Leadership in Racialized Bureaucracies: Lessons From Mandatory Ethnic Studies Implementation

This study examines the implementation of Assembly Bill 1460, California State University’s Ethnic Studies graduation requirement. The study draws on interviews with 10 Ethnic Studies leaders across three institutional types to explore how race, governance structures, and leadership dynamics shaped policy enactment. Findings reveal that leaders’ agency was both constrained by racialized bureaucratic norms and enhanced through supportive formal leadership, strategic hiring, and distributed decision-making. The study contributes to scholarship on institutionalizing anti-racist curriculum by illuminating how racially situated leaders navigate structural inequities to advance sustainable organizational change.