Talk it (Racism) out: race talk and organizational learning
Journal of Educational Administration
ISSN: 0957-8234
Article publication date: 7 August 2018
Issue publication date: 15 October 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether race-specific language use can advance organizational learning about the racialized nature of school problems. The study addressed two questions: first, is teacher use of racial language associated with how they frame school discipline problems during conversational exchanges? Second, what do patterns of associations suggest about racial language use as an asset that may influence an organization’s ability to analyze discipline problems?
Design/methodology/approach
Co-occurrence analysis was used to explore patterns between racial language use and problem analysis during team conversational exchanges regarding school discipline problems.
Findings
When participants used race-specific and race-proxy language, they identified more problems and drew on multiple frames to describe school discipline problems.
Research limitations/implications
This paper substantiates that race-specific language is beneficial for organizational learning.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that leading language communities may be an integral, yet overlooked lever for organizational learning and improvement. Prioritizing actions that promote race-specific conversations among school teams can reveal racism/racial conflict and subsequently increase the potential for change.
Originality/value
This paper combines organizational change and race talk research to highlight the importance of professional talk routines in organizational learning.
Keywords
Citation
Irby, D.J. and P. Clark, S. (2018), "Talk it (Racism) out: race talk and organizational learning", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 56 No. 5, pp. 504-518. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-01-2018-0015
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited