This article details the struggles that principals faced as they sought to enact an equity-oriented agenda. Utilizing a qualitative approach combined with principles of autoethnography, seven urban principals described the resistance they faced “at every turn” in their pursuit of equity and social justice. This resistance was produced by such factors as the scope of the principalship, the momentum of the status quo, obstructive staff attitudes and beliefs, privileged parental expectations, formidable bureaucracy, unsupportive central-office administrators, prosaic colleagues, a lack of resources, harmful state and federal regulations, and principal preparation. These leaders also explained the physical and emotional toll they experienced as a result of facing this resistance.
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