Private power and privileged education: De/constructing institutionalized racism

This paper describes the micropolitics of race and privilege manifest in one elite independent school as played out in the lives of academically gifted African-American high school students. Based on 3 years of practitioner research done by a counsellor and ateacher in the school, the qualitative data presented illustrate the ways students of colour do their own identity workas they make meaning out of their experiences in the school. This paper makes the case that privileged education needs to be closely examined in terms of the actual lived experiences of the students of colour before it is endorsed as 'the answer' for students currently not well served by public schools.