(2023). "I Didn't Know I Could Have a Voice": How Asian American Childhood Experiences Shaped Lived Identities. Journal for Multicultural Education, v17 n3 p330-342. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to gain insight into Asian Americans' experiences with racism during elementary, middle and high school and how those experiences shape the ways they describe their racial identity. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a qualitative research design and narrative inquiry strategy. The authors used Chang's (1993) Asian Critical Race Theory framework to examine participant's descriptions of experiences with racism during elementary, middle and high school and how these experiences shape how they describe their Asian American racial identity. Findings: Participants' narratives revealed a common theme of silencing through two major processes: acceptance of the Asian American identity as an "other" and measuring the Asian American self against the barometers of physical appearance and the model minority stereotype. Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature on Asian Americans by examining how experiences as a child… [Direct]
(2022). Observing Whiteness in Introductory Physics: A Case Study. Physical Review Physics Education Research, v18 n1 Article 010119 Jan-Jun. Within whiteness, the organization of social life is in terms of a center and margins that are based on dominance, control, and a transcendent figure that is consistently and structurally ascribed value over and above other figures. In this paper, we synthesize literature from Critical Whiteness Studies and Critical Race Theory to articulate analytic markers for whiteness, and use the markers to identify and analyze whiteness as it shows up in an introductory physics classroom interaction. We name mechanisms that facilitate the reproduction of whiteness in this local context, including a particular representation of energy, physics values, whiteboards, gendered social norms, and the structure of schooling. In naming whiteness and offering a set of analytic markers, our aim is to provide instructors and researchers with a tool for identifying whiteness in their own contexts. Alongside our discussion, which imagines new possibilities for physics teaching and learning, we hope our work… [Direct]
(2022). Developing Critical Digital Literacies through Digital Storytelling: Student Attempts at Re-Telling the District Six Story. International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning, v14 n3 Article 84. The South African Higher Education sector has undergone major transformation since the end of Apartheid more than 25 years ago. Critical digital literacies and critical (digital) citizenship, aligns with the most important aspects of the transformation agenda, 'the production of socially conscious graduates that will become the thinkers and leaders of tomorrow' (Soudien et al 2008). The ability to link the past and the present, the personal and the political is an important element of critical digital literacies. This paper reflects on projects introduced in a first year Extended Curriculum Programme course for Architectural Technology and Interior Design students at a University of Technology, in which students created a digital story after visiting historical sites in the Western Cape. Framed by Critical Race Theory concepts of master narratives and counter-storytelling, using multimodal analysis of the digital stories, this paper will highlight examples of students' attempts to… [Direct]
(2022). Idwi, "Xenopus Laevis," and African Clawed Frog: Teaching Counternarratives of Invasive Species in Postcolonial Ecology. Journal of Environmental Education, v53 n2 p69-86. This article presents a Pedagogical Framework for Invasive Species to shift how we understand, teach, and study invasive species, especially when people are responsible for their expansion into new ecosystems. The focus is on a species originating from countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that humans extracted and introduced in certain regions of the Americas, Europe, and Asia: "Xenopus laevis," African Clawed Frog, or Idwi in the Zulu language. This article re-introduces the frog Idwi through lenses of de/post-colonial theory, Indigenous studies, and Critical Race Theory to create counternarratives. Through a popular press analysis, the article uncovers how humans in colonial contexts extracted species from de/colonizing spaces to export to other regions of the world. When the frogs were profitable, the entrepreneurs who exported them were valorized. However, once seen as invasive, frogs were targeted with xenophobic projections. This article foregrounds counternarratives that… [Direct]
(2022). The "Ezel Project" Inquiry: Mesotransformative Praxis to Decenter Whiteness in Racialized Organizations and Schools. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, City University of New York Hunter College. In this study, a Black scholar in the midst of understanding his neurodivergence and his identity as someone who has been dis/abled reacts to the prodding of white peers by creating a course on decentering whiteness. The scholar then interviews ten of the participants in said class to understand how they came to select such a course and what they might have accomplished in attempting to challenge the structure of whiteness in their institutions. Drawing on Critical Race Theory, Critical Whiteness Studies, Dis/Crit, and in particular the work of Victor Ray, this work seeks to examine the narratives that brought the author and his students together and where they might travel into the future. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page:… [Direct]
