Just Schools

Ann M. Ishimaru is an associate professor of educational policy, organizations, and leadership at the University of Washington College of Education.

“Research and praxis that seek to resist and transform the growing inequity and racism in the United States are essential to transform schools into sites of justice. Ishimaru’s book provides an imaginative and inspiring approach for school communities to persist in this work.”—Teachers College Record

• Contents (Tentative)Series Foreword James A. BanksAcknowledgmentsIntroductionSituating “What Counts” for Families in EducationBeyond Critique to Fostering Equitable CollaborationsShowing Up in the WorkA Few Notes on LanguageOrganization of the BookEquitable Collaborations in Reaching for Transformation1. Fuzzy Families, Prickly Racism: Framing the Problem SpaceStart with Warm Fuzzies: Families MatterEnter the Cold Pricklies: Racial Inequities from Parent Involvement to Family EngagementConclusions: From Involvement and Engagement Toward Equitable Collaboration2. New Rules of Engagement: From Conventional Partnerships to Equitable CollaborationsWhy Equitable Collaborations? Critical Race Theory, Community Organizing, and Sociocultural LearningToward Equitable Collaborations: Case Study of a “New Relationship”A Changing Community: Traditional Approaches, Deficit Conceptions“We Had to Take Action”: New Roles for Parents in the Formation of the CoalitionA Collaboration Emerges: Shared Responsibility for Systemic Change GOALSCapacity- and Relationship-Building STRATEGIES for Systems Change“Navigating Insecure Ground”: Change Processes at the End of the HoneymoonCase Discussion: A “New Relationship”Conclusions 3. Nondominant Families on Their Own Terms: Lived Theories of Educational InjusticeIntroductionNondominant Family Insights as Lived Theories of Injustice“They Just Want to Pass the Kids”: Systemic Dynamics of Accountability Policy and Equitable Learning“Are You Speaking for Yourself or for All the Parents?”: Power and Engagement at the School LevelListening to Respond: Inequities in the Moment at the Individual LevelConclusions4. Systemic Collaborations: Multiorganizational Educational Equity InitiativesCross-Sector Collaborations: New Policy Contexts for EngagementNew Context, Familiar Territory: Contextualizing Education Beyond the School WallsCross-Sector “Collabetition”: Reinforcing Interorganizational InequitiesCultural Brokering as BridgingEmerging Approaches to Equitable Cutural BrokeringConclusions5. Collaborating in Organizational Improvement: Data Inquiry with Families, Communities, and EducatorsConceptualizing Relationships Between Families and DataA Model of Data Inquiry for Equitable CollaborationQuestioning PhaseEngaging PhaseMaking Sense PhaseTensions and Opportunities in Strategizing and Moving to ActionConclusions6. Rewriting Moment-to-Moment Interactions: Families as Co-designersRacialized Institutional Scripts in Family–Teacher RelationsChanging Racialized Institutional ScriptsPutting Principles into Practice in Participatory Design-based ResearchCo-design Practices as Rewriting Racialized Institutional ScriptsRepositioning Racial and Cultural DifferencesConclusions 7. Co-designing Justice and Well-Being with/in Systems and ConclusionsA Call to Reimagine Family and Community EngagementDistrict Leaders and Co-designMy Teaching Challenge: Proleptic Politic as PedagogyDilemmas as Systemic TensionsCo-design as “Solidarity-Dreaming”On SolidaritiesConclusions (and New Openings)Appendix A: Initial Partnership Assessment ToolAppendix B: Final Lesson Topics and Design PrinciplesNotesReferencesIndexAbout the Author