Mo’ Data,Mo’ Problems: Making Sense of Racial Discipline Disparities in a Large Diversifying Suburban High School

Abstract

Purpose: This article explores the effects of sensemaking interventions on a group of educators’ race-conscious problem analysis of racial discipline disparities. Research Method: I conducted this research in a predominantly White diversifying suburban high school that served roughly1,600 students. To understand how sensemaking interventions shaped teachers’ racial ways of knowing, I conducted an ethnographic content analysis of 14 transcribed teacher focus group and data retreat exchanges to identify conversational patterns related to their problem framings. Findings: I found that providing diverse data types reflecting a range of racial perspectives offered cues that enabled organizational members to notice and (partially) disrupt the personal and organizational racism and race-evasive tendencies that drive the reproduction of racial inequities in school discipline. Implications for Research and Practice: Offering teachers sensemaking opportunities that prompt collective racial awareness and critical self-reflection can instigate shifts in racial ways of knowing that are critical to understanding and addressing discipline culture and climate problems in racially diversifying schools.