ABSTRACT
Emerging first as a counterlegal scholarship to the dominant discourse of civil rights legislation in the 1970s, the use of critical race theory and other race-based theories and methodologies has gained significant presence in the field of education over the last two to three decades. This chapter utilizes a secondary analysis of two decades of empirical qualitative research of school leaders, their positionality, demographics and issues of difference, and issues of equity and social justice to highlight commons realities of white privilege in school leadership that are present in the literature. The theme of the perception of white competence/minority incompetence is foundational to understanding whiteness and privilege in K-12 leadership. Personal work means that leaders keep learning about their own position, race, the history or racism, and the experiences of people of color. This needs to take the form of learning to see whiteness, recognize it, and understand white racial-privilege.
