(2013). Students' Self-Perceptions of Support. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, California State University, East Bay. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine students with disabilities self-perceptions of their academic and social supports in the general and special education classroom and the impact of the students' counterstories to inform the design of classroom supports. This study was anchored in organizational theory, critical race theory, and the special education inclusion literature that supports the positive achievement and positive social effects for students with disabilities in the general education program. I make a case for the use of Critical Race Theory as a means to address ableism and argue for the use of more qualitative and transformative research to address the research to practice gap in the special education literature. The dissertation was a case study of eight high school students and six of their teachers. The experimental design was an explanatory mixed methods approach collecting five cycles of quantitative and qualitative data. The cycles collected data related… [Direct]
(2024). A Necessary Intervention: Conceptualizing and Employing Critical Racial Ethnic Studies. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park. Over the last decade, secondary schools around the United States have rapidly adopted ethnic studies courses. For instance, California's governor mandated ethnic studies as a high school graduation requirement in 2021 (Magcalas, 2023). According to scholars, ethnic studies courses offer educational experiences that disrupt the erasure and oppression of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color through Eurocentrism in schools (Hu-Dehart, 1993; Lowy, 1995). However, there is currently no universally accepted understanding of ethnic studies curricula, and ethnic studies programs vary widely. As K-12 ethnic studies programs expand around the country, educators need a unifying framework that retains ethnic studies' critical integrity. This three-paper dissertation proposes critical racial ethnic studies (CRES), a curricular and pedagogical framework grounded in critical race theory and critical pedagogies, as a tool for organizing ethnic studies curricula. Collectively, this… [Direct]
(2017). "They Were Constantly on the Losing Side of Things": The Pedagogical Power of an African-American Teacher Candidate Bearing Witness in Teacher Education. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v20 n4 p527-545. The stories of students and teacher candidates of Color (Just as singular racial/ethnic identities are capitalized (i.e. African-American, Asian, Latina, Native American etc.), I capitalize Color to honor the various identities that many "non-white" people hold near and dear. I recognize the nuances in doing so- such as the reality that the term "people of Color" actually erases identity while the term also highlights a shared experience (though also nuanced) of being "non-white" in a white supremacist society.) hold powerful lessons and insights for teacher education programs and educational reform efforts. Yet, rarely do educators and policy-makers solicit or critically engage the educational narratives of these stakeholders. In particular, research confirms that we know little about how students' of Color educational experiences are impacted by race(ism) and culture and how those experiences subsequently inform their ideas about teaching. This study,… [Direct]
(2017). Understanding Latina Doctoral Student Experiences: Negotiating Ethnic Identity and Academic Success. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Seton Hall University. Latinas currently attain the lowest number of terminal degrees in the United States when compared to White, African American, and Asian American women. While Latina doctoral students share common struggles with other minority/female doctoral students, the unique cultural expectations associated with their racial/ethnic and gender related identities conflict with traditional American educational values in important ways and may be a contributing factor to their significant underrepresentation among women who have earned doctoral degrees in the U.S. Latina doctoral students experience cultural incongruity as they realize that the intrinsic principles that contribute to their ethnic identity are incompatible with those deemed necessary to assume an academic or scholar identity. Latinas who attempt to maintain their ethnic identity in academia often experience guilt, confusion and frustration as they move fluidly between two realities with no solid footing in either. This study explores… [Direct]
(2017). Disproportionate Placement of African American Students in Special Education: Teacher Perceptions of the Referral Process. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Hampton University. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore teachers' perceptions of the special education referral process that results in minority students being disproportionately placed in special education. To this end, five research questions guided the investigation: (1) What criteria do teachers use to inform decisions about student referrals for special education placement? (2) How aware are teachers of the special education practices and procedures in the school? (3) What are teacher perceptions of their competency level in regard to academic instruction, behavior management, and cultural competence? (4) What are specific actions teachers take during the special education referral process to address culture? (5) What are teacher perceptions of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports as it relates to addressing disproportionate rates of minority student placements in special education? Ten general education teachers working in a middle school environment were selected to… [Direct]
