(2024). Racial and Ethnic Bias in Scholastic Achievement Awards: A Collective Dual Language Case Study. Journal of Latinos and Education, v23 n5 p1636-1647. This mixed-methods case study examines data for over 1,500 student awards at two dual language elementary schools collected over the course of two years. Using descriptive statistics, this paper examines student representation by demographics in quarterly scholastic awards. Through document analysis of award descriptions, we analyze how students were selected by their teachers. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a theoretical framework, findings show that across both schools, Latinx students were underrepresented in scholastic awards while White students were overrepresented. After examining and discussing student award data, this paper contextualizes the data within the literature on unconscious bias, inequity in DLBE programs, data-based SWPBIS systems, and explores implications for further research and school-based leadership…. [Direct]
(2024). Feeling the Threat of Race in Education: Exploring the Cultural Politics of Emotions in CRT-Ban Political Discourses. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, v46 n2 p222-248. Recent attacks on critical race theory (CRT) aim to limit discussion and understanding of race (and its intersection with class, gender, and power). Racial dialogues can be uncomfortable for those who benefit from power, suggesting that resistance to CRT or any discussion of race and power in education is rooted in emotions. This study examines the role of racialized emotions in public policy discourse that surrounds CRT bans in education that have been proposed, and in many cases, passed across the United States. Focusing on four early-adopting states of the bans, the findings reveal how emotionalities of whiteness are tacitly endorsed, invited, and animated within racialized politics, as well as how these emotionalities might be disrupted…. [Direct]
(2024). "A Bunch of Liberal, Nazi Communists": Equity-Oriented Educational Leaders' Response to the Anti-CRT Phenomenon in Iowa. Thresholds in Education, v47 n1 p88-102. On September 22, 2020, Donald Trump issued Executive Order 13950, titled "Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping." While the order has been revoked, as of May, 2022, 34 states, including Iowa (HF 802), had passed or were considering legislation prohibiting the use of critical lenses, such as Critical Race Theory, in public K-12 schools. In this study, we interviewed equity-oriented leaders in Iowa about how they are navigating HF 802, Iowa's "anti-CRT" law, while remaining committed to their work. Qualitative analyses revealed three significant themes titled: Leaders See the Critical Reality: White Supremacy; Informants and Attacks; and Leading, Navigating, and Subverting HF 802. Recommendations for leadership practice and policy change are included…. [PDF]
(2024). The Disruptive Power of Policy Erasure: How State Legislators and School Boards Fail to Take up Trans-Affirming Policies While Leaning into Anti-LGBTQ+ Policies. Educational Policy, v38 n3 p642-699. Since 2017, hostile anti-LGBTQ+ educational bills rapidly expanded. Using traditional and critical policy analysis across three Midwestern states, we examine (1) whether state and local policymakers (n = 60) adopted trans-inclusive protections aligned with the 2017 federal "Whitaker" ruling, (2) the spread and scope of state and local educational policies concerning LGBTQ+ people, and (3) relationships between LGBTQ and critical race theory (CRT) curricular bills. We find policy erasure in states without pre-"Whitaker" gender-inclusive nondiscrimination laws and expanded efforts to ban LGBTQ+ students from educational opportunities, spaces, and curriculum. LGBTQ+ and CRT curricular bans overlapped. We discuss the implications of policymakers leaning into exclusion over gender reforms…. [Direct] [Direct]
(2023). "Who Will Guard the Guards Themselves": A Phenomenological Discourse Analysis on How Whiteness and White Supremacy Are Upheld by White Hearing Officers on Community College Campuses. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Illinois State University. The purpose of this study was to determine how whiteness and white supremacy are upheld by white hearing officers on community college campuses. The literature shows that racial bias exists in K-12 discipline systems, that no reporting mandates on demographics exist in higher education conduct, and that community colleges often serve minoritized students. Therefore, the problem statement centers on the connection between community colleges conduct systems and whiteness/white supremacy.Data was collected via interviews with three community college conduct practitioners, as well as a review of documents from their institutions' conduct offices. The study's research methods were phenomenological discourse analysis and the theoretical frameworks of Critical Race Theory, whiteness, and "color-blind" framing. The study found that whiteness and white supremacy are upheld through common themes rooted in tenets of Critical Race Theory, whiteness and white supremacy. Implications,… [Direct]
