Guidance Matters: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Race-Related Policy Vocabularies Shaping Leadership Preparation

Despite the federal government's historical effort to ensure educational equity via policies targeting issues critical to U.S. urban cities, a transformation has taken place in the discourses shaping educational policy solutions. While policies targeting educational equity have not completely vanquished, they have been largely re-written by discourses of efficiency and accountability. Informed by Hajer's notion of policy vocabularies, this article highlights how the written inscription of equity-related discourses within documents used to guide leadership preparation may shape the ways in which programs consider the construction of curricula focused on issues related to equity.