Researching Race: A Review of Principal Preparation Literature Through the Lens of Critical Race Methodology

The purpose of this systematic review was to synthesize the literature to better understand how the field researched principal preparation in relation to race and racism. Using a critical race theory methodological lens (CRM), we analyzed 36 studies of current candidates or recent graduates with an emphasis on the research design and methods. The research chosen for inclusion was (1) empirical, (2) focused on principal preparation programs in the U.S., (3) focused on preparing candidates around issues related to race and racism, and (4) published between 2012 and 2024. Literature was drawn from three major databases that include journals in the field of educational leadership, ERIC, ProQuest, and Education Full Text, in the summer of 2025. It is important to note that our literature search focusing on peer-reviewed articles poses a limitation in terms of the comprehensiveness of the sampled literature, thus excluding potentially important information sources. To analyze the studies, we created a scoring rubric to assess the degree to which each article addressed each CRM tenet. To assess risk of bias, each article was scored by two authors, and the third author also scored the article if the first two disagreed. Our findings show that focus on race and racism was present in most studies reviewed, and almost half centered on the experiences of candidates of color. However, most of the studies reviewed conformed to traditional research paradigms and methods, as illustrated by choices related to frameworks, methods, and data sources. We offer recommendations for researchers of principal preparation who are interested in more critical work related to race and racism, and we argue for increased opportunities for scholars to meet, discuss, and collaborate across institutions around how they are studying leadership preparation for racial equity. The review is registered through Open Science Framework.