(2024). Activist Scholars: Faculty of Color Navigating Institutional Rewards and Punishments. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Massachusetts Boston. Faculty of color (FoC) often engage in social justice scholarship that focuses on the needs of minoritized communities. Yet, FoC often are subjected to suspicion and scrutiny over concerns of objectivity and academic rigor. Despite these barriers, FoC have demonstrated "successfully" navigating traditional institutional reward systems while making significant contributions to social justice knowledge and knowledge production at research-intensive higher education institutions. Exploring how tenured FoC at research intensive higher education institutions have earned academic success while engaging non-traditional approaches to knowledge production is important to higher education's mission to broaden scholarship to be practical, political, and beneficial to society. This dissertation applied a narrative research approach involving in-depth interviews with 15 participants to capture stories of how FoC who engage in scholarship with social justice goals navigated institutional… [Direct]
(2024). Bridging the Gaