Walking the Line Between Saviorism and Social Activism: A Positionality Perspective on Gentrifier Parents’ Navigating School Choice

Abstract

This qualitative meta-analysis reanalyzed interview data from five studies to examine how 163 racially diverse gentrifier parents in Washington, D.C., and New York City experienced a tension between their desire to serve the school community and common good and to be served by educational institutions and impart their own values and priorities. As they navigate their community and school choice processes, our analysis shows how “socially conscious” gentrifiers’ reconcile the fine line they walk between saviorism and social activism. The results have implications for educational stakeholders to recognize and disrupt saviorism tendencies among gentrifier parents and enact policy changes for equity.

Keywords

gentrification parental school choice diversity saviorism social activism

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aalbers

(2019). Introduction to The Forum: From third to fifth-wave gentrification. Journal of Economic and Human Geography, 110(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.12332

Bladen

Mateyka

(5 September 2023). 50 years of PD&Rs gentrification research Office of Policy Development and Research. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr-edge-pdrat50-090523.html

Brown-Saracino

(2009). A neighborhood that never changes: Gentrification, social preservation, and the search for authenticity. University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/9780226076645

Brummet

Reed

(2019). The Effects of Gentrification on the Well-Being and Opportunity of Original Resident Adults and Children,” Working Papers 19–30, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Butler

(2022). What’s best for my child, what’s best for the city: Values and tensions in parent gentrifiers’ middle and high school selection processes. Urban Review, 54, 255–276. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-021-00614-1

Butler

Lees

(2006). Super-gentrification in Barnsbury, London: Globalization and gentrifying global elites at the neighbourhood level. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 31(4), 467–487. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2006.00220.x

Butler

Robson

(2003). Plotting the middle classes: Gentrification and circuits of education in London. Housing Studies, 18(1), 5–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267303032000076812

Candipan

(2019). Neighbourhood change and the neighbourhood-school gap. Urban Studies, 56(15), 3308–3333. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098018819075

Casellas

Dot-Jutgla

Pallares-Barbera

(2012). Artists, cultural gentrification and public policy. Urban Challenge, 23(1), S104–S114. https://doi.org/10.5379/urbani-izziv-en-2012-23-supplement-1-010

10.

Cocola-Gant

(2019). Gentrification and displacement: Urban inequality in cities of late capitalism. In Schwanen

Van Kempen

(Eds.), Handbook of urban geography (pp. 297–310). Edward Elgar Publishing.

11.

Cohen

(2021). NYC school segregation report card: Still last, action needed Now. UCLACivil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles. https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integration-anddiversity/nyc-school-segregation-report-card-still-last-action-needed-now/NYC_6-09-final-for-post.pdf

12.

Cole

(2012, March 21). The white savior industrial complex. The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/03/the-white-savior-industrialcomplex/254843/2/

13.

Cooper

C. W.

(2005). School choice and the standpoint of African American mothers: Considering the power of positionality. The Journal of Negro Education, 74(2), 174–189. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40034542

14.

Cucchiara

M. B.

(2013). Marketing schools, marketing cities: Who wins and who loses when schools become urban amenities. The University of Chicago Press.

15.

Cucchiara

M. B.

Horvat

E. M.

(2009). Perils and promises: Middle-class parental involvement in urban schools. American Educational Research Journal, 46(4), 974–1004. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831209345791 .

16.

Cucchiara

M. B.

Horvat

E. M.

(2014). Choosing selves: The salience of parental identity in the school choice process. Journal of Education Policy, 29(4), 486–509. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2013.849760

17.

D.C. Policy Center. (2022). 2020–21 State of D.C. schools. https://www.dcpolicycenter.org/publications/state-of-dc-schools-20-21

18.

Debs

Kafka

Makris

M. V.

Roda

(2023). Happiness oriented parents: An alternative perspective on privilege and choosing schools. American Journal of Education. OnlineFirst. https://doi.org/10.1086/723066

19.

Debs

Makris

M. V.

Castillo

Rodriguez

Smith

Ingall

J. S.

(2022). Building civic capacity: The history and landscape of NYC integration activism, 2012-2021. Teachers College Record, 124(6), 118–150. https://doi.org/10.1177/01614681221111426

20.

Diamond

J. B.

Lewis

A. E.

(2022). Opportunity hoarding and the maintenance of “white” educational space. American Behavioral Scientist, 66(11), 1470–1489. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642211066048

21.

Ellen

O’Regan

(2011). How low income neighborhoods change: Entry, exit, and enhancement. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 41(2), 89–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2010.12.005

22.

Elliot-Cooper

Hubbard

Lees

(2020). Moving beyond Marcuse: Gentrification, displacement, and the violence of unhoming. Progress in Human Geography, 44(3), 492–509. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132519830511

23.

Evans

S. A.

(2024). “I wanted diversity, but not so much”: Middle-class white parents, school choice, and the persistence of anti-Black stereotypes. Urban Education, 59(3), 911–940. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420859211031952

24.

Freidus

(2019). “A great school benefits us all:” Advantaged parents and the gentrification of an urban public school. Urban Education, 54(8), 1121–1148. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085916636656

25.

