Planning for the Pushback: Educators’ Responses to Advantaged Families in Gentrifying Schools

Purpose: Gentrification continues to transform the culture and context of urban schools and neighborhoods across the United States. Educators (i.e., school administrators, teachers, and staff) can play pivotal roles in producing or constraining school gentrification. In this article, I use micropolitical perspectives on education to examine the changing political terrain of gentrifying schools and how educators respond to parent gentrifiers’ school engagement. Research Methods/Approach: I draw on data from a larger multisite case study of school gentrification in Washington, DC. Semi-structured interview questions asked administrators, teachers, and other support staff to reflect on how school gentrification shaped their schools’ political contexts and describe how they responded to parent gentrifiers’ school engagement. Findings: Educators worked to protect their micropolitical interests and professional authority as they interacted with parent gentrifiers. Rather than cede to parent gentrifiers’ demands, educators emphasized equity and adopted strategies to protect their schools’ core missions and values. Implications: I offer lessons for practice and future research directions. This study’s findings underscore the importance of educators’ orientations for interrupting the exclusionary effects of demographic and cultural change in urban schools.