Progress Is Progress: A Collective Narrative Inquiry Exploring the Experiences of Social Justice Educators in a Private, PK–Eighth Grade School

<p>Since 2020, education in the United States has been impacted by a tumultuous and divisive sociopolitical context. After echoes of progress in 2020, education witnessed retrenchments and rollbacks with an influx of anticritical raced theory measures, book bans, and an uptick of parental control initiatives in schools across the country. Private education had an opportunity to respond to a call for social improvements regarding racial equity and LGBTQ+ representation and adapt their curriculum to address the concerns of historically marginalized populations through diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice (DEIJ) initiatives. Rooted in a theoretical framework of critical pedagogy, this study explored the experience of private school PK–eighth grade educators as they navigated a challenging social and political context. Invested in social justice work, these educators discussed educational spaces that centered DEIJ content. In a qualitative, collective, and coconstructed narrative inquiry, a dialogue group of seven educators met over the course of a school year and shared stories that reflected what their students and classes were grappling with each day. The educators’ stories and data revealed the challenges and successes of teachers in private, independent schools as they pursued DEIJ work in classroom settings. The findings of this study indicated DEIJ content and topics were present in the school community with students and teachers, dialogical spaces fostered humanizing communities, educators developed critical consciousness, private schools maintained oppressive systems, and teachers experienced disillusionment during the first Trump era.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Year

2024

Author dc:creator

• Roady, Nicole

Contributors dc:contributor

• Lilia Monzo
• Gregory Warren
• Suzanne SooHoo

• private schools
• teachers
• dialogue
• DEI
• social justice
• critical consciousness

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/education_dissertations/91

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.chapman.edu:education_dissertations-1090