Golann

Debs

Weiss

(2019). ‘To be strict on your own:’ Black and Latinx parents evaluate discipline in urban choice schools. American Journal of Educational Research, 56(5), 1896–1929. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831219831972

26.

Hannah-Jones

(27 February 2015). Gentrification doesn’t fix inner-city schools. Grist https://grist.org/cities/gentrification-doesnt-fix-inner-city-schools/

27.

Vincent

Butler

(2015). Everyday and cosmo-multiculturalisms: Doing diversity in gentrifying school communities. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 36(6), 658–675. https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2015.1095715

28.

Hwang

Lei

(2020). Unequal displacement: Gentrification, racial stratification, and residential destinations in Philadelphia. American Journal of Sociology, 126(2), 354–406. https://doi.org/10.1086/711015

29.

Hyra

(2017). Race, class, and politics in the Cappuccino City. The University of Chicago Press.

30.

Hyra

Fullilove

Moulden

Silva

(2020). Contextualizing gentrification chaos: The rise of the fifth wave. Draft Version, https://www.american.edu/spa/metro-policy/upload/contextualizing-gentrification-chaos.pdf

31.

Ishimaru

A. M.

Galloway

M. K.

(2020). Hearts and minds first: Institutional logics in pursuit of educational equity. Educational Administration Quarterly, 57(3), 470–502. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X20947459

32.

Karsten

(2003). Family gentrifiers: Challenging the city as a place simultaneously to build a career and to raise children. Urban Studies, 40(12), 2573–2584. https://doi.org//10.1080/0042098032000136228

33.

Kezar

(2002). Reconstructing static images of leadership: An application of positionality theory. Journal of Leadership Studies, 8(3), 94–109. https://doi.org/10.1177/107179190200800308

34.

Kimelberg

S. M.

Billingham

(2013). Attitudes toward diversity and the school choice process: Middle-class parents in a segregated urban public school district. Urban Education, 48(2), 198–231. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085912449629

35.

Lees

Slater

Wyly

(2008). Gentrification. Routledge.

36.

Leonardo

(2007). The war on schools: NCLB, nation creation and the educational construction of whiteness. Race Ethnicity and Education, 10(3), 261–278. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613320701503249

37.

Mader

Hemphill

Abbas

(2018). The paradox of choice: How school choice divides New York City elementary schools. Center for New York City Affairs. http://www.centernyc.org/the-paradox-of-choice

38.

Makris

M. V.

(2015). Public housing and school choice in a gentrified city: Youth experiences of uneven opportunity. Palgrave Macmillan.

39.

Makris

M. V.

(2018). The chimera of choice: Gentrification, school choice, and community. Peabody Journal of Education, 93(4), 411–429. https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2018.1488394

40.

Makris

M. V.

Brown

(2017). School development in urban gentrifying spaces: Developers supporting schools or schools supporting developers? Journal of Urban Affairs, 42(4), 571–594. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2017.1360735

41.

Mann

Bennett

Rogers

(2020). Gentrification, charter schools, and enrollment patterns in Washington, D.C.: Shared growth or new forms of educational inequality? Peabody Journal of Education, 95(3), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2020.1776070

42.

Mann

Rogers

(2025). The inequality of the long game in a city with school choice and changing racial demographics. Urban Education, 60(2), 434–466. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420859231153415

43.

Mansaray

(2022). Class, culture and control: The transformation of educational work in a gentrifying primary school. Research Papers in Education, 37(4), 496–519. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2020.1849377

44.

Mayorga-Gallo

(2019). The white-centering logic of diversity ideology. American Behavioral Scientist, 63(13), 1789–1809. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764219842619

45.

McCormick

Rodney

Varcoe

(2003). Reinterpretations across studies: An approach to meta-analysis. Qualitative Health Research, 13(7), 933–944. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732303253480

46.

Menken

Espinet

Avni

(2024). “There was nothing here:” School leaders using dual language bilingual education programs as a formula to re-engineer student populations for school turnaround. Educational Policy, 38(2), 448–478. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904823115991

47.

Milner

H. R.

IV . (2007). Race, culture, and researcher positionality: Working through dangers seen, unseen, and unforeseen. Educational Researcher, 36(7), 388–400. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X07309471

48.

Milner

H. R.

IV . (2012). But what is urban education? Urban Education, 47(3), 556–561. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085912447516

49.

Milner

H. R.

IV Lomotey

(2021). Handbook on urban education (2nd ed.). Routledge.

50.

Mordechay

(2022). A double edge sword: Tensions of integration amidst a diversifying public school. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 21(4), 901–921. https://doi.org/10.1080/15700763.2021.1879165

51.

Mordechay

Ayscue

J. B.

(2019). School integration in gentrifying neighborhoods: Evidence from New York City. UCLA Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles. https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integration-and-diversity/school-integration-in-gentrifying-neighborhoods-evidence-from-new-york-city/

52.

Mordechay

Ayscue

J. B.

(2020). Does neighborhood gentrification create school desegregation? Teachers College Record, 122(5), 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146812012200505 .

