“They Didn’t Even Talk About Oppression”: School Leadership Protecting the Whiteness of Leadership through Resistance Practices to a Youth Voice Initiative

Salisbury, Jason D.; Sheth, Manali J.; Angton,, Alexia

doi:10.3138/jehr.2019-0010

Cited by 32Critical Race Theory in EducationEducational Leadership and PracticesTeacher Education and Leadership Studies

“They Didn’t Even Talk About Oppression”: School Leadership Protecting the Whiteness of Leadership through Resistance Practices to a Youth Voice Initiative

Salisbury, Jason D., Sheth, Manali J., Angton,, Alexia·2020·Journal of Education Human Resources

DOI 10.3138/jehr.2019-0010

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Abstract

In this article, we deepen understandings of leadership resistance to youth voice initiatives (YVIs) by interrogating the resistant actions of a group of white district leaders who initiated a student voice program to support transformative district improvement. We engaged a fusion collaborative autoethnographic research design rooted in critical race methodology to analyze our experiences of district resistance to a youth voice initiative. Our analytical narrative reveals how district leaders’ web of resistant practices obscured their goals, allowing them to exploit a group of students of color, district teacher, and university partners to promote their public image of being leaders committed to justice and equity. The specific resistant practices that leaders engaged in included (a) maintaining a lack of transparency around their goals for the initiative; (b) controlling the agenda of all interactions with youth and facilitators; (c) positioning course instructors in contradictory binaries such as trustworthy/untrustworthy; and (d) determining the value and presence of expertise among youth, course facilitators, and district leaders. Our Whiteness as property analysis illuminates district leaders’ deployment of resistance as a means to protect school leadership as a propertied expectation associated with whiteness.

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Student voice has been championed as a vehicle for educational equity, with its promise to help marginalized youth learn to critique systems, policies, and practices that disadvantage them and advocate for change.
“Student voice has been championed as a vehicle for educational equity, with its promise to help marginalized youth learn to critique the systems, policies, and practices that disadvantage them and advocate for change (Lac & Mansfield, 2018; Salisbury et al., 2020).”
From How teachers’ student voice practices affect student engagement and achievement: exploring choice, receptivity, and responsiveness to student voice as moderators (2025) · cites this paper as Salisbury et al., 2020

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Authors: Salisbury, J. D., Sheth, M. J., & Angton
Affiliations: University of Illinois Chicago (US)
Connecticut College (US)
Iowa State University (US)
ORCID: Salisbury, Jason D.
Sheth, Manali J.
Angton,, Alexia
Venue: Journal of Education Human Resources
Publisher: University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress)
Published: 2020-01
Volume: 38
Issue: 1
Pages: 57-81
ISSN: 2562-783X (ISSN-L)
DOI: 10.3138/jehr.2019-0010
OpenAlex: W3003376543
Cited by: 31
References: 45
Citations by year: 2025: 6 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 1
FWCI: 5.67
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Locations: Journal of Education Human Resources (publishedVersion)
Topics: Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Critical Race Theory in Education
Social Sciences › Education › Educational Leadership and Practices
Social Sciences › Education › Teacher Education and Leadership Studies
Keywords: school leadership, whiteness, resistance practices, district leaders, student voice, students of color, whiteness as property, agenda control, expertise, equity and justice, critical race theory

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“They Didn’t Even Talk About Oppression”: School Leadership Protecting the Whiteness of Leadership through Resistance Practices to a Youth Voice Initiative

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