(2024). The Teams Presidents Need: Cultivating Inclusive Teams through University Cabinet Searches. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania. The homogeneous nature of senior leadership in U.S. colleges and universities and the absence of diverse perspectives in decision making is cause for concern. The nation's college student population has become increasingly diverse, with Black, Latinx, Asian and Pacific Islander (API), and Indigenous groups making up 45% of 4-year college enrollment in Fall 2021. In contrast, although some gains in diversity in the senior leadership of colleges and universities exist, their ranks remain largely unchanged even as institutions invite more diverse student populations to campus. In the most recent American College President Study by the American Council on Education (2023), 72% of the overall number of college presidents identified as White, and 67% identified as male (Melidona et al., 2023). These numbers highlight the need to examine and develop strategies for achieving parity in higher education's senior leadership ranks overall. This study focused on the need for racial diversity in… [Direct]
(2022). Racial Literacies and Social Studies: Curriculum, Instruction, and Learning. Research and Practice in Social Studies Series. Teachers College Press This volume collects the work of historians, researchers, and classroom teachers to define what it means to be a racially literate educator and citizen. History classes should be spaces in which all students learn about their predecessors' legacies as a context for understanding and decision-making in contemporary society. In reality, the historical experiences of people of color are additive at best or marginalized at worst. To address the complexities of teaching and learning about race in the history classroom, chapter authors answer a series of questions related to curriculum, instruction, student learning, and teacher education: (1) how U.S. history narratives and curricular frameworks can or do incorporate the histories of racial/immigrant groups, (2) how teachers in particular contexts enact instruction that promotes and/or impedes students' racial literacy, (3) what students learn or don't learn from race lessons in history, and (4) how teacher educators can educate the next… [Direct]
(2021). Trabajando en ambos: Toward a Race Radical Mode of Study in Urban Latinx Educational Research and Politics. Teachers College Record, v123 n14 p95-114 Dec. Background/Context: Over the last 60 years, U.S. Latinxs have become the largest minoritized ethnic groups in the United States and U.S. schools, and despite progress and investments attained through activism in the streets, in the courtroom, in policy, and in research, schools chronically underserve Latinx youth, and they are as undereducated and underprepared today as they were in the 1960s. Findings like low rates of participation in early childhood programs, low graduation rates, and underpreparation for college success have led policymakers and scholars to declare that we are in the midst of a "Latinx education crisis." Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: In this article, I think through the late Jean Anyon's political economic "mode of study" as part of working toward a race radical approach to understanding and addressing the complexities of U.S. Latinx urban education. Setting/Population: The study takes place in the New York City… [Direct]
(2022). How Institutional Change, Including Cultural Change, Unfolded at Two Liberal Arts Colleges through Enacted DEI Initiatives. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania. Higher education diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives have become an imperative for institutional change in an ever-changing pluralistic society. The impact of diversity on college campuses has come a long way since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Chang, 2005), but there is still needed work. Higher education institutions continue to grapple with ways to build institutional capacity, meaning "how diversity is embedded in every core function including research, hiring, competencies required, and serving the 'public good'" (Smith, 2020). Research on DEI in higher education has spanned the literature to include topics on racial climate, student access and success, curriculum impact, intergroup relations, and the professoriate, but few studies have focused on the process of DEI agendas' implementation and cultural change. In the context of the current societal shifts toward anti-racism, inclusive excellence, and equity mindedness, this study investigated how change… [Direct]
(2022). An Exploration of Impostor Phenomenon among African American Women in Educational Leadership Roles. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of North Texas. African American women in educational leadership roles face a myriad of barriers and challenges. Black feminist theory and impostor phenomenon theory offered a potent conceptual lens for understanding the experiences of successful African American women. A qualitative phenomenological study was conducted to examine and explore strategies that African American women use to (a) navigate the impostor phenomenon in relation to career mobility, and (b) identify and understand how social constructs in educational leadership organizations can contribute to their experiences. The research also examined the historical and contemporary problems of subjugation, oppression, racism, and sexism as narrated by 12 African American women who are in educational leadership roles. Data collected from the participants were triangulated and analyzed thematically resulting in six themes: (1) experiences of being questioned and undermined by superiors; (2) experiences of other people's perceptions about… [Direct]
