Race-Conscious Approaches Addressing the Ecologies of Racial Discipline Disparities: Promoting School Professionals’ Understanding of Individual and Institutional Racism

Abstract

Racial disparities in school discipline meaningfully impact youth's psychological, educational, and carceral trajectories. Interrupting these patterns requires contextual strategies that explicitly attend to school professionals’ racial bias and awareness of structural racism. Yet approaches toward this end are emerging and have not yet been synthesized. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review of empirical research published in peer-reviewed journals from 2012 to 2022. The review included studies in the United States that were ecological and race-conscious by targeting school professionals’ awareness of individual and institutional racism. Our findings include 62 studies of these practices and policies.