, it cannot be an excuse for inaction. Justice at its core requires action (Freire,
2018). Educators may use their agency to create human centered classrooms and practices, even
if their perceptions of that agency vary depending on administrative support, time constraints or
school communities in which they work. In approximately 2,000 moments each week, educators
make key decisions on how students are spoken to, welcomed into the school, taught, managed
and cared for. Those are 2,000 moments where elementary classroom teachers can make some
positive creative trouble by pushing back against oppressive educational practices and work to
create just educational experiences for their students where their academic and social wellbeing
is centered. This work does not end there, as Kendi stated in regards to being anti racist, there is
no fixed state (2023). Each moment, classroom teachers have a choice to work to dismantle
125
systems of oppression, center student voice, create belonging for students, create equity through
centering marginalized students and their needs, advocate for students to have access to equitable
opportunities for success and wellbeing, reflect on and evaluate the reality of equity and justice
focused practices within their own classrooms and, above all, ensure that their students
experience a humanizing and liberating educational journey. This is not achieved in a moment,
but each moment where educators choose their students’ wellbeing and center them in the
classroom is meaningful. We as educators must push ourselves and take the risks and time
necessary to fill our students’ days with these moments to work collectively at all levels to
transform our education system with our students and greater communities.
Further it is critical that we focus on building school cultures that prioritize collaboration
and student-centered practices. Educators can begin within their own classrooms by reflecting on
where they can modify their teaching and classroom systems to better meet students’ needs, but
they can not end there. Additionally, the MTSS framework (OSPI, nd) currently in place
throughout the district studied, and other districts nationwide, could be used to bring together
more educators, support workers and organizations that can use their collective knowledge and
resources to better meet students’ needs. This study emphasized that classroom teachers see the
importance of starting small within their own classrooms, but desire greater support and time to
work collectively.
To address these challenges and support educators efforts, increasing state educational
funding to decrease teacher workloads and provide additional dedicated time for educators to
focus on race and equity work is critical. This will not be an easy road and will require strong
advocates and allies in the political sphere such as the work done to pass Washington State law
126
5462 (Liias, 2024). In places like Washington State the road may be smoother, but even in this
state funding is still limited and must be strongly advocated for (Roza & Dhammani, 2024).
While this study supports findings and recommendations pertaining to teachers'
perceptions of their roles in educational justice, achievement of educational justice will not be
prescriptive in nature, but built on community and the pedagogy of the oppressed to ensure it is
humanizing and liberating above all. Our current political climate and social resistance to justice
for historically marginalized communities will make this work harder (ACLU, n.d.) , but it also
makes it that more critical. This study was based on the foundational work of scholars such as
Paulo Freire, Adrienne Marie Brown and Bettina Love who all call on us to be integral changing
systems of oppression through authentic humanizing relationships and collective action. Action
and continual action is needed to one day achieve educational justice.
127
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Appendix A: Screening Questionnaire
Introduction
My name is Alisa Rutherford-Fortunati, and I am a doctoral candidate at the University of
Southern California. I am researching classroom teachers’ perceptions of their roles in
educational justice. This initial questionnaire is being shared with you because either
because you expressed an interest in participating in the study or another educator
suggested you as a potential participant. This short questionnaire is being used to make
sure that participants are purposefully selected from different locations throughout the
district and are working with elementary age students. This is part of the initial participant
screening process, after which I will choose 10-12 teachers to interview.
Ethical research is transparent and focused on your consent and wellbeing (Rubin &
Rubin, 2012). Thus, before you choose to begin this short screening questionnaire, there is
also a study information sheet you may review below.
Your information will be kept confidential in a password protected file, on a password
protected computer not owned by the district you work within. All data will be destroyed
once my dissertation has been completed.
Questions:
1. How many years have you worked in education?
2. What roles have you held during that time?
3. How many of those years have you been an elementary classroom teacher?
4. What is your current role?
149
5. What school site do you work at?
6. What are your core identities? (race, gender, belief systems, roles, etc.)
7. What is the best way to contact you with further information about this study?
[For researchers use only]
Race Gender Age Other
demographic
information
given
[Identities
not covered
by Race,
Gender, Age
that
participants
have shared.]
Years working in the
education field.
Years
working as an
elementary
school
teacher.
