A Critique of Hallinger's “Empirical Reflection”: How Systemic Racism and Systemic Sexism Can Structure Our Research “Choices?”

Abstract

Hallinger in his “Critical Reflections,” which is research on the most influential content within EAQ, 1965–2020 (55 years), fails to attend to the racism and sexism embedded within his research choices. Because he fails to critically examine or problematize his research choices, he privileges the White males and their biases who dominated EAQ, UCEA, and AERA Division A for nearly two-thirds of his time period. In response, I point out the specific research choices he made that ensure the continued privileging of those older White male scholars and suggest how he could have done his research in a more equitable way. However, Hallinger is only a small fraction of a larger racism and sexism problem. The K12 school system continues to fail miserably at equity and excellence, and since we have been training many of the school leaders, we too (including me) are complicit in Hallinger's failure.