(2019). Institutionalised Whiteness, Racial Microaggressions and Black Bodies out of Place in Higher Education. Whiteness and Education, v4 n1 p1-17. On the morning of Friday 3 February 2017, Femi Nylander — a Black Oxford alumnus — walked through the grounds of Oxford University's Harris Manchester College. Later that morning a CCTV image of Femi was circulated to staff and students who were urged to 'maintain vigilance'. Whilst 'post-racial' ideology insists on framing such incidents as isolated aberrations bereft of wider structural and institutional context, in this article I draw upon the theoretical concepts of "racial microaggressions" and "bodies out of place" in order to disrupt this hegemonic interpretation. Adopting the Critical Race Theory (CRT) method of counter-narrative, I centralise the voices of student campaigns as sites of legitimate experiential knowledge. These campaigns reveal a web of whiteness that undergirds Higher Education. It is this web, I argue, that ensnares Femi on the day in question. Thus, Femi's experience cannot be understood in abstraction from structural white supremacy… [Direct]
(2023). School Counselors as Pilots: Navigating Systems of Power with Undocumented Students. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Undocumented students graduate from high school at 98,000 per year nationally (27,000 annually in California). School counselors are certificated campus professionals tasked with social, emotional, college, and career interventions for all students and also provide advocacy between students and any barriers interfering with school safety, mental health, and school completion. Immigrant students face problems of access and inequity in education, in addition to being English learners and liminal-status students. Although "Plyer v. Doe's" (1982) landmark court decision allowed undocumented students to receive free public education, it did not provide guidelines for educators. Some school counselors gatekeep advanced opportunities and "track" immigrant students into lower achieving classes, while others serve as social justice champions. Yet limited literature exists on how they currently serve undocumented students. Also missing are undocumented students'… [Direct]
(2022). The Intersectionality of Educating Black Students in Michigan: Public School Finance, Racial Segregation, and Housing Policy. Journal of Education Human Resources, v40 n4 p524-563 Oct. This research applies critical race theory to investigate Michigan's system for funding public schools, focusing on structural racism and discrimination embedded in education finance laws, housing policies, and residential and educational segregation. We find that the average Black student receiving free or reduced-price lunch (FRL) receives $411 less per pupil per year than the average White student receiving FRL and $783 less than the average White student who does not receive FRL. These disparities stem entirely from differences in locally sourced district revenues that are the result of vast differences in Black-White property wealth. On average, a one-percentage-point increase in a district's proportion of Black students receiving FRL is associated with a $2,354 decrease in taxable value of property per pupil. Our analyses imply that a district enrolling 1,000 Black and FRL students would receive $1,364,000 less annually than an identically sized district with no Black or FRL… [Direct]
(2023). Racial Justice Inc.: Deconstructing the Enactment of Racial Justice in DEI/Social Justice-Focused Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) Graduate Programs. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Massachusetts Boston. Despite efforts of faculty in Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) programs focused on social justice/Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) to provide equitable educational experiences for their students, studies on these programs have shown that students of color continue to face racialized experiences in the classroom (Harris & Linder, 2018; Linder et al., 2015). This dissertation employed a multiple case study to examine two HESA master's programs with a specific social justice/DEI mission and integrated the voices of both faculty and students. Using intensive interviewing, document analysis, and class observations, the goal of this study centered on understanding the extent to which faculty and students in these programs perceived the centrality of racial justice as an integral component of their espoused commitments to deliver tangible practices and experiences connected with the realization of the mission. The conceptual foundations of this study were informed by… [Direct]
(2021). Imprecise Words: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Institutional Statements Addressing Anti-Black Racism in 2020. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Northern Illinois University. A series of highly publicized off-campus acts of racial violence between February and September 2020 ignited a national reckoning on race, racism, anti-Black racism, and the role of higher education in systemic discrimination. In response, a number of college and university leaders published public statements attempting to address anti-Black racism both nationally and on their respective campuses. The purpose of this study is to take a closer look at how colleges and universities in the University of Wisconsin System (UW-System) utilize public statements to address anti-Black racism. Utilizing Critical Race Theory as a theoretical framework, as well as Bitzer's theory of the rhetorical situation for data analysis, this study analyzed a total of 27 statements from 13 institutions. Findings explore what terms were utilized to describe the murder of George Floyd (and potentially others who were murdered), who and/or what is at the center of the written statements, and what actions the… [Direct]
