When School Desegregation Fuels Educational Reform: Lessons from Suburban St. Louis

Abstract

This article examines the impact of a metropolitan-wide school desegregation plan on the attitudes and experiences of a handful of suburban school teachers. Instead of resisting the change that came with a sudden influx of African American students from the inner city into their once all-White suburban schools and classrooms, these educators embraced the new racial and ethnic diversity. The findings presented here focus on the voices of these reform minded, or visionary, teachers and demonstrate ways in which the desegregation plan increased teachers' critical awareness of the status quo; that is, the Eurocentric curriculum, the tracking system, and the ways in which students, particularly Black students, are treated by teachers in their schools. We also explain why the presence of racially distinct students into previously all-White schools led these visionary teachers to focus more intently on the individual needs of all students and why such a change helped them better serve many White students whom they had not reached before.