(2021). Global Conversations: Recovery and Detection of Global South Multiply-Marginalized Bodies. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v24 n5 p719-736. This paper problematizes, in the spirit of loving critique, the paucity of global intersectional dis/ability politics in the fields of Disability Studies and Critical Race Theory. In this paper, we attempt to account for a more global and humane, liberatory theoretical positioning of Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) by analyzing the human rights discourses employed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UNCRPD). DisCrit scholars emphasize 'the social construction of race and ability … which sets one outside of the western cultural norms'. We push DisCrit further to (a) account for the impact of these western cultural norms and ideals in global and local contexts, and (b) problematize how the binary between the Global South-Global North gives impetus for and further reifies the global racist and ableist hegemony of western cultural norms, domination, and violence identified within human rights discourses…. [Direct]
(2019). Critical Race Theory Meets Posthumanism: Lessons from a Study of Racial Resegregation in Public Schools. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v22 n1 p73-92. Critical race theory (CRT) was used to frame a study of the impact of racial resegregation on students in a public school district. Racism operated in the district at multiple ontological levels — such as interpersonal microaggressions, structural economic arrangements, and discursive processes. CRT provided a rationale for the interdisciplinary approach required to track these different manifestations of racism, while maintaining an emphasis on the material reality of racism. Having its origins in the field of law, however, CRT provided limited guidance for methodological decisions often required in a social scientific study. The author found posthumanist philosophy of science offered guidance for these decisions in a manner that complemented the philosophical and political commitments of CRT. This essay reflects on the advantages this combination of theories offers for the analysis of institutionalized racism. Illustrations are drawn from the study on school resegregation…. [Direct]
(2018). The Multimodal Construction of Race: A Review of Critical Race Theory Research. Language and Education, v32 n4 p313-332. Issues of race periodically rupture in the national and international consciousness, while at other times, there is a false belief that society has arrived at a post-racial era. Either way, there remains impetus for the critical interrogation of the racialisation of multimodal literacies in education, and critical race theory (CRT) is a leading approach. This article reviews original studies that collectively analyse multimodal texts and practices to understand the construction of race in education. Multimodal texts have proliferated in online textual ecologies due to the ease of production and rapid global dissemination of image-based texts in the twenty-first century. Such texts combine two or more modes, such as images, words, sounds, and gestures. Sites for the circulation of multimodal literacies–online and offline–serve to disrupt, reify, or perhaps even exacerbate racial identities, prejudice, and subordination in education. The review highlights the prevalent themes: (a)… [Direct]
(2024). "It Snows Year-Round Here": A Counterstory about Mexican/Mexican American/Xicanx Students' Experiences with Racism at a Predominantly White University in the Northeast. Journal of Latinos and Education, v23 n2 p455-473. Using critical race theory counterstorytelling, I tell a story about the experiences of Mexican/Mexican American/Xicanx (MMAX) undergraduate students at a private, predominantly white university in the Northeast. Drawing on in-depth interviews, participant observations, pl√°ticas, and document analyses, I highlight the various ways MMAX students experience discrimination on campus. More specifically, discrimination and unsettledness are experienced by MMAX students through the following ways: 1) Racist Name Calling and Racial Slurs; 2) Discrimination by Professors; and 3) Class Discussions as Microaggressions. Through counterstories like this one, I argue that we can shed light on injustices while staying true to our ancestral ways of knowing and make our research accessible to communities historically excluded from academia…. [Direct]
(2024). Improving Outcomes for Multiply Marginalized Learners: A Single Instrumental Case Study on Urban Special Educators' Implementation of Dis/Ability Critical Race Theory and the Five Dimensions of Multicultural Education. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Baylor University. Multiply marginalized learners (MMLs), students with two or more marginalized identity factors (Annamma et al., 2013), are America's most vulnerable K-12 student population. MMLs face significant challenges, including increased opportunity- and academic achievement gaps (Hanushek et al., 2019; McClellan et al., 2018). They are disproportionately referred for special education services (Abou-Rjaily & Stoddard, 2017; Hallahan et al., 2020) and are likelier to drop out of school (Bridgeland et al., 2006; Doll et al., 2013). Moreover, these challenges have long-term implications on postsecondary life, such as lower college attendance, higher incarceration, lower instances of marriage, higher instances of divorce, income inequality, poor health, lack of access to healthcare, and overall poor quality of life (Hanushek et al., 2019; McKinsey & Company, 2009; Sanford et al., 2011; US Chamber of Commerce, 2020). In this single instrumental case study, I examined four urban special… [Direct]