(2024). "We Have the Potential"–Math as a Racialized Barrier: Counter-Narratives of Black and Latinx Working-Class California Community College STEM Students. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Loyola Marymount University. Within the CCC system, mathematics has been identified as the most considerable barrier to persistence, transfer, and degree completion (Cooper et al., 2022). Recent research corroborated the notion that mathematics serves as a gatekeeper for Black and Latinx students; historically, this subject has impeded students of color from accessing educational opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM; Joseph et al., 2021). Consequently, mathematics has evolved into a racialized impediment for students and, by extension, STEM graduates. Recognizing mathematics' critical role in shaping students' future prospects, the state legislature introduced "California Assembly Bill 705" (AB 705; California Assembly Bill 705 [AB 705], 2017) to provide an intervention implemented in the fall of 2019. The purpose of this study was to examine how Black and Latinx working-class STEM students interpret and derive meaning from their mathematics trajectories, as well as the… [Direct]
(2016). Changing the Place of Teacher Education: Feminism, Fear, and Pedagogical Paradoxes. Harvard Educational Review, v86 n2 p161-182 Sum. In this article, Stephanie Jones and Hilary E. Hughes suggest that particular discursive lessons are readily available in justice-oriented teacher education which might influence a pedagogy that crowds out responsiveness, the experience of the student, and the role of gender and feminism in teacher education. They contend that changing the place of teacher education to include unpredictable community settings requires pedagogical responses that defy predictable storylines and ready-made discursive lessons common in teacher education. The lessons learned contribute to justice-oriented teacher education and an emerging trend for including community-based experiences in teacher education, and highlight the importance of feminist storylines for the incommensurability of misogyny and racism for teacher education…. [Direct]
(2024). Faculty of Color Experiences with Their Community College Police. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, California State University, Long Beach. The purpose of this study was to deepen understanding of faculty of color experiences with their community college campus police, use a systematic approach for exploring their feelings connected to these experiences, and identify alternative strategies to increase sense of safety among faculty of color. A critical race theory (CRT) theoretical framework was used to illuminate the ways in which structural racism persists in academia through campus policing. Additionally, an abolitionist framework guided the research to focus on uncovering what is unknown about policing in higher education, and to highlight alternatives to campus police that faculty of color desire and engage in. The sample included 10 faculty of color from a Southern California Community College who were concurrently employed at the college for more than 4 years each. The findings revealed that racial identity informed faculty of color feelings about campus police, but views varied by the individual, and were… [Direct]
(2016). Encounters between the "Oppressed" and the "Oppressor": Rethinking Paulo Freire in Anti-Racist Feminist Education in Sweden. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v19 n4 p835-855. With the aim of rethinking Paulo Freire's theory and its practices in race/ethnicity and education, this article uses intersectionality to deepen our understanding of differences among the oppressed and break the opposition between the oppressed and oppressor. Based on an ethnographic study carried out at a feminist adult educational institution in Sweden, the author examines the positionality of migrant students and feminist teachers and how they react to othering in the educational process and in Swedish society. The author also argues for the importance of intersectionality as a way to help both the conscientization of the oppressed and the radical task of the liberatory teachers. It is crucial to untangle gendered and sexualized racism, especially in specific contexts where race and gender intersect to construct a binary between a "superior us" and a "barbaric Other." Conscientization and intersectionality are particularly useful for probing the complicated… [Direct]
(2018). What Counts as Language Education Policy? Developing a Materialist Anti-Racist Approach to Language Activism. Language Policy, v17 n3 p365-384 Aug. Language activism has been at the core of language education policy since its emergence as a scholarly field in the 1960s under the leadership of Joshua Fishman. In this article, we seek to build on this tradition to envision a new approach to language activism for the twenty-first century. In particular, we advocate a materialist anti-racist approach to language activism that broadens what counts as language education policy to include a focus on the broader racial and economic policies that impact the lives of language-minoritized communities. In order to illustrate the need for a materialist anti-racist framing of language education policy we provide portraits of four schools in the School District of Philadelphia that offer dual language bilingual education programs. We demonstrate the ways that larger societal inequities hinder these programs from serving the socially transformative function that advocates for these programs aspire toward. We end by calling for a new paradigm of… [Direct]
