(2022). #SayHerName: Black Women Physical Education Teachers of the Year. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, v41 n2 p184-193 Apr. Purpose: Black women are devalued in many aspects of American culture–physical education (PE) is no exception. Platforms to celebrate Black women's excellence in PE are scarce. Drawing on Black feminist thought and critical race theory, the purpose of this article is to describe and explain the experiences of Black women physical educators who earned PE Teacher of the Year. Participants: Two Black women share their experiences as physical educators and PE Teachers of the Year. Methods: Qualitative narrative inquiry consisting of semistructured, virtual group interviews was employed. Results: Four core themes were identified: (a) invisibility, (b) superwoman syndrome, (c) affirming role models, and (d) culturally responsive pedagogies. Discussion/Conclusion: Elevating Black women's voices in PE requires a deconstruction of limited exposure opportunities. Normalizing Black excellence in PE acknowledges that Black women's intersectionalities create enormous challenges yet foster… [Direct]
(2022). Bilingual and Monolingual Parents' Counterstories of the Individualized Education Program (IEP) Meeting. Urban Education, v57 n7 p1207-1229 Sep. The Individual With Disabilities Education Act mandates that parents should be active participants in the Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting. This qualitative study looked at the IEP process from a critical lens that focused on diverse participants' experiences at their child's IEP meeting. What distinguishes counterstories from a majoritarian story is that a counterstory incorporates the five elements of critical race theory (CRT). The authors used the composite narrative to tell the story of four Latinx parents' experiences in two urban schools during IEP meetings. Findings highlight how the participants could have used Yosso's notion of community cultural wealth to better navigate the IEP meeting and create more understanding and responsiveness among school personnel. Counterstories are recommended as a culturally relevant instructional tool that has the potential to help parents increase their involvement and create a more open dialogue with professionals at IEP… [Direct]
(2022). Sociological Theory through Dystopian and Fictional World-Building: Assigning a Short Story Parable Inspired by Derrick Bell's "The Space Traders". Teaching Sociology, v50 n4 p331-339 Oct. This article is a reflective analysis of an assignment in which undergraduate students developed dystopian, postapocalyptic, fantasy, and fictional short story parables to illustrate their understanding of sociological theory. In a social theory course, students were assigned a final paper in which they designed a short story that integrated sociological theory, including classical and contemporary concepts, which were applied to these fictional worlds. The assignment encouraged students to develop both macro- and micro-level creative social theory analysis using a fictional society that often touches on the themes of futurism, science fiction, or postapocalyptic settings. These scenarios allowed students to engage in world-building linked to systems of oppression that were analyzed through various perspectives, including Marxist theories, critical race theory, and feminist theories. The assignment is a creative way for students to apply their sociological imagination with the… [Direct]
(2022). The Coloniality of False Racial Binaries: Intersectional Consciousness as Antiracist Expectations for Multiracial Coalition-Building. Educational Studies: Journal of the American Educational Studies Association, v58 n3 p368-385. The racial awakening stemming from the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-Black police brutalities, and unaccounted hate crimes against Asian Americans has captivated the world's attention regarding the insidious realities of white supremacy. Yet many educators' efforts to purposefully and pedagogically work toward building multiracial coalitions have been criminalized through policies banning the use of critical race theory and other curricula promoting equity and racial justice. Through the methodology of self-narrativization, this paper draws on intersectional studies and decolonial frameworks of heterogeneity, hybridity, and multiplicity to disrupt the Black-White framing of racialized experiences in research and policy agendas. In doing so, this paper calls for educators to reject reductive logics of social justice in perpetuating racial order and to advance anticolonial agendas through intersectional and interconnecting points of political struggles across… [Direct]
(2022). How International Students of Colour Become Black: A Story of Whiteness in English Higher Education. Teaching in Higher Education, v27 n1 p84-98. This article highlights how international students of colour are racialised in English higher education. Key performance indicators of racial inequality in the sector like achievement outcomes currently discount experiences of international students of colour. This is problematic as international students, as found in this study, identify themselves under the sector racial category of Black and minority ethnic (BME). They experience racism and discrimination in and outside the Academy just like 'home' BME students. The work presented here foregrounds the racialised experiences of international students of colour in English higher education. It is a counter-story in the tradition of critical race theory which reveal how whiteness unifies and divides. It unifies in creating a shared experience amongst those who experience the heat of the 'white gaze' in academia. It divides, categorising and classifying 'us' to the extent that 'we', both students and academic staff, may unwittingly… [Direct]
