Getting It “Right”: Educators’ Experiences With School Diversity in a Gentrifying Neighborhood

Schools in gentrifying neighborhoods often experience
demographic changes in enrollment. The purpose of this qualitative holistic case
study is to describe how leaders and teachers in a diversifying elementary
school in a gentrifying neighborhood perceive and experience diversity. Drawing
on Turner’s (2017) value of diversity framework, we use inductive coding to
analyze interviews and also use documents to inform our findings. Although
Greenleaf was striving to be intentionally diverse, consensus did not exist
about the meaning of “diversity” or the desired form of diversity. Challenges
associated with decentering Whiteness and resisting upholding the racial
contract existed as educators worked to establish a shared mission, ensure
diverse staff voice and representation with a White leader, and navigate
complications of power and privilege among White families. Educators
highlighted the value of diversity for developing students’ multicultural
capital and global cosmopolitanism as well as the collective benefit of
reducing divisiveness for our nation.

处于绅士化进程的社区内的学校，其招生人口结构往往会发生变化。本研究为定性整体案例研究，旨在描述身处绅士化社区的一所生源日趋多元的小学中，管理者与教师如何感知并体验多样性。本研究援引特纳（Turner, 2017）的多样性价值框架，采用归纳编码法对访谈资料展开分析，并辅以文档资料以支撑研究发现。尽管格林利夫（Greenleaf）学校始终致力于刻意打造多元环境，但相关群体并未就“多样性”的内涵与理想的多样性模式达成共识。在教育工作者致力于确立共同使命、确保在白人管理者主导下实现教职工群体的多元声音与代表性、以及协调白人家庭间权力与特权的复杂纠葛之际，存在着与消解白人中心主义、抵制维护种族契约相关的诸多挑战。教育工作者强调了多样性的多重价值：既有助于培养学生的多元文化资本与全球世界主义素养，也能为国家带来减少内部分裂的集体益处。