(2021). The Code of Silence: The Impact of Culture on Reporting Acts of Sexual Victimization for Black Women at HBCUs. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. This study investigated the cultural barriers that Black women at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) face when deciding whether to report acts of sexual victimization and how those barriers operate as a silencing agent. Underpinned by critical race theory and Black feminist thought, this study presented an opportunity to identify the specific barriers to reporting sexual victimization for Black women at HBCUs and to examine the impact that culture has on reporting practices. Qualitative interviews with Black women students between the ages of 18 and 25 at HBCUs, blended with critical policy analysis and textual analysis underpinned by BFT and CRT, were utilized to identify and highlight the importance of the intersectionality of race, gender, culture, and Black female stereotypes as factors to reporting. Additionally, six cultural themes emerged from the data and revealed how navigating cultural and legal barriers influence whether Black women at HBCUs will report… [Direct]
(2022). Predictive Factors of Help Seeking for Mental Health Support among Latinx Male College Students. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Arizona. The need for mental health services for Latinx communities is growing due to shifting demographics in the United States and increased immigration from Latin America (Provencio Vasquez et al., 2011; Torres & Vallejo, 2015). Unfortunately, Latinx people in the U.S. face disparities in both access to and quality of mental health treatment (Davis & Liang, 2015; Provencio Vasquez et al., 2011). These disparities are due to structural barriers, including systemic racism and varying levels of immigration status (Goodman & Gorski, 2015; Marquez Kiyama et al., 2015; Martinez Tyson et al., 2016). The aim of the present study was to gather data about Latinx male college students' help seeking attitudes and intentions at a large predominantly white institution (PWIs) in the United States. Another aim was to examine Latinx male college students' preference for culturally competent mental health counseling from a critical race theory (CRT) framework. Because cultures and sociocultural… [Direct]
(2018). Critical Race Parenting in the Trump Era: A Sisyphean Endeavor? A Parable. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE), v31 n1 p70-81. This article examines the complicated decisions parents make when they decide to raise critically conscious children. The article argues that critical parenting in US society is often analogous to the Greek myth of Sisyphus. Using Critical Race Parenting, Critical Race Theory, and Critical Whiteness Studies, this critically interpretive parable looks to the election of Donald Trump as US President and the ways whiteness, patriarchy, sexism, xenophobia, ableism, and racism function in social, cultural, economic, and educational spheres. This parable tells the story of Sue Libertad and analyzes how parenting in the era of Trump is Sisyphean. This concludes with a discussion of the importance of talking about race, racism, and heterosexism with our children, which disrupts whiteness, sexism, and patriarchy, and ultimately Trump and his administration…. [Direct]
(2018). "Why Are the Gifted Classes so White?" Making Space for Gifted Latino Students. Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, v21 n4 p112-130 Dec. Bryson Valley Elementary School's population is changing, formerly consisting of students, 72% of whom identified as White, but now only 53% of students do so; 26% of its 800 students identify as Latinx,1 the largest minority group in the school. The school's new Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted (AIG) teacher, Judith Hunter, notices a disparity in ethnic representation in the AIG program and hopes to change that situation. Two challenges that Judith faces are resistance from teachers who tend to hold deficit orientations toward some groups of students, as well as a fairly apathetic principal who is nearing retirement. When viewed through the lens of Critical Race Theory, the implicit racism in the school's gifted identification procedures becomes more obvious…. [Direct]
(2018). From Margins to Center: Developing Cultural Citizenship Education through the Teaching of Asian American History. Theory and Research in Social Education, v46 n4 p528-573. Citizenship education is considered a primary purpose for social studies education. However, in elementary classrooms, it is often limited to the memorization of mainstream civic knowledge and learning about a handful of American heroes. This qualitative study of three Asian American educators uses Asian Critical Race Theory to explore how the teachers drew from their own cultural and linguistic experiences to inform pedagogies of cultural citizenship education that interrogated what it means to be a citizen. By (re)defining the terms Asian American and American (citizen), the teachers enacted cultural citizenship education through the use of counternarratives and children's literature that disrupted normative conceptualizations of citizen. Their work demonstrates how educators can present more inclusive depictions of civic identity, membership, and agency to young learners…. [Direct]
