The attacks on DEI efforts on college campuses, the banning of books by Black authors in primary and secondary schools, and the policy actions taken by governors and school boards across America require critical scholars to imagine a liberatory space that challenges organizational hierarchies. This Research Topic provides an opportunity to engage across fields and within the discipline to discuss and strategize how to advance our understanding of racism and organizational change. Educational change often centralizes the individual, which creates situations where change becomes dependent on individual learning. Although individual learning and reflection are important for organizational change, they do not transform organizations, thus limiting organizational change. Both K-12 and higher education scholars have argued that transformative change requires multi-level, multi-stakeholder efforts. However, we assert that the focus on transformative educational change must be rooted in the organizational routines that K-12 schools and higher education universities and colleges enact.
We present this call to action using our research studies and experiences working with educators as a mosaic to create a comprehensive understanding of how racial equity functions in various education organizations. Victor Ray’s (2019) bold theoretical assertion that organizations are racialized and coupled with Ladson-Billings and Tate (1995) explanation of how race permeates education should have spurred more research on the necessity for organizations to be the starting point for racial equity, not the individual. In today’s education landscape, equity initiatives are simultaneously ubiquitous and highly contested. While diversity, as a concept, is generally lauded as a necessary component of academic excellence in P-21 education, the sustained and meaningful uptake of racial equity in educational organizations is much less common. We present a call to action for scholars to focus not solely on the leaders tasked with making organizations racially equitable but also on reaching across organizations to learn how to transform P-21 into racially just organizations.
We invite submissions that cover various aspects, encompassing both theoretical conceptualizations and empirical studies, and perspectives. We encourage diverse methodologies and critical framing of the issue. We welcome high-quality Original Research articles, Reviews, Mini-Reviews, Systematic Reviews, and more.
Key areas of interest include, but are not strictly limited to:
• Organizational Learning & Racial Equity/ Anti-racism
• Organizational Transforming & Racial Equity/ Anti-racism
• Understanding tension and conflicts & Racial Equity/ Anti-racism
• District - Level change
• System - Level change
• Policy
• Leadership Efforts with a focus on Organizational Change Efforts
Keywords:
Racial Equity, Leadership, Organizational Change, Organizational Transformation, DEI
Important Note:
All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
The attacks on DEI efforts on college campuses, the banning of books by Black authors in primary and secondary schools, and the policy actions taken by governors and school boards across America require critical scholars to imagine a liberatory space that challenges organizational hierarchies. This Research Topic provides an opportunity to engage across fields and within the discipline to discuss and strategize how to advance our understanding of racism and organizational change. Educational change often centralizes the individual, which creates situations where change becomes dependent on individual learning. Although individual learning and reflection are important for organizational change, they do not transform organizations, thus limiting organizational change. Both K-12 and higher education scholars have argued that transformative change requires multi-level, multi-stakeholder efforts. However, we assert that the focus on transformative educational change must be rooted in the organizational routines that K-12 schools and higher education universities and colleges enact.
We present this call to action using our research studies and experiences working with educators as a mosaic to create a comprehensive understanding of how racial equity functions in various education organizations. Victor Ray’s (2019) bold theoretical assertion that organizations are racialized and coupled with Ladson-Billings and Tate (1995) explanation of how race permeates education should have spurred more research on the necessity for organizations to be the starting point for racial equity, not the individual. In today’s education landscape, equity initiatives are simultaneously ubiquitous and highly contested. While diversity, as a concept, is generally lauded as a necessary component of academic excellence in P-21 education, the sustained and meaningful uptake of racial equity in educational organizations is much less common. We present a call to action for scholars to focus not solely on the leaders tasked with making organizations racially equitable but also on reaching across organizations to learn how to transform P-21 into racially just organizations.
We invite submissions that cover various aspects, encompassing both theoretical conceptualizations and empirical studies, and perspectives. We encourage diverse methodologies and critical framing of the issue. We welcome high-quality Original Research articles, Reviews, Mini-Reviews, Systematic Reviews, and more.
Key areas of interest include, but are not strictly limited to:
• Organizational Learning & Racial Equity/ Anti-racism
• Organizational Transforming & Racial Equity/ Anti-racism
• Understanding tension and conflicts & Racial Equity/ Anti-racism
• District - Level change
• System - Level change
• Policy
• Leadership Efforts with a focus on Organizational Change Efforts
Keywords:
Racial Equity, Leadership, Organizational Change, Organizational Transformation, DEI
Important Note:
All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.