(2020). Herman H. Dreer: A Twentieth Century Black Radical Curriculum Activist. American Educational History Journal, v47 n1 p29-45. In the early twentieth century St. Louis' public schools for Black children enjoyed a robust reputation, perhaps second only to those in the nation's capital. Herman H. Dreer, a "public school man," provided direction for those institutions similarly called to lead various segments and forces within the larger Black community (Dowden-White 2011, 23). While other educators focused on organization and administration, Dreer crafted curriculum initiatives that incorporated Black radical curriculum tradition (Watkins 1993). For thirty-one years Dreer taught in the St. Louis Public Schools and at Stowe Teachers College. Among his most important school activities were the writing of Black History curriculum and the directing of several pageants. These pageant events, popular during the St. Louis Negro History Week, carried important memory aids for Black communities (Shaw 1999; Karpf 2011). Despite the yearly Black history celebrations held in elementary schools to African… [Direct]
(2019). Experiencing Anti-Immigrant Policies on Both Sides of the U.S./Mexico Borderland: A Comparative Study of Mexican and Iranian Families. Education Sciences, v9 Article 148. The experiences of Mexican and Iranian immigrant families are often unheard and unpacked. The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine how race, ethnicity, and national identity are at the core of the sociopolitical and economic issues that Latino and Iranian families undergo in the United States. Using critical race theory as a framework, this research analyzed the ways in which Mexican immigrant families who were deported, and Iranian-immigrant families living in the United States, have been differently affected by post 9/11 anti-immigrant policies and by zero tolerance policies enacted by the Trump administration. The research question guiding this study was: How do U.S. anti-immigrant policies affect Iranian and Mexican immigrant families and their children's futures? Our findings uncovered that both groups were negatively affected, however, in different ways. Iranian immigrant parents worried about their socioeconomic status in the United States and their children's… [PDF]
(2019). Navigating Institutional Racism through Rutgers' School of Arts and Sciences (SAS) Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) Program. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, School of Graduate Studies. This study examined a U.S. based university's peer group for low income students to identify the ways in which the group successfully retains African American, male students despite the low national retention rate of Black male students in higher education. The peer group was assessed through qualitative analysis to understand the ways in which the organization is able to facilitate students' academic and social integration into the university despite their experiences with institutional racism and microaggressions. Using Vincent Tinto's Theory (1975) and Critical Race Theory, this research finds that African American men are better able to retain within the university when the peer group's staff proactively addresses the challenges that the students bring with them into their university experience; facilitates the students' bond with racially similar, male students within the group; and adopts a "like family" approach towards academically and socially supporting students…. [Direct]
(2019). From Desegregation to Privatization: A Critical Race Policy Analysis of School Choice and Educational Opportunity in North Carolina. Peabody Journal of Education, v94 n4 p420-441. School choice policies and the movement to privatize education have become the currently preferred school reform methods on both the state and federal levels under the guise they will provide equal educational opportunities and access for all students. The 1954 school desegregation decision in "Brown v. Board of Education" arguably paved the way for equal educational opportunities, including school choice; however, we contend that the present-day school choice and privatization movements may be a part of a larger social, political, and legal cycle of inequality that has established residence in the American educational system for more than a century. We conduct a critical race theory policy analysis using a framework that has been effective in previous work with examining cyclical inequalities, the convergence-divergence-reclamation cycle (or C-D-R cycle). In this article, we are focusing our analysis on the state of North Carolina due to its complex legal and political… [Direct]
(2014). High School Equivalency as Counter-Space. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, n144 p37-47 Win. This chapter is based on the findings of an ethnographic study of an urban General Education Development (GED Æ) program and suggests that, for some marginalized African American and other young men of color, adult education programs are counter-spaces (Yosso, Ceja, Smith, & Solorzano, [Yosso, T., 2009]) of spatial justice in opposition to previous negative school spaces. The chapter is framed from the perspective of critical race theory…. [Direct]
