Racial Equity Frames in Creative Learning Organizations

Abstract

Creative learning organizations (CLOs) play an increasingly important role in educational ecosystems—and the pursuit of racial equity. Despite recent efforts, many such organizations serve disproportionately White and affluent visitors, particularly among museums. Utilizing public-facing website text, we used CLO’s "about us,” mission, and DEIA statements, to capture the degree to which racial equity is or is not central to each organization’s overall organizational identity. We identified five overlapping organizational fields in which CLOs hold membership, and found that, despite modest differences across fields, most CLOs make use of exclusively race- and equity- evasive frames, apart from ethnic/cultural organizations. CLOs that do mention race or equity tend to de-center these concepts through location or lack of depth. Implications include insights for both practitioners and researchers, as to what field-level pressures exist for CLOs, and how these pressures may be contested for greater racial equity.