Courageous journeys: developing equity mindsets

The passion for this study is grounded in my hope for assuring an excellent and equitable education for all students. Under current school conditions, we can have a better chance of achieving this when we focus our attention on transforming school culture by promoting social justice and mindset shifts. Although the scope of the study did not focus on transforming school culture, the practices of an educator with an equity mindset can potentially help set the stage for this institutional transformation. This institutional transformation is driven by the personal transformation of educators’ mindsets that result in a critical racial awareness that I have described as an equity mindset. The educators in this study had been engaged in a process of learning to talk about race as it related to educational disparities and the racial achievement gap. The focus of my research was on examining how the educators reflected on the impact as well as the challenges of participating in critical dialogues about race and educational inequity through the Courageous Conversations process. The understanding of institutional racism and the impact on students became clearer for most participants. The findings indicated that although the process of engaging in these conversations was complex, challenging and emotional, the respondents described their learning and growth with the metaphor of a journey. They also reflected on their initial and sometimes ongoing fear of participating in the conversations, but they acknowledged the support and relationships that developed throughout the process helped them through this journey. The impact of this knowledge and understanding on their practice went beyond the classroom and into relationship building with students, families and the community. As the Black feminist facilitator/educator/scholar, my reflections were a component of this process.