(2022). Emotional Geographies of Exclusion: Whiteness and Ability in Teacher Education Research. Teachers College Record, v124 n7 p105-130 Jul. Context: Geographies of exclusion (e.g., segregated special education classrooms, school district zoning) are constituted through intersecting oppressive ideologies (e.g., ableism, racism, classism) that co-naturalize notions of "normalcy" and deviance and yield harmful consequences for disabled children of Color. Geographies of exclusion dynamically contribute to and constitute teacher candidates' feelings about themselves and their social worlds. White teacher candidates' investment in dominant racial ideologies is well-documented, and recent scholarship has interrogated the role of white emotionality in these processes. However, the extent to which white teacher candidates emotionally ascribe to oppressive constructions of ability have been underexamined. Focus of Study: We sought to uncover how white teacher candidates (TCs) used emotional practices to position themselves in relation to ability within geographies of exclusion as they narrated their educational journeys…. [Direct]
(2022). What Does It Take to Lead: The Hidden Curriculum of Qualifications for Service on Public Boards of Higher Education. Teachers College Record, v124 n1 p191-226 Jan. Background/Context: U.S. higher education governing boards have received enhanced public attention over the last decade in response to national media coverage and emerging governance scholarship. Despite the rise of attention on this topic and the maintained influence of board decisions, governing boards remain one of the least understood aspects of higher education. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The qualifications required for board member service in higher education are a particularly understudied aspect of boards. Given the limited knowledge of board qualifications, our study aimed to understand what (if any) were the known requirements for service on U.S. public boards of higher education. Setting: A total of 95 public board bylaws representing at least one institution from each state were examined for any mention of the requirements or qualifications for the trusteeship. Both standalone institutional boards and system boards were investigated to account for… [Direct]
(2022). Transactional to Transformational: Women of Color Senior Administrators, Exchange Relationships & Their Leadership Development. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, California State University, Fresno. Higher education environments are examples of the institutional manifestations of systems of oppression and dominance found in all other parts of society. Systems of racism, sexism, and heteronormativity present real impediments to marginalized people within higher education but more specifically for women of color. Women of color senior-level professionals in higher education face a resounding number of disproportionate challenges correlated to the intersections of their race and gender, such as covert and overt discrimination, a lack of mentorship, and limited access to networks. This study's purpose was to understand the nuances of how identity, positionality, and social exchange relationships impact the experiences and leadership development of women of color senior administrators. Much of the current scholarship regarding women of color senior leaders within higher education focuses on the pathways to entry; however, this research takes a deep dive into the experiences of women… [Direct]
(2022). Mixteco Transnational Student Experience: Self-Efficacy and Academic Aspirations. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, California Lutheran University. Mixtecos are Indigenous people that originate from the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Puebla, in Mexico. This community is unique in that it speaks an unwritten language with different variations based on locations north or south of Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Puebla. California and other agricultural states have been the major relocation areas for Mixtecos since the 1980s (Cohen 2004; Stephen 2007). The children of migrant workers are currently the most disadvantaged students in our educational system (Hattman & Every, 2010). Migrant children are the least educated students, with only one to three years of formal education (Baird, 2016). According to Mines et, al. (2010), the largest number of migrant workers are currently coming from Indigenous rural communities of Mexico, mainly the state of Oaxaca. Latino students, specifically the children of migrant workers, have made the fewest gains academically compared to all students in California. These children face a variety of… [Direct]
(2022). Whose Future? Whose Facts?: A Critical Case Study of News Literacy Education in the United States. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Oregon. In the wake of the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections and the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing public attention has been paid to the ability of citizens to use and understand news media, information, and digital technology. Conversations about media literacy–the ability to critically engage with media–are ongoing in the press, schools, and state and federal governments. Most media literacy scholars agree that media literacy is an integral part of an informed and healthy democracy. Yet not all media literacy approaches are the same, and some scholars suggest that mainstream approaches may re-create antidemocratic systems and ideologies. What does it mean when the tools intended to support a healthy democracy reinforce systems of oppression? A case study of the News Literacy Project (NLP), a nonpartisan, nonprofit education organization, was used to explore this question by examining how ideologies of racism and neoliberal capitalism are perpetuated or challenged in the resources… [Direct]
