ISJ Fall 2022: Critical Hope For Culturally Responsive International Schools / Darnell Fine, Wendy Windust

The word “institution” may conjure the image of concrete in one’s mind, perhaps because institutions are just that: concretized ideas that take up permanent residence in society. They are mechanisms for cementing laws and practices that govern and shape how one sees the world. Through the use of institutions, the formalization of hegemonic power structures such as white supremacy is solidified and difficult to eradicate within society. Watson (2015) explains how researchers can stay within these hegemonic structures of white supremacy even as they argue against them. She further suggests that while researchers may study, deconstruct, and talk about the problem of white supremacy, they must also “uplift solution[s] of practice” (Watson, 2015, p. 12).