UW–Madison’s Erica Turner, an associate professor with the School of Education’s Department of Educational Policy Studies, recently appeared on two podcasts and a radio program to talk about her award-winning book, “Suddenly Diverse: How School Districts Manage Race and Inequality.”
The book presents an ethnographic account of two school districts in the Midwest responding to rapidly changing demographics at their schools.
Turner spoke with both the New Books Network and Integrated Schools about the importance of enacting change to district managerial policies for the purpose of increasing educational equity.
“I’ve always kind of had different interests around education policy, some of it in the politics of race, some of it around just how school systems work…and I noticed often these conversations were not happening together,” Turner tells the New Books Network. “This book came from, in one sense, a desire to kind of bridge some of those questions that I had across these different fields of education.”
On Integrated Schools, Turner delves into the history of educational segregation, shifting demographics within school districts, and how to address racial inequities.
“This is a structural problem,” Turner says, “and so my big take home is that we need to really be thinking and trying to act more on the structural pieces of things, and that is something that takes people power.”
In addition to the podcasts, Turner was also interviewed on WORT 89.9 FM’s “A Public Affair,” to discuss her book, the racism she witnesses in her research, and the complex issues facing public schools.