Getting It “Right”: Educators’ Experiences With School Diversity in a Gentrifying Neighborhood

Schools in gentrifying neighborhoods often experience demographic changes in enrollment. The purpose of this qualitative holistic case study is to describe how leaders and teachers in a diversifying elementary school in a gentrifying neighborhood perceive and experience diversity. Drawing on Turner’s value of diversity framework, we use inductive coding to analyze interviews and also use documents to inform our findings. Although Greenleaf was striving to be intentionally diverse, consensus did not exist about the meaning of “diversity” or the desired form of diversity. Challenges associated with decentering Whiteness and resisting upholding the racial contract existed as educators worked to establish a shared mission, ensure diverse staff voice and representation with a White leader, and navigate complications of power and privilege among White families. Educators highlighted the value of diversity for developing students’ multicultural capital and global cosmopolitanism as well as the collective benefit of reducing divisiveness for our nation.