(2024). The School Leader Representation Gap: Recruiting and Retaining School Leaders of Color. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Concordia University Chicago. A school leader representation gap exists in the nation's public schools. There is an underrepresentation of public-school leaders of color, which results in inequity of cultural values and diverse leadership perspectives that impact recruitment, retention, and student success. Only 22% of school leaders identify as people of color, while 53% of students are non-White. This basic qualitative study focused on exploring the professional experiences of five African American school leaders, located in the Midwest, with a focus on the experiences prior to becoming a school leader and the current experiences as a school leader. Additionally, this research also explored how school leaders of color perceive their impact on Black students in their schools. Critical race theory and representative bureaucracy theory were both used as theoretical frameworks to deepen understanding around the school leader representation gap. Critical race theory helped frame the reasons for and the importance of… [Direct]
(2024). Latino Principals in California Overcoming Barriers to Attain Principal Selection in K-12 Public Education. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Grand Canyon University. The United States is experiencing a tremendous shift in the composition of its population. For the first time in history, the overall number of Asian, Latino, and African American students in K-12 public education classrooms is projected to surpass the population of Non-Hispanic whites. The number of Latinos in educational leadership positions in the United States is minuscule and does not mirror the Latino student population in the nation. While ample literature exists on school leadership, little research has explored barriers that have hindered Latino principals' professional experiences in attaining a principal selection. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how Latino principals in California describe perceived barriers and overcoming those barriers in attaining a principal selection in K-12 public education. Critical race theory was the theoretical framework used to develop the research questions and guide this study. A purposeful sampling method was… [Direct]
(2025). A LatCrit Analysis of Latina Collegians' Recollections of Racism in Educational Spaces. Journal of Latinos and Education, v24 n1 p36-47. Often noted in educational scholarship is Latinx/a/o students' experiences of racism that they encounter from peers, faculty, and staff within college contexts. Less discussed, however, are the persistent long-term effects of everyday, racist messages on Latinx/a/o students they received in PreK-12 years and how these forms of marginalization in turn affect how they navigate through college. Using a narrative methodological approach and Latino critical race theory as a framework, we centered the experiences of 12 Latina college students to investigate this question. Findings revealed how these Latinas' experiences of racism in PreK-12 were shaped by interactions involving family, relying upon their mothers' teachings in the process. However, when they transitioned to college, their understandings of racism as previously informed by their mothers evolved and became more complex. We then provide implications for practice…. [Direct]
(2023). A Critical Race Analysis of the Lived Experiences of Latino Male Student Affairs Professionals in Higher Education. ProQuest LLC, D.Clin.Psy. Dissertation, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. This critical phenomenological study aims to analyze the lived experiences of Latino male student affairs (SA) professionals considered early to mid-career at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). Three research questions guide the study: 1) How do Latino male SA professionals in higher education describe their leadership experiences at PWIs? 2)Why are there so few Latino males in SA? 3)What strategies benefit institutions looking to recruit and retain Latino male SA professionals within PWIs? This study applies a critical phenomenological approach analyzed via critical race theory's tenets to answer these questions. Six participants, all Latino male SA professionals, served as the sample for this research. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews via a phenomenological method with the tenets of critical race theory as the hermeneutic for thematic analysis, revealing seven themes: 1) student affairs work, 2) self-identifying as Latino and its accompanying experiences,… [Direct]
(2023). Just What Is Afropessimism and What's It Doing in a Nice Field Like Education?: Unpacking New Contributions to Black Educational Thought. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v26 n1 p18-33. In recent years, the theory of antiblackness known, generally, as 'afropessimism' has been taken up in the field of Education. In this article, the author outlines afropessimism and emplaces it into the traditions of Black educational thought, namely Critical Race Theory. The article also highlights the emerging contributions of scholars who have begun to incorporate the use of afropessimist theory into their work. Ultimately, the author argues that the urgent and critical questions that afropessimism demands has the potential to open up a whole new world of inquiry and action in our quest for a liberatory and liberated Black education…. [Direct]