(2022). Critical Race and Feminist Standpoint Theories in Physics Education Research: A Historical Review and Potential Applications. Physical Review Physics Education Research, v18 n1 Article 013101 Jan-Jun. More progress is needed to achieve equity in racial and gender representation in the push to diversify the physical sciences. In order to continue moving towards representation and equity, there is a need for more analytic tools that can help us understand where we are and how we got here. This may also enable meaningful systemic change. In this article, we will review two theoretical frameworks: critical race theory (CRT) and feminist standpoint theory (FST). This paper will guide the reader through the historical context in which each theory was formed, present core tenets and major ideas of each theory, along with external critiques to each theory and where they stand today. This will help readers to further understand CRT and FST, what their role is in education, and how they may be used in physics education research. Simultaneously, this article will serve to broaden perspectives of fundamental societal problems such as racism and sexism…. [Direct]
(2023). Systemic Issues Can't Be Fixed Overnight: How Latina Undergraduate Students Engage in Activism and Critical Hope. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Michigan State University. The Latinx population has significantly transformed the demography of the United States and its institutions of higher education. Yet, despite the increase of Latinx students obtaining their bachelor's degrees (U.S. Census 2021) and having one of the highest college enrollment rates, Latinxs have the lowest college attainment (Ayala and Chalupa Young 2022). Despite the changing demographic compositions of universities, students from marginalized racial and ethnic backgrounds experience various forms of racism and oppression on campus (Broadhurst and Velez 2019). And so, engaging in activism is one avenue in which students challenge these forms of marginalization and oppression. Still, there is not vast research which explores Latina undergraduates' engagement in activism and more importantly how their positionalities shape their experiences. In particular, this dissertation sheds light on how the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement shaped Latina undergraduate… [Direct]
(2023). Let's Face It, the Racial Politics Are Always There: A Critical Race Approach to Policy Implementation in the Wake of Anti-CRT Rhetoric. Education Policy Analysis Archives, v31 n109. School communities across the United States are experiencing increasing calls to remove the teaching of critical race theory (CRT) from their curricula despite not actually doing so in practice. This anti-CRT push is part of a larger, conservative agenda to ban teaching "divisive" topics in public schools and exemplifies the underlying racial politics existent in educational policy implementation. In this article, we analyze the legal efforts to ban CRT and anti-racist teaching in one state through a framework that situates policy implementation within CRT, which seeks to advance how whiteness, interest convergence, racial realism, and the erasure of people of color are continual to policy implementation. Through a critical discourse analysis of anti-CRT rhetoric, we illustrate how predictable patterns such as white backlash, overt racism, racial violence, and racial trauma are brought to light in policy implementation. We then offer an example of CRT as critical race… [PDF]
(2023). Understanding Latino Boys' Motivation to Pursue STEM While Navigating School Inequalities. Journal of Latinos and Education, v22 n3 p1268-1280. Latino boys' motivational beliefs in STEM remain under-examined in the literature, especially during middle school when building a strong STEM trajectory is critical for future success in STEM. The current study used Expectancy-Value Theory to analyze how Latino boys interpreted their expectancies and values in order to better understand their motivational beliefs. Furthermore, Critical Race Theory was incorporated to help identify the structural inequalities and familial motivational mechanisms that Latino boys perceived to play a role in their STEM persistence. A total of 89, predominantly low-income, Latino boys in middle school participated in focus groups. We analyzed the focus group data using deductive content analysis to examine students' expectancies and values and a hybrid inductive and deductive approach to examine perceived barriers and family motivators. The results illustrated boys' interpretations of their expectancies and subjective task values (i.e., utility,… [Direct]
(2023). Misunderstanding the Campaign against CRT: Absurdity and White Supremacy in Attacks on Teaching and Teacher Education. Thresholds in Education, v46 n1 p139-156. Recent efforts to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory in U.S. public schools have been criticized for fundamentally misunderstanding both CRT and K-12 teaching and teacher education. This paper argues that Anti-CRT fear-mongering in the U.S. is a new face on an old practice, the racist use of public education to sustain White supremacy. Using the method of critical discourse analysis, it examines the current anti-CRT fulmination in terms of its continuity with the history of US White supremacy in education, looking in particular at the ideological strategies employed to silence oppositional voices. It first identifies the players–both people and money–behind the public face of the CRT ban movement, linking them to the initial reaction to "Brown v. Board of Education" in 1955. It then dissects the visible tactics and hidden strategies in anti-CRT efforts to describe a three-step process of disaster capitalism in education. It ends with thoughts on how unmasking of… [PDF]