(2022). Students with Interrupted Formal Education: Empowerment, Positionality, and Equity in Alternative Schools. TESOL Journal, v13 n1 e602 Mar. This article reports on the educational experiences of select students with an inconsistent/interrupted formal education (SIFE) currently enrolled at an alternative high school. Interview data were collected during two consecutive academic years during 2018-2020 and analyzed by drawing on positioning theory and the culture of power to address the many inequities these students have faced at the alternative high school as well as at the traditional public high school. Critical race theory provides an important theoretical lens for exploring connections between the experiences of the students and the lack of equitable practices available to the immigrant student population. Thus, the findings were categorized into the themes of positioning, the power of the institution, culture and language, and resilience and empowerment. These findings have implications for educators who work with and advocate on behalf of English language learners, immigrant students, and more specifically SIFE…. [Direct]
(2022). Counter Stories: The Voices of Indigenous Peoples Undertaking Educative Roles in Flexi Schools. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v51 n1. This paper reports on findings from the first author's doctoral research examining the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff in Australian flexi schools. "Collaborative yarning methodology" storyboarding was used to hear (and theme) the collective experiences of Indigenous teaching and non-teaching staff in these alternative school settings, where both they and Indigenous students make up a larger proportion of Indigenous people in the school than in mainstream schools. Informed by Indigenist and critical race theory, 19 Indigenous staff members contributed to knowledge around three themes: Us mob, Race and racism, and Practice. The latter incorporated discussions both of curriculum and funding issues. Many Indigenous staff were working in flexi schools through choice and a sense of commitment to working with Indigenous youth. However, other issues, such as experiences of racism, were still present despite the "social justice" nature of flexi… [PDF]
(2024). Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Other Trigger Words. Art Education, v77 n5 p8-14. Art education is an important field where marginalization, differing privileges, and oppression can be addressed, but we can do more. In today's politicized educational climate, a teacher who wants to create an activism-oriented lesson needs to understand the terms surrounding equity, diversity, and inclusion (ED&I). However, many tensions exist regarding ED&I. The political right has weaponized these terms, while some researchers on the liberal left are skeptical of ED&I and view the terms as managed racism. Nevertheless, art teachers' achievements are determined largely by their ability to identify, understand, and empathize with the social and political struggles of their communities (Kraehe, 2017). This article is intended to inform art educators about the detailed and complex terms that have become politically charged in more than several states. In the following pages, the author breaks down the ideas of ED&I. She also explains the difference between critical… [Direct]
(2024). Visual-Verbal Journals, Literature, and Literacies of Well-Becoming. Pedagogies: An International Journal, v19 n1 p99-125. Critically-oriented teacher education has been under assault in the United States (U.S.), England, and Australia through policies that have had a chilling effect on teaching critical race theory, gender, and sexuality. We are concerned that these reactionary movements will further distort the histories, lives, and humanity of minoritized groups while reinforcing the single storylines of dominant groups. Our post-qualitative inquiry demonstrates how four literacy teacher education instructors and four preservice literacy teachers from various regions of the U.S. used visual-verbal journals (VVJs) and quality literature in critically-oriented, artful pedagogy to disrupt normative forces in teacher education. Data analyses were informed by the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari, particularly the concepts of "becoming" and "health," which have explanatory power over affective encounters across the four different sites. We focus on encounters that produced… [Direct]
(2024). Teaching to the Heart: A Grounded Theory Exploration of Elementary Educators' Journey toward Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Chapman University. The current sociopolitical context of the United States has created a divide among the nation which has transpired into Kindergarten-12th grade public school settings. Throughout the United States school boards of education have banned books and Critical Race Theory while attacking social justice teaching pedagogies. Presently, there is growing empirical research on teaching mathematics for social justice in public elementary schools. This study explored the ways in which public elementary educators experience teaching mathematics for social justice in their classrooms across Southern California. Through qualitative research, this study utilized constructivist grounded theory methodology and methods to gain insight of the various experiences of teachers navigating with a socially just lens in mathematics during a time of social and political turmoil. The findings of this study indicated that although elementary school teachers do not associate their mathematics instruction with… [Direct]
