Changing for good: embedding antiracist changes in educational institutions

An actionable conceptual framework embedding antiracist institutional changes in education.

Introduction: 

As a result of the authors’ perception that educational institutions’ current efforts to promote racial justice are simply platitudes, the authors use this study to advocate for organizational changes within educational institutions to promote racial equity. The authors note that shifting individual behaviors does not yield institutional progression in regards to racial equity. Antiracism must be embedded within the institution and underscored by equity-driven ideologies. Hence, this study focuses on application. The study establishes a conceptual framework, which draws upon literature from the fields of change management and antiracist education, to assist educational institutions in implementing and advancing a racial justice agenda. 

This study is co-authored by three researchers: Dr. Anjalé D. Welton, Department Chair and Rupple-Bascom Professor of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Welton’s research seeks  to understand how educational leaders address race and racism in their respective institutions. She holds a PhD degree in Educational Administration from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Devean R. Owens holds a PhD in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership from the University  of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is an expert in race and gender issues. She designs and executes data-driven interventions to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Dr. Owens writes extensively on DEI in education. Dr. Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher holds a PhD in Higher Education Administration with a specialization in Community College Leadership and Educational Evaluation from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is a Professor of Higher Education and Community College Leadership at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Zamani-Gallaher’s research focuses on marginalized student populations in marginalized institutional contexts. 

Methods and Findings: 

To create their framework, the authors conducted a literature focused on two topic areas: (1) antiracism within the field of education and (2) organizational change.

Antiracism within the field of education 

With the first literature review, the researchers’ analysis reveals that educational institutions play essential roles in halting pervasive exclusionary cycles. The analysis also illustrates antiracist pedagogy and some instruments of individual learning, like restructuring the teacher leadership development programs, increases educators’ capacity to hold environments where critical racial discussions can be pursued by their students. Antiracist pedagogy may help overcome resistance of ingrained “whiteness” behaviors that hinder antiracism. Lastly, the findings show that systemic commitments are crucial for addressing racism at an institutional level, which extends beyond traditional individual education. 

Organizational change

In the second literature review, the authors shift to interrogating  organizational change to better understand the practical components of instituting change. Their analysis began by defining “change” within an organizational context. The analysis reinforced the importance of intentionality in resetting the organizational direction when embarking upon institutional change. Next, the literature review highlighted the importance of making considerations regarding the  context and conditions that may affect the proposed change plans, the focus of change, the scale of change, and the degree of intended changes.   Lastly, the literature review highlighted the importance of leadership to ensure that a necessary  cultural shift accompanies the goals set throughout the change process.

This study develops a conceptual framework for leaders of educational institutions (both in PK-12 and higher education contexts) to facilitate real systemic antiracist change. They provide two applied examples to showcase their framework: (1)  a potential action plan to combat the overrepresentation of Black students for discipline referrals within a PK-12 educational setting and (2);   the implementation of a strategy for diversifying the undergraduate and graduate student populations within higher education institutions. The following table summarizes the researchers’ conceptual framework that emphasizes how institutional change and antiracist ideology should converge to drive an antiracist agenda within educational contexts. 

Conceptual Framework for Antracist Change 

Change Level: Context and Conditions 

• Antiracism Pedagogy, Individual Learning and Resistance: Assess Teachers’ Belief Systems 
• Antiracism Systemic Level Commitment: Examine Current Disciplinary Data 

Change Level: Focus (Structural, Process, Attitude) 

• Antiracism Pedagogy, Individual Learning and Resistance: Use Institutional Feedback and Teacher Assessments 
• Antiracism Systemic Level Commitment: Review School Level Policies for Discipline 

Change Level: Scale and Degree

• Antiracism Pedagogy, Individual Learning and Resistance: Change how teachers talk about Black students 
• Antiracism Systemic Level Commitment: Change District-wide Institutional Scripts 

Change Level: Leadership

• Antiracism Pedagogy, Individual Learning and Resistance: Help Individual Educators and Staff Take Responsibility for racial inequities experienced by students of color
• Antiracism Systemic Level Commitment: Host District and School Level Meetings to Relay Vision Regarding Antiracism 

Change Level: Continuous Improvement 

• Antiracism Pedagogy, Individual Learning and Resistance: Continuous Implicit Bias Training and Racial Dialogues 
• Antiracism Systemic Level Commitment: Continuous Implicit Bias Training and Racial Dialogues 

*All aforementioned antiracism activities are examples. 

Conclusions: 

In spite of the institutionalized effects of racism in our society, institutions have failed to address racial injustices thoughtfully and critically, which ultimately has led to perpetual, pervasive cycles of racism.  The authors use America’s educational system as a reflection of this dynamic.

Therefore, the authors urge educators to acquire equity-based skills that enable them to respond to circumstances where White superiority arises within educational institutions. Institutions must challenge whiteness and re-center their organizational culture to address the inequities that are accentuated by the educational system. 

