Still-restrictive equality in shared school governance: Black parents' engagement experiences and the persistence of white supremacy in a liberal public school district

This paper draws from a critical race multicase study of Black parents' school engagement experiences in a liberal U.S. public school district, focusing here on 12 mothers and fathers who participated in Parent Teacher Organizations (PTOs) and/or African American parent groups. I apply Critical Race Theory, particularly Crenshaw's notions of restrictive and expansive views of antidiscrimination law, as a theoretical lens to evaluate the school district's vision of racial equality in school governance. My analysis indicates that regardless of inclusive practices that welcomed Black parents into parent groups, the district still had restrictive views of equality because Black parents' ideas and desires were only taken up if they converged with the interests of white parents, and school and district leaders. I offer the theorization of still-restrictive to point to a way white supremacy may still operate in liberal and inclusive-seeming spaces.