(2021). Monolingual Language Ideologies and the Idealized Speaker: The "New Bilingualism" Meets the "Old" Educational Inequities. Teachers College Record, v123 n1. Background/Context: After decades of restrictive U.S. language policies geared toward English-only education, recent years have seen a proliferation of dual-language programs, Seal of Biliteracy awards, and bilingual education programming more broadly. The demand for such programming ostensibly suggests growing consensus around the benefits of linguistic diversity–dubbed "The New Bilingualism" by The Atlantic in 2016. However, recent research suggests that the pivot to this New Bilingualism is largely taking place in contexts of privilege, disproportionately benefiting English-dominant, middle- and upper-class communities as compared with multilingual communities where demand for bilingual programming is not "new" at all. Focus of Study: This piece explores how recent, well-intentioned expansions in bilingual education programming may actually reinforce historical inequities. Putting forth a framework of idealized language ideologies, the article documents how… [Direct]
(2017). Messages in Collusion: Resident Assistants and White Racial Identity Development. Journal of College and University Student Housing, v43 n3 p68-79. This critical case study examined the racial identity development of 10 White RAs who participated in 12 hours of diversity and social justice training during a two-week summer program. Helm's White Racial Identity Development Model served as the study's theoretical framework. In this paper, we discuss the incongruence between the Northeast State University Department of Residential Life training content and the RAs' deeply held beliefs about race and racism. We conclude by offering recommendations to residential life practitioner-educators for enhancing RA training, diversity, and social justice education, and assisting White RAs in their racial identity development. [Discussion questions developed by Jordan Peterson.]… [Direct]
(2017). A Case Study of White Teacher Candidates' Conceptions of Racial Profiling in Educational Contexts. Journal of Education, v197 n1 p41-51. This qualitative case study explored how two White teacher candidates understood and conceptualized racial profiling in the wake of Trayvon Martin's murder. The teacher candidates were interviewed about their experiences with profiling in educational contexts. One participant conceptualized racial profiling as intrinsic to her understanding of the educational experiences of students of color and articulated that profiling contributed to her broader understanding of racism. While the other participant regarded profiling as relevant to educational contexts, she found some truth in profiles and stereotypes of people of color and reported "colorblind" approaches to teaching and learning. Implications for teacher education and future research are discussed…. [Direct]
(2017). Tracing Spectres of Whiteness: Discourse and the Construction of Teaching Subjects in Urban Aboriginal Education. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, v38 n5 p642-658. The author traces how discourse functions in the context of a school-based, urban Aboriginal education initiative, with a focus on the construction and organization of teaching subjects. Critical discourse analysis that traces spectres reveals some of the ways that whiteness and Eurocentrism create the possibilities for, and the conditions in which teachers take up, the positions: victim of racism, arbiter of authenticity, and rescuer. Consideration of the multiple, complex, and shifting positions teachers occupy within whiteness in general, and in colonial systems of education in particular, offers unique possibilities when untangling and reconfiguring teachers' constructions of Aboriginality/Indigeneity and responses to Aboriginal/Indigenous education. This theory building also contributes to the larger field of curriculum studies by demonstrating how consideration of "unheroic tales" can aid in theorizing teacher identity and difference, both within and beyond the… [Direct]
(2017). (De)Constructing the #FeesMustFall Campaign in South African Higher Education. Contemporary Education Dialogue, v14 n2 p211-223 Jul. South Africans live in one of the most unequal societies in the world where squalor and abject poverty live side by side with abundant wealth. The challenge of inequality is captured eloquently in the National Development Plan (NDP), the government's roadmap of South African economic future. It has become obvious that the new generation of student leadership in South Africa has unleashed a unique opportunity to overhaul and transform the higher education system fundamentally. They are tired of the current system that hangs on the pillars of racism and white supremacy and continues to reproduce inequality in the society. In some ways, the South African higher education system continues to humiliate and take away students' dignity. Thus, there is still work to be done to ensure the higher education system fully conforms with the objectives of the NDP…. [Direct]