(2023). Identities and Ideologies in Collection Development Practices within the U.S. Children's Librarianship. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Simmons University. Collection development is at the core of the work of children's librarians, an ongoing activity that shapes collections as well as library spaces, services, programming, and communities. The process of collection development includes the consideration of several factors that impact the evaluation, selection, and acquisition of books available for children. This research examined the phenomenon of children's librarians' collection development practices during the period of 2019 to 2021, as well as influential factors and the impact of children's librarians' identities and views into the decision-making and selection process. Using Gramsci's Hegemony and Patricia Hill Collins's Critical Race Theory Domains-of-Power frameworks, this study reviewed if and how current collection development practices enact, replicate, challenge, or critique white hegemony in libraries and children's librarians as one of the functionaries of such white hegemonic structures. This multiple case study… [Direct]
(2023). We Need to Talk about Education: A Zine about the Fight for Social Justice in Special Education. Community Voices and Experiences about Dis/Ability and Race in Waterloo, IA. Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center This zine represents a large community project done with the collaboration of Waterloo's NAACP Education Chapter, ASK (Access for Special Kids) Resource Center, community members, caregivers, college students, and faculty. The importance of this zine was to highlight the work from town hall meetings and caregiver interviews, but also show illustrations specifically created to add more depth to these true experiences. It also shows the importance of the fight for social justice in special education for students of Color, through sharing real experiences and centering the voices of the caregivers who advocate for their students. During the townhall, the authors were able to identify Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit), disproportionality, and punishment that was caused by traumatic situations for children. Intersectionality was also identified and highlighted to explain the impact of the nexus of factors such as having a dis/ability or lower socioeconomic status, and being able… [PDF]
(2024). More than Knowing: Toward Collective, Critical, and Ecological Approaches in Educational Technology Research. Educational Technology Research and Development, v72 n5 p2519-2541. The predominance of western paradigms and a frequent failure to consider and theorize the non-neutrality of schools and technology leaves an ontological and epistemological gap in educational technology studies. Specifically, it leads to thin research on the role of power, the collective, and the intersections with technology that can alter our interaction with the world. The current narrow approach hobbles the imagination of the field, constraining the possibilities for technology and education. We propose three research frames that are relatively new to the field of educational technology. These frames acknowledge the interdisciplinary and socially embedded nature of technology and the systems of power that exist in both schools and technology: "Collective Framing, Critical Race Theory (CRT) Framing," and "Ecological Framing." We synthesize the possibilities of these approaches for educational technology research, identifying how they can push the field to… [Direct]
(2016). Teach for America's Long Arc: A Critical Race Theory Textual Analysis of Wendy Kopp's Works. Education Policy Analysis Archives, v24 n14 Feb. We read and analyzed 165,000 words and uncover a series of counter-stories buried within a textual corpus, authored by Teach For America (TFA) founder Wendy Kopp (Kopp, 1989, 2001; Kopp & Farr, 2011), that offers insight into the forms of racism endemic to Teach For America. All three counter-stories align with a critical race theory (CRT) framework. Specifically, we answer the following questions: What evidence of institutional and epistemological racism is exposed by a CRT textual analysis of TFA's founding document and later works by Wendy Kopp? To what extent has TFA appropriated the language of culturally relevant pedagogy, while advancing an uninterrogated neoliberal ideology? And, to what extent does TFA's contribution to a "culture of achievement" (Kopp & Farr, 2011) constitute an actual "poverty of culture" (Ladson-Billings, 2006a) that enacts real harms on communities of color?… [PDF]
(2016). Reasoning about Race and Pedagogy in Two Preservice Science Teachers: A Critical Race Theory Analysis. Cognition and Instruction, v34 n4 p285-322. This study describes the experiences of two preservice science teachers as they progress through their respective teacher education programs and uses critical race theory to examine the manner in which conceptions about race and its pedagogical implications change over time. Using a longitudinal case study method, participants' conceptual ecologies of race and pedagogy are mapped both before and after student teaching, and each case is analyzed for evidence of conceptual change in these areas. Findings show that conceptions about race and the pedagogical implications of race changed in ways that likely would have gone undetected in earlier studies because they did not result in wholesale changes in beliefs or teaching practice. This study suggests that the difficulty of fostering an understanding of structural racism and difference may often be underestimated, as revising one's model about race is mitigated strongly by learners' existing conceptual ecologies…. [Direct]