UW–Madison’s Erica Turner is receiving the 2021 Erickson and Hornberger Outstanding Ethnography in Education Book Award from the University of Pennsylvania’s Ethnography in Education Research Forum.
Turner’s book that led to this honor is, “Suddenly Diverse: How School Districts Manage Race and Inequality,” which was published in 2020 by the University of Chicago Press.
Turner is an associate professor with the School of Education’s Department of Educational Policy Studies. Her research examines racism and inequity — and efforts to challenge those — in education policy and practice.
A preview of “Suddenly Diverse” explains:
For the past five years, American public schools have enrolled more students identified as Black, Latinx, American Indian, and Asian than white. At the same time, more than half of U.S. schoolchildren now qualify for federally subsidized meals, a marker of poverty. The makeup of schools is rapidly changing, and many districts and school boards are at a loss as to how they can effectively and equitably handle these shifts.
“Suddenly Diverse” is an ethnographic account of two school districts in the Midwest responding to rapidly changing demographics at their schools. It is based on observations and in-depth interviews with school board members and superintendents, as well as staff, community members, and other stakeholders in each district: one serving “Lakeside,” a predominately working class, conservative community, and the other serving “Fairview,” a more affluent, liberal community. Erica O. Turner looks at district leaders’ adoption of business-inspired policy tools and the ultimate successes and failures of such responses. Turner’s findings demonstrate that, despite their intentions to promote “diversity” or eliminate “achievement gaps,” district leaders adopted policies and practices that ultimately perpetuated existing inequalities and advanced new forms of racism.
While suggesting some ways forward, “Suddenly Diverse” shows that, without changes to these managerial policies and practices and larger transformations to the whole system, even district leaders’ best efforts will continue to undermine the promise of educational equity and the realization of more robust public schools.
Learn more about “Suddenly Diverse,” here.