53.

Murray

Domina

Petts

Renzulli

Boylan

(2020). ‘We’re in This Together:’ Bridging and bonding social capital in elementary school PTOs. American Educational Research Journal, 57(5), 2210–2244. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831220908848

54.

Parker

Ternullo

(2024). Gentrifiers evading stigma: Social integrationists in the neighborhood of the future. Social Problems, 71(2), 437–454. https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spac026

55.

Pattillo

(2007). Black on the Block: The politics of race and class in the city. The University of Chicago Press.

56.

Pearman

F. A.

Swain

W. A.

(2017). School choice, gentrification and the variable significance of racial stratification in urban neighborhoods. Sociology of Education, 90(3), 213–235. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038040717710494

57.

Perez

(2004). The Near Northwest Side story: Migration, displacement, and Puerto Rican families. University of California Press.

58.

Posey-Maddox

de Royston

M. M.

Holman

Rall

Johnson

(2021). No choice is the ‘right’ choice: Black parents’ educational decision-making in their search for a ‘good’ school. Harvard Educational Review, 91(1), 38–61. https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-91.1.38

59.

Posey-Maddox

Kimelberg

S. M.

Cucchiara

(2014). Middle class parents and urbans public schools: Current research and future directions. Sociology Compass, 8(4), 446–456. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12148 .

60.

Posey-Maddox

Powell

S. N.

Roda

Lenhoff

S. W.

Miller

E. O.

(2025). Advantaged families’ opportunity hoarding in U.S. K-12 education: A systematic review of the literature. Review of Educational Research. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543241304766

61.

Reay

Hollingworth

Williams

Crozier

Jamieson

James

Beedell

(2007). “A darker shade of pale?” Whiteness, the middle classes and multi-ethnic inner city schooling. Sociology, 41(6), 1041–1060. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038507082314

62.

Richardson

Mitchell

Franco

(2019). Shifting neighborhoods: Gentrification and cultural displacement in American cities. NCRC. https://ncrc.org/gentrification/

63.

Roda

(2015). Inequality in gifted and talented programs: Parental choices about status, school opportunity, and second-generation segregation. Palgrave Macmillan.

64.

Roda

(2018). School choice and the politics of parenthood: Exploring parent mobilization as a catalyst for the common good. Peabody Journal of Education, 93(4), 430–449. https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2018.1488400

65.

Roda

(2023). “Holding the line:” Investigating how urban school leaders’ respond to gentrification in New York City schools. Urban Education, 58(10), 2515–2542. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085920959137

66.

Roda

Menken

(2024). The conflation of dual language bilingual education with gifted programs in New York City schools. Educational Policy, OnlineFirst. https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048241237724

67.

Roda

Sattin-Bajaj

(2023). Meritocracy and advantaged parents’ perceptions of the fairness of school choice policies for all families. Educational Policy, 38(4), 937–969. https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048231174878

68.

Sattin-Bajaj

Roda

(2020). Opportunity hoarding in school choice contexts: The role of policy design in promoting middle class parents’ exclusionary behaviors. Educational Policy, 34(7), 992–1035. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904818802106

69.

Schlichtman

J. J.

Patch

Hill

M. L.

(2017). Gentrifier. University of Toronto Press.

70.

Shapiro

(26 March 2019). Segregation has been the story of New York City’s schools for 50 years. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/26/nyregion/school-segregation-new-york.html

71.

Siegel-Hawley

Thachik

Bridges

(2016). Reform with reinvestment: Values and tensions in gentrifying urban schools. Education and Urban Society, 49(4), 403–433. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013124516643763

72.

Small

M. L.

Cook

J. M.

(2023). Using interviews to understand why: Challenges and strategies in the study of motivated action. Sociological Methods & Research, 52(4), 1591–1631. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124121995552

73.

Stein

(20 September 2019). As cities gentrify and schools diversify, PTOs grapple to ensure all parent voices are heard. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/as-cities-gentrify-and-schools-diversify-ptos-grapple-to-ensure-all-parent-voices-are-heard/2019/09/20/50314488-7277-11e9-8be0-ca575670e91c_story.html

74.

Steinmetz-Wood

Wasfi

Parker

Bornstein

Caron

Kestens

(2017). Is gentrification all bad? Positive association between gentrification and individual’s perceived neighborhood collective efficacy in Montreal, Canada. International Journal of Health Geographics, 16(24), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12942-017-0096-6

75.

Thomson

(5 November 2014). Tracing the history of an idea as “gentrification” turns 50. Curbed. https://ny.curbed.com/2014/11/5/10026804/tracing-the-history-of-an-idea-as-gentrification-turns-50

76.

Underhill

M. R.

(2019). ‘Diversity is important to me’: White parents and exposure-to-diversity parenting practices. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 5(4), 486–499. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332649218790992

77.

White

(25 May 2015). The G word: Gentrification and its many meanings. TheAtlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/05/the-g-word-gentrification-and-its-many-meanings/394016/

78.

Zukin

(1987). Gentrification: Culture and capital in the urban core. Annual Review of Sociology, 13, 129–147. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.13.080187.001021