The Possibility of Critical School Social Work: Our Role in Disrupting Racial Inequity

In May of 2018, I had the privilege of presenting at the Critical Race Studies in Education Association (CRSEA) conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as a school social worker (SSW) and Educational Leadership doctoral student at San Francisco State University. At CRSEA, I presented my counternarrative as a Latinx and woman of color, working in the education system challenging racism in schools. Starting with my own experiences in the K–12 public education system, I described the tension that I have felt working in schools because of the burden I often carry to teach White colleagues around me how to discuss racial equity. My experiences in the education system as a Latinx student help shape my narrative of racial equity, and are often a motivating force for other practitioners of color who choose to work in education to bring change throughout our communities (Achinstein & Ogawa, 2012). Engaging in...