(2018). 'I'm Not Being Offensive But…': Intersecting Discourses of Discrimination towards Muslim Children in School. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v21 n3 p370-389. This article examines forms of implicit discrimination towards Muslim children in children's discourses of Otherness. Findings in this paper draw on qualitative data exploring the discourses of 17 children from a Year 6 class in a culturally diverse primary school in the East of England. Building on Critical Race Theory and Critical Discourse Analysis, this article shows that children's discourses of Otherness acted in tacit discriminatory ways by constructing difference as problematic, which positioned Muslim children as the 'bad Other'. These findings show the intersectionality of discrimination experienced by Muslim children in school, and offer a reflection on the role of multiculturalism in schools and the limitations of uncritical discourses of tolerance in fostering an understanding of difference and Otherness…. [Direct]
(2023). The Beautiful Struggle: A Qualitative Examination of Black Educator Experiences Creating Academic Spaces for Student Success. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, DePaul University. While any student is susceptible to experiencing a traumatic incident, students living in socio-economically marginalized communities are often exposed at higher rates. Students from racial minority groups are more likely to experience distress from acts of violence committed against People of color than their White counterparts. For educators working in predominantly Black, Chicago communities, exposure to violence directly and via the shared experiences from students occurs disproportionately compared to educators working in other areas of the city. Educators working within particular communities battle the effects of chronic stress and structural racism, while striving to create hope and academic success within their students. Research suggests that African-American educators' use of culturally responsive pedagogical methods in tandem with their humanistic commitment to students is integral to student success. It is critical that the perspectives of Black educators committed to… [Direct]
(2024). Surviving China's Rejuvenation — Global Han Supremacy, Sinophobia + the Theft of Asian America in Education. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Michigan State University. Chinese identity is perceived by education researchers is a confluence of deliberations on questions such as who is Chinese, how they are Chinese, how they come to identify as Chinese, and who gets to say who is and is not Chinese. This dissertation's task is, as a result, not to define Chinese identities or Chineseness. Rather, I unpack the multiple discourses that shape Chineseness that impact the decisions that governments, social movements, and schools make to (re)present Chineseness and Asianness. These multiple contestations across space and time sought to stabilize or institutionalize Chinese identities into a single idea, nation-states, such as the People's Republic of China and the United States of America, assert political, social, and cultural power. As well, individuals work to resist these state discourses to further shape their own and communities' understandings of Chinese identity. To analyze the global movements and circulations of Chineseness across contexts, this… [Direct]
(2023). The Other Elephant in the (Class)Room: White Liberalism and the Persistence of Racism in Education. Teachers College Press Purposeful, intentional racial bias poses an obvious threat to the possibility of real equity in schools. In this volume, antiracist educators explore an equally troubling, but insufficiently explored threat: the racism upheld by schools and districts that claim an antiracist commitment. These institutions perpetuate disparities by enacting that commitment through surface-level and soft diversity and inclusion goals and popular initiatives that are more equity optics than antiracism. This book asks: How is racism perpetuated through actions, programs, practices, and initiatives that might appear to be inclusion-oriented or "progressive," but never quite get around to eliminating racism? How do these efforts pose as racial equity while protecting systems of advantage and disadvantage–creating a sort of equity inertia? The book then asks: What would antiracism look like if we enacted a deeper antiracist approach? What is a truer vision for racial equity? Diverse authors… [Direct]
(2022). Who's Checkin' for Black Girls and Women in the "Pandemic within a Pandemic"? COVID-19, Black Lives Matter and Educational Implications. Educational Review, v74 n3 p534-557. While the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was felt widely, for Black communities — particularly in the US and Britain — it was felt more severely. This was compounded by another deadly pandemic that was devastating Black communities and evidenced by the re-emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement after the murder of George Floyd. Parallels can be drawn between the deadly COVID-19 virus and the anti-Black systemic racism fuelling the existence of the Black Lives Matter movement — which both disproportionately kill Black people. Therefore, many within these communities are living in a "pandemic within a pandemic". Still, the focus on Black boys and men continued the parallels between both pandemics, failing to include the plight of Black girls and women who are also enduring the same impact as their Black male counterparts. This paper draws upon previous doctoral research about the educational journeys and experiences of Black British women graduates in light of the… [Direct]