Through the researchers’ framework, they attempt to provide readers with action-oriented pathways focused on antiracism that can yield equitable outcomes across diverse groups of learners. Their framework also promotes an organic and dynamic concept: antiracism work is complex, continuous, and challenging, which means that antiracism represents a task for all educators and leaders.

Afrotourism: impacts on reducing racial inequality and affirming Black identity in Brazil

Introduction

Afro-entrepreneurship is a growing field of practice and focus of research. Yet, researchers themselves vary on their perspectives of this term, and its related meaning to Black-owned companies or Black entrepreneurship. Dr. Natália Araújo de Oliveira, the author of the article, frames the discussion of these topics around the business engagement in Brazil with the Black community. In her research, Afro-entrepreneurship presupposes a focus on strengthening Black culture and identity through its functioning; Black entrepreneurship and Black business owners can be pivotal for representation in management positions. Yet, this does not necessarily mean these companies will apply different business models based on race.

Afrotourism can consist of popularizing Afro-centered narratives, as well as experiences, lodging, and services associated with Black culture. Revenue-generating activities of these businesses may include tours, pedagogical journeys, and accommodation in key historical places for Black people. Additionally, this approach may include changes to the recruitment process for staff and the distribution of profits to invest in Black communities. In this article, the author surveyed 15 Afro-entrepreneurs in various parts of Brazil and mapped several ways in which these initiatives contribute to reducing racial inequality, and in turn, affirm Black identity. The study is a pioneering effort to understand this phenomenon and new ways of doing business.

Natália Araújo de Oliveira earned her PhD degree in Sociology from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul – UFRGS (Porto Alegre/RS, Brazil). Her research focuses on tourism and racial relations. She is an adjunct professor at Universidade Federal de Pelotas’ Center for Socio-Organizational Sciences and the vice-leader of the university’s research group on Gender, Race, and Intersectionalities in Tourism (GRITU). Her previous research focuses on other historically marginalized or excluded people in Brazil, including Xavantes, Black women, and Native populations.

Methods and Findings

In this article, Araújo de Oliveira employs a qualitative research method and grounds the study in assessing Brazil’s first afrotourism national conference in 2019, inspired by the “Black Money” concept popularized by Jamaican-born civil rights activist Marcus Garvey.

Garvey defended ideas to empower Black populations worldwide and generate wealth within Black communities. Besides starting several organizations targeting Black clients, his ideas inspired ideas such as Black-owned banks and the establishment of Black nationalist movements across the world. 

In 2020, an independent group of Tourism-related companies officially completed Brazil’s first mapping of afrotourism initiatives. Observing initiatives that achieved national prominence in tourism magazines in 2020, Araújo de Oliveira compiled a list of known Afro-entrepreneurs and contacted them through social media. The researcher applied snowball sampling to find additional applicable entrepreneur participants. The article summarizes the answers of 15 respondents to an online survey, including an open-ended question: “How can Afro-entrepreneurship contribute to the reduction of racial inequality and for the affirmation of black identity in Brazil?” Survey respondents overwhelmingly identified as female, ranging in age from 18 to 59, and with the majority having obtained a university degree.

Findings indicated seven benefits of Afro-entrepreneurship cited by participants for the field of afrotourism:

• Reclaims Black historical narratives and memory. The practice of afrotourism operationalizes resistance to the “erasure of history through marginalization” in mainstream Euro-centric tourist activities, and rescues histories that are pivotal for understanding Brazilian equitable values and culture which may typically be hidden by mainstream white interpretations of the past.
• Generates and injects income and working capital for the Brazilian Afro-descendant population, through entrepreneurship by and for Black communities. This contributes to narrowing the racial wealth gap and inequality.
• Embeds antiracism in business models by building engagement with customers centered on Black empowerment. Afro-entrepreneurship redesigns business relationships with tourism customers and employees to serve a purpose beyond profit-making. 
• Fosters a united platform of Black entrepreneurs who value Black ancestry, yielding internal investment in Black communities as an integral part of the country’s history and economy.
• Creates positive imagery for Black people that confront racist dominant narratives. An example is Black.Diaspora, an organization working with training and consulting using innovative methodologies to foster educational experiences and conscious tourism focused on strengthening Black culture’s recognition.
• Institutes healthy and positive image representation for younger generations through the new narratives of Black culture.

Conclusions

A rising trend among Afro-entrepreneurs in Brazil, afrotourism challenges dominant Blackness narratives and contributes to reducing historical racial inequalities. The strengthening of Black identity is crucial to rewriting social narratives of exclusion, exoticization, and marginalization of Black people throughout Brazilian history. Afrotourism is a key activity to uncover hidden stories and to boost the popularity of tourist attractions typically relegated to secondary importance. Moreover, creating an industry for Black entrepreneurs to be proud of their identity counters the societal narrative that distancing oneself from Blackness places individuals in higher tiers of social hierarchies. This effect changes the images of Black people within the tourism industry and serves as a pedagogical tool for younger generations as a whole. While Afro-entrepreneurship is a relatively new phenomenon in Brazil and the research available is limited, this article serves as critical initial exploration of this growing trend in one of Brazil’s most profitable industries.