Area of the district
currently working
within: North,
NorthWest, South
etc.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
5
0
1011
12
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Appendix B: Teacher Interview Protocol
I. Introduction
Thank you for taking time out of what I know is a very busy schedule to contribute to this
study. While we have previously gone over key details of this interview and your rights
and risks connected to participating in this study, I’ll review a few of these now. My name
is Alisa Rutherford-Fortunati and I am a doctoral student at the University of Southern
California. I am researching how classroom teachers perceive their role in educational
justice work. I am interviewing a number of teachers like yourself who have agreed to
share their experiences related to this topic. My role as a researcher is to gather knowledge
with care and consent. Thus it important that I make it clear, there is no right answer. I
chose to collect my data through interviews because I want to hear your story, your
answers and your understanding of educational justice and your perceptions of teachers’
roles in educational justice. As we reviewed in the Study Information Sheet and the
Consent Form, any information you share with me will be kept confidential. Your words
and knowledge may be shared in the final report, but it will not be directly attributed to
you. All direct quotes will be attached to a pseudonym to protect your confidentiality. All
data will be kept on my password-protected personal computer and deleted after my
dissertation passes the defense process.
I’m going to finish the introduction by going over timing and possible recording methods
for the interview. Then I’ll see if you have any questions about the study or this interview.
The interview will take about an hour. If you give me permission to do so I would like to
record our conversation. This helps ensure I capture the full scope of what you share with
me. The recording will not be shared and will be deleted after the dissertation defense
152
process. I also have pencil and paper to record details and the ability to type as we go. So,
if you would prefer not to be recorded I have other options. You will also be given the
opportunity after this interview finishes to look over the transcript to make sure it was
recorded accurately. May I have your permission to record our conversation?
Questions
I. Background:
I’ll start by asking you some background questions and then move into how you define
your role in educational justice. Some of this will be confirming the information you
shared with me during your questionnaire.
1. What led you to become an elementary school teacher?
2. What has kept you in the teaching profession since entering it?
III. Definition:
There are many definitions of what education justice is and looks like. Some people
focus on academic achievement when they talk about it, some people focus on student
wellbeing, others come at it from a completely different angle.
3. How would you describe educational justice to someone who had never heard the term?
VI. Personal identity in educational justice work:
153
I’d like to go further into your definition and how this may connect to your own life and
work as a classroom teacher. In your description of educational justice you talked
about ___[description given by participant]_________.
4. Where does this definition come from for you?
5. How would you describe your roles in educational justice work as an elementary
classroom teacher in this district?
In your initial questionnaire, you shared the core parts of your identity as ____.
5. How does your identity as _____ impact your work on educational justice? Probe: Can
you provide a couple of examples of what this looks like in your classroom? What does
that look like outside of work hours?
6. What would you say are the greatest supports to your agency in educational justice
work?
7. What are the greatest challenges to your agency in this work?
V. Collaboration
You’ve shared important details about how your identity impacts your work in
educational justice. I’d like to go further now into how collaboration and identity
impact this work and your perceptions of your role in educational justice.
8. What role does collaboration play in your work on educational justice, if any? Probe:
Can you give me some specific examples of where and how that collaboration takes
place?
154
9. How would you describe cross-racial collaboration on educational justice at your
school?
a. Can you share a story about what this work has looked like for you?
Or (if not happening)
b. Can you share what you imagine this work would look like if you were
collaborating with people outside your racial identity?
To do a bit of future dreaming before we close this conversation for today:
10. In a world where educational justice has been achieved, what would your students’
day look like? Probe: What are the keys to achieving this dream?
Thank you so much for all you’ve shared today.
11. What else would you like to share about your classroom teachers' roles in educational
justice before we finish our conversation today?
Closing
Thank you very much for your time and willingness to share with me today. Your insights
and experiences will be an important part of this study. If I have any follow-up questions,
may I contact you? Is [how previous contact was made] still the best way to contact you?
Thank you again for participating in this study. I wish you all the best in this continued
important work.
155
Appendix C: Informed Consent/Information Sheet
University of Southern California
Rossier School of Education
3470 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles, CA 90089
INFORMATION/FACTS SHEET FOR EXEMPT NON-MEDICAL RESEARCH
A study of classroom teachers' perceptions of their role in educational justice.