(2014). Cross-Cultural Dimensions of Applied, Critical, and Transformational Leadership: Women Principals Advancing Social Justice and Educational Equity. Cambridge Journal of Education, v44 n3 p333-360. This study, based on the qualitatively rendered experiences and perceptions of educational leaders from historically underserved backgrounds in the US, argues that identity impacts leadership practice. To make this point, researchers build upon an emergent theoretical framework for applied critical leadership from the theories and traditions of transformational leadership, personal leadership, critical pedagogy, and critical race theory. With regard to methodology, a two-subject case study was validated by adding three additional participants for points of verification to the findings and discussion. Interview, field notes, and relevant documents were analyzed using phenomenology and constant comparative methods. Major findings indicate participants' practice reveal characteristics of cross-cultural applied, critical, and transformational leadership. These scholarly findings are significant because they can inform mainstream leadership practices contributing to educational equity,… [Direct]
(2014). Can We Become Friends? Students' Cross-Racial Interaction in Post-Apartheid South African Higher Education. Journal of Student Affairs in Africa, v2 n1 p35-53. This article investigates and documents how undergraduate students in South Africa make meaning of cross-racial interaction on the college campus in the post-apartheid era. Additionally, it explores how students perceive that interactions with diverse peers have shifted since apartheid, and how these interactions are indicative of the larger social dynamic of South Africa. Utilising Jansen's (2009) framework for understanding Afrikaner student perspectives and Critical Race Theory (CRT), this qualitative exploration collected interviews from 10 students at a higher education institution (HEI) in South Africa. Findings identified three overarching themes found among students including contradiction within and across racial groups, Afrikaner white vs. English white and racial segregation on campus. These themes directly correspond with personal and societal aspects that influence meaning making in South Africa, including intrapersonal and interpersonal dynamics, historical legacy and… [PDF]
(2014). "Racialised Facilitative Capital" and the Paving of Differential Paths to Achievement of Afro-Trinidadian Boys. British Journal of Sociology of Education, v35 n1 p73-93. Bourdieu describes capital as the political building blocks of social order that give meaning to social accumulation and consumption. Through a combination of Bourdieu's sociology and critical race theory, this sojourn into Afro-Trinidadian boys' achievement seeks to elucidate an approach to understanding capital as inherently raced. This is premised on an interrogation of Trinidadian society as pigmentocratically structured, where lightness is rewarded with a myriad of social advantages, and darkness denigrated as illegitimate and "other". The premium placed on lighter skin is manifested interdependently in the forms of social, economic and cultural capital. As such, the operation of capital as politic not only reflects societal structures of power and domination, but importantly also contributes in the maintenance of said structures. The concept of "Racialised facilitative capital" follows as inseparably both facilitator of social status and as racialised process…. [Direct]
(2013). A Study of White Privilege in K-12 Schools: Minority Teachers' Perspectives. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The purpose of this dissertation is to capture and explore the existence of white privilege in K-12 schools through the perspective of minority educators. Further, my hope is to engage educators of all kind to begin conversations about white privilege in the schools; to deconstruct whiteness and its impact on education. This research brings forth voices of minority educators to shed light on conversations around race, whiteness and power in education. Today's educators must critically examine race and whiteness in order to break down barriers for children of color and create spaces where critical race consciousness is developed among students, parents, teachers and administrators. Not talking about race simply ignores it. By ignoring it, we are allowing systems of privilege to narrow mindedly influence education for us all. At the center of this dissertation lies a critical race theory foundation that calls one to challenge the experiences of whites as the normative standard…. [Direct]
(2019). Staff and Administrator Training to Promote College Completion of Undocumented Students. ProQuest LLC, D.Phil. Dissertation, Mercer University. This qualitative study investigated the experiences of staff and administrators who worked with undocumented students attending college in a southern region of the United States. Staff and administrators were unaware of the unique challenges that undocumented college students face when pursuing their college degrees. The researcher conducted a constructivist epistemological, grounded theory study and utilized the Latino/a critical race theory as the framework. Through 11 semi-structured interviews with staff and administrators who worked with undocumented college students in the southern region, the participants discussed the challenges they experienced while helping undocumented students with resources to help them complete college. The data revealed many barriers that undocumented college students face while completing college. The staff and administrators discussed how undocumented students wanted to pursue the "American Dream". However, while pursuing their college… [Direct]
