THE CASE OF THE RUNAWAY MEETING

The case describes the plight of a principal as she attempts to oversee her school’s equity/inclusive mandate. Bernice first realizes the strength of the opposition to inclusion at a staff meeting where a couple of vocal teachers are cheered on by the rest of the staff as they voice their dissatisfaction with her suggestion that students and their parents be included in a decision about next year’s schedule. Bernice is now in the position of having to figure out how to get the equity/inclusion mandate back on track. The case includes four teaching points and exercises. The first exercise explores the issue of acquiring knowledge of the setting while the second addresses the actions that might be taken. The third and fourth activities target the kinds of things that the principal should have done and the arguments that she can use to convince her staff of the value of parental and student involvement in school decisionmaking