In-school racial segregation, also called second-generation segregation, is a social dynamic that is manifest in different and complicated ways in schoolhouses across the United States. This study sought to investigate how building-level leadership facilitates or impedes the practice of racial equity in an urban high school, from teachers’ and administrators’ perspectives.
Purpose
The primary purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate how educational leaders perceive and influence second-generation segregation in urban secondary schools.
Research Design
As the purpose of the study was to ascertain leaders’ perspectives, we followed a dialogic methodological approach used in studies seeking to investigate similar perceptual phenomena. This methodology emphasizes both personal narrative and dialogue. This study took place in a single urban high school in the southeastern United States over the course of two academic years.
Conclusions/Recommendations
The study revealed that both formal and informal leadership influenced second-generation segregation in the school. The authors conclude with recommendations for improving future research focusing on the topic and with recommendations for improved practice.
As a beginning teacher, I was given low-level classes. Kids that need remedial help. They were predominantly Black. As I gained years there, I started getting honors classes. They were overwhelmingly White. Right now, I have one Black child in my honors class, out of twenty-seven.
Teacher Peter Soderstrom, quoted in Studs Terkel's Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel about the American Obsession (1992, p. 192).
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