(2024). The Big Lie about Race in America's Schools. Race and Education. Harvard Education Press "The Big Lie About Race in America's Schools" delivers a collective response to the challenge of racially charged misinformation, disinformation, and censorship that increasingly permeates and weakens not only US education but also our democracy. In this thought-provoking volume, Royel Johnson and Shaun Harper bring together leading education scholars and educators to confront the weaponized distortions that are currently undermining both public education and racial justice. The experts gathered in this work offer strategies to counter these dangerous trends and uphold truth in education. In focused, practical chapters, the contributors examine efforts both broad and specific, from restrictive education legislation, to book bans, to twisting terminology like Critical Race Theory (CRT) and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), that are obscuring truth in public education. They demonstrate how this narrowing of allowable ideas does a disservice to all students and… [Direct]
(2024). Putting Criticality into Health and Physical Education and Teacher Education: Seizing the Power of Racial Literacy and Indigenous Knowledges. Curriculum Studies in Health and Physical Education, v15 n2 p166-181. Health and physical education (HPE) is a discursively white, Western learning domain. Despite minor disruptions through radical scholarship in HPE research and teacher education (often referred to as PETE), and the implementation of curricular devices and/or models-based practices promoting inclusion in HPE teaching, more radical work to honour Indigenous knowledges (IK) is needed. Since all HPE curricular encounters in Australia occur upon stolen and unceded lands and waters, and ongoing possession is justified through racially constructed educational narratives of Western superiority, the suppressed histories, Indigenous languages, and Indigenous knowledges have a fundamental role to play. In this paper, we argue that Australian HPE educators must (1) develop a greater depth of knowledge about our entwined Indigenous and non-Indigenous histories and present, (2) acquire tools to develop racial literacy from a coalition of critical Indigenous studies and Critical Race Theory (CRT),… [Direct]
(2024). The Roles of College Organization Support, Navigational Capital, and Academic Self-Efficacy in LFGCS' Perceived Persistence to Graduation. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Santa Cruz. As more Latinx First Generation College Students (LFGCS) attend college, they can face a cultural, academic, and social university context that focuses on individuality and competitiveness that may differ from their own cultural values of communality and cooperation. In this dissertation, I used Community Cultural Wealth and Latinx Critical Race theories to address the experiences of LFGCS in college. In a survey of 110 LFGCS, I investigated if college organization support predicted their perceived persistence in college through the sequential mediation of navigational capital and academic self-efficacy. As predicted, the relationship between college organization support and perceived persistence in college was significantly and sequentially mediated by navigational capital and academic self-efficacy. These findings contribute to the literature by showing how participation in college organizations helps LFGCS' develop navigational capital and academic self-efficacy and promotes their… [Direct]
(2024). Race(ism), Power, Intimidation, & Domestic Terrorism: A Critical Content Analysis of HBCU Bomb Threats on Social Media. Peabody Journal of Education, v99 n2 p236-250. Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) were founded with the principal mission to educate Black people during an era when they were barred from most postsecondary opportunities. Today, these institutions play a vital role in the higher education landscape and help to insure the long-term viability of the U.S. economy. This research explored public discourse regarding HBCU bomb threats during 2022 and how public comments reflected on issues of race(ism), power, intimidation and domestic terrorism as a continuation of historical violence against Black Americans. The authors employed critical content analysis techniques and Critical Race Theory, while examining social media posts from X (formerly known as Twitter) as an innovative data source regarding public dialogue. The findings discuss two overarching themes within public discourse about these campus safety threats – (1) racism and White supremacy; and (2) political (in)action. These findings provide insights… [Direct]
(2024). Nothing Nice about It: Critiquing Midwest Nice in Teacher Education. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, v21 n4 p467-490. In teacher education, critical scholars have lamented how "niceness" hinders progress toward social and racial justice. A place characteristic of this "niceness" is the Midwestern region of the United States, which the dominant narrative paints as overly agreeable and free of racial inequities. This image overlooks the rampant systemic racism that is foundational to the entire country, allowing the Midwest to tout an ideological stance of "Midwest nice"–a race-evasive semblance of social and political politeness that is seemingly harmless. This conceptual article draws on critical race theory and critical geographies of race to analyze how "Midwest nice" influences Midwestern teacher education programs. By conceptualizing two teacher education sites–educator praxis (an input) and student evaluations of teaching (an output)–we consider the particular plight of Women of Color critical scholars instructing preservice teachers in the Midwest. We… [Direct]