Beyond Antiracism: Abolitionist Teacher Learning Toward Institutional School Change.

This study examines perceptions of antiracist professional learning among educators and school leaders in over 30 New York City public and charter schools, focusing on the tensions around institutional change in antiracist teacher development. Despite ongoing antiracist professional development (PD), the research found widespread avoidance of systemic racial justice work at district, school, and individual levels, with efforts often limited to individual curricular changes rather than transformative institutional shifts. The study highlights one public elementary school that enacted abolitionist education practices—grounded in dismantling punitive disciplinary systems and building supportive, community-centered structures—as a promising model for deeper institutional change. The findings suggest that extending teacher learning beyond antiracism into abolitionist frameworks, which emphasize collective action and radical structural transformation, may better support meaningful racial justice in schools.