(2019). Affirming Indigeneity in Public Spaces: Indigenous Mexican Testimonios about Higher Education. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Claremont Graduate University. The purpose of this study was to provide a deeper understanding of the lived experiences and identity formation of Indigenous Mexican students in U.S. higher education. Latinx critical race theory and critical Latinx Indigeneity served as conceptual frameworks for this study, and a decolonial lens was employed to distinguish the unique educational experiences of Indigenous Mexican students from the broader Latinx student population in the United States. A testimonio research design was used to explore two research questions: (a) What is the role of higher education in the identity formation of Indigenous Mexican students?; and (b) How do Indigenous Mexican college students challenge or disrupt colonial perceptions about Indigenous people on their college campus and in their communities? Twelve Indigenous Mexican (Mixtec/Nuu Savi, Zapotec/Bene Xhon, and Nahua) college students and graduates participated in the study, which involved participation in a 90-minute oral testimonio… [Direct]
(2019). Ethnic Minority and/or Female Athletics Directors at the Division I Level: The Art of Reaching the Chair. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Tulane University School of Science and Engineering. With the low number of ethnic minority and/or female athletics directors at the Division I level, this proposed study aimed to determine what commonalities, if any, existed among those ethnic minorities and/or females who are athletics directors at the Division I level. Critical race theory and critical gender theory were both used as theoretical frameworks for studying the research question: What commonalities, if any, exist among ethnic minority and/or female sitting athletics directors at the Division I level? A qualitative study was conducted using ten ethnic minority and/or female Division I athletics directors. Each subject was interviewed via telephone to learn more about their pathways to reaching the athletics director chair. The purpose was to learn more about their characteristics, work ethic, support system, and any other pertinent information. The subjects were then compared to one another to look for common themes throughout in which twelve were derived: Theme 1 –… [Direct]
(2023). Radical Praxis Pedagogies: A Critical Podcast Methodology. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Washington State University. Podcasts in academia have largely been employed as either a supplementary resource to lectures, as an alternative for giving student feedback, or as a specific text to be utilized for research analysis. Largely overshadowed by the prior, there are few examples of podcast ethnographies and even fewer examples of researchers that are experimenting with podcasts as an alternative medium for academic publishing. However, what is largely absent from the literature is research examining how podcasts have the potential to be utilized as a pedagogical tool inextricable from offering rich opportunities as qualitative arts-inquiry research. This dissertation explores these possibilities for education research in the form of Critical Podcasting Methodology (CPM). Drawing on critical arts-inquiry research, this dissertation introduces CPM as the use of podcasting as both a research method and pedagogical tool so as to facilitate potential learning spaces of critical and reflexive dialogue,… [Direct]
(2023). "Stand Out above the Crowd": The Reconstitution Counterstory of the Bronx Promise Academy–A Case Study. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University. High-stakes testing is currently the primary measure of student success in the United States. Based on this measure of student performance, closing the "achievement gap" in test scores between Black and Latinx students and their white peers has become the main indicator of success for schools serving Black and Latinx students. When schools are unable to close the "achievement gap," one possible consequence is closure and replacement by a new school. This process is referred to as reconstitution. Though reconstitution was developed to provide Black and Latinx students with a more equitable educational experience, these schools often cannot raise high-stakes test scores or their efforts to raise scores have negative implications on their Black and Latinx students. Based on this context, I wanted to learn how the Black and Latinx staff of a reconstituted school describe and understand success through their lived experiences, rather than through state exam outcomes…. [Direct]
(2010). Critical Race Theory and Community Colleges: Through the Eyes of Women Student Leaders of Color. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, v34 n1-2 p78-91. While the majority of students at California community colleges are students of color, few complete their schooling and transfer. This study examines how women leaders of color perceive transfer at a diverse, transfer-intensive community college in southern California. Critical race theory is used to analyze how these raced and gendered institutions fulfill their democratic promise of academic transfer. Over the course of a year, I employed semistructured interviews, a focus group interview, and participant observation of 11 women in four racial/ethnic student organizations. Preliminary findings point to a complex relationship between transfer, race, and gender. By utilizing critical race theory (CRT) in community college practice and research, we see the importance of validating students everyday realities as students of color. In addition, the covert and overt issues of racism and sexism must be addressed with a critical lens of race and gender. The experiences of these women… [Direct]