(2022). Black Women, Gender Nonconforming, and Nonbinary Folks' Resistive and Healing Practices: Making a Way at Traditionally Oppressive Institutions. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles. This work investigates the resistive and healing practices that Black women, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary folks enact in the face of daily racialized and gendered terrors as they navigate higher education. Central to my theorizing of academic spaces is the understanding of schooling as a contested space that reifies identity-based harm. I locate the impact of this reality within both a historical and contemporary context by reckoning with the substantiation of institutions of higher learning made possible by slave holding governing faculties, endowments bolstered by investments in the military and prison industrial complex, enduring racial stratification in the numerical and ideological presence of marginalized peoples, and the maintenance of interlocking systems of domination that undergird school policies. As Black women, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary folks contend with academic spaces rife with systemized difference, they foster alternative relationships to the… [Direct]
(2013). Native Resistance through Art: A Contestation of History through Dialogue, Representation, and Action. International Journal of Education & the Arts, v14 spec iss 2.4 Sep. Beginning November 2006, and continuing through December 2007, Oklahomans were alerted to the promotions of the Oklahoma Centennial. For Indigenous Oklahomans, this was a problematic marking of a historical event. The Centennial's grand-narrative advanced a story privileging the "pioneers" who "settled the land" as the official story of Oklahoma's past. This article deconstructs the manufactured Oklahoma history advanced through the Centennial by identifying and examining, utilizing Critical Race Theory and Tribal Critical Race Theory, the counterstory put forth in the "Current Realities: A Dialogue with the People" art show produced by Oklahoma Native artists in the OklaDADA collective. "Current Realities" functioned as social justice–providing all Oklahomans with a comprehensive history of Oklahoma by telling Indigenous Oklahomans' history and reality through art…. [PDF]
(2024). Beyond the 9 to 5: Exploring the Interplay between Maternal Nonstandard Employment, Academic Involvement, and School Suspension. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Boston College. Students in the United States missed more than 11 million school days in the academic year 2017-2018 due to out-of-school suspensions. Research has shown that suspension has adverse short- and long-term consequences, such as lower academic achievement and lower graduation rates. With school suspension affecting approximately one-third of students across their K-12 experience, policymakers, researchers, and professionals have outlined school suspension as a major problem. Maternal involvement has been identified as a significant factor in student achievement, motivation, and aiming toward higher education, but little is known of the influence it may have on reducing exclusionary discipline–particularly for mothers with nonstandard employment. Exclusionary discipline is discipline practices that isolates students from the classroom environment. Guided by disability critical race theory, role conflict theory, and ecological systems theory, this dissertation utilized the "Future of… [Direct]
(2024). Priced out of Opportunity: Investigating the Impact of California's Housing Burden on School Segregation and Black Student Achievement. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, California State University, Sacramento. Historically, de jure systemic racism in the United States and the California housing market resulted in a lack of Black family access to housing in affluent neighborhoods, generating a Black-White wealth and income gap still observed today. Even after eliminating much of this outright discrimination, these economic gaps caused de facto segregation of many Black families from affluent and primarily White neighborhoods. This practice is especially prevalent in California, where housing costs are particularly burdensome, and Black families are unlikely to find affordable housing in affluent school districts. Black children are likely to attend Black-White segregated and low-socioeconomic status (SES) school districts. This study, grounded in critical race theory and the education debt model, empirically documents how higher average home prices in California keep Black children out of affluent districts more likely to boast higher standardized test scores. Holding other explanatory… [Direct]
(2021). A Phenomenological Study of High School Counselors and Counseling African American Male Student Athletes. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Northcentral University. The problem that was addressed by this qualitative phenomenological study was that African American males who are student-athletes in high school are often not receiving adequate academic support from school counselors. This is an ongoing and relevant secondary education problem that needs to be addressed as many counselors are not adequately prepared to academically support African American high school male student athletes that aspire to play in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological research study was to explore the perceptions of high school counselors regarding their experiences with, and preparedness to, counsel African American male high school student athletes. The guiding theoretical framework of the study is based upon the critical race theory, social capital theory, and empowerment theory. This research was conducted using interview methodology with high school counselors with at least five years of experience… [Direct]