You are invited to participate in a research study. Research studies include only people
who voluntarily choose to take part. This document explains information about this study.
You should ask questions about anything that is unclear to you.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
To further research on how classroom teachers perceive and define their role in
educational justice in order to expand our knowledge base on this topic and provide
material for further research and interventions that may support classroom teachers
involvement in educational justice work in relationship to student academic success and
well being.
PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT
If you agree to take part in this study, you will be asked to participate in a 60 minutes
semi-structured one-on-one interview, and a 30 minutes one-on-one follow-up interview
(if necessary). All interviews will be recorded, with your permission. You do not have to
156
answer any questions you do not want to during the interviews. If you do not want to be
taped during the interview, handwritten notes will be taken. All your answers will be
confidential.
ALTERNATIVES TO PARTICIPATION
Your alternative is to not participate. You may also opt out of the study at any time before
the dissertation is complete.
CONFIDENTIALITY
Alisa Rutherford-Fortunati will be the Principal Investigator of this study. Any identifiable
information obtained in connection with this study will remain confidential. Your
interview and answers to the screening questionnaire will be coded with a false name
(pseudonym) and maintained separately. You will have the right to review the transcripts
of the one-on-one interviews. All recordings related to this study will be destroyed once
they have been transcribed. The transcripts will be stored on a password protected
computer, which only the Principal Investigator can access.
The members of the research team and the University of Southern California’s Human
Subjects Protection Program (HSPP) may access the data. The HSPP reviews and
monitors research studies to protect the rights and welfare of research subjects.
INVESTIGATOR CONTACT INFORMATION
If you have any questions or concerns about the study, please contact the following
individuals: Principal Investigator, Alisa Rutherford-Fortunati
Faculty Advisor, Dr. Kathy Crop
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IRB CONTACT INFORMATION
University Park Institutional Review Board (UPIRB), 3720 South Flower Street
#301, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0702, (213) 821-5272 or upirb@usc.edu
Abstract (if available)
Abstract
This study examines the complex relationship between educators' identities, their perceptions of justice in education, and their role in challenging systemic inequities through collaborative practices. The research is framed by a conceptual framework that visualizes education as an interwoven cycle of justice, injustice and transformation, where teachers are seen as dynamic agents within a perpetual process of recreating or changing systems of educational injustice. The theoretical underpinnings for this study draw from critical theory, critical pedagogy, and abolitionist teaching, all of which center the agency of educators in confronting social injustices and transforming educational systems. The purpose of this study was to explore elementary classroom teachers' perceptions of their roles in educational justice, including whether they are collaborating cross-racially in this work and the challenges and supports they have experienced in this work. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Findings from this study suggest that elementary educators feel their roles in educational justice include communication with families and students, using their agency to modify classroom practices, and working collaboratively to support students. These findings frame recommendations for classroom teachers to begin educational justice work within their own spheres of influence and to use systems of support within their current schools to uplift and meet students’ needs.
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Asset Metadata
Creator
Rutherford Fortunati, Alisa
(author)
Core Title
Creative trouble: an exploration of elementary classroom teachers' perceptions of their roles in educational justice
School
Rossier School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Education
Degree Program
Education (Leadership)
Degree Conferral Date
2024-12
Publication Date
01/08/2025
Defense Date
12/12/2024
Publisher
Los Angeles, California
(original),
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
educational justice,OAI-PMH Harvest,Teachers,Washington State
Format
theses
(aat)
Language
English
Contributor
Electronically uploaded by the author
(provenance)
Advisor
Krop, Cathy (
committee chair
), Green, Alan (
committee member
), Kishimoto, Christina (
committee member
)
Creator Email
amruther@usc.edu,arfortunati@gmail.com
Unique identifier
UC11399F7VD
Identifier
etd-Rutherford-13718.pdf (filename)
Legacy Identifier
etd-Rutherford-13718
Document Type
Dissertation
Format
theses (aat)
Rights
Rutherford Fortunati, Alisa
Internet Media Type
application/pdf
Type
texts
Source
20250109-usctheses-batch-1231
(batch),
University of Southern California
(contributing entity),
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
(collection)
Access Conditions
The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright.
Repository Name
University of Southern California Digital Library
Repository Location
USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA
Repository Email
cisadmin@lib.usc.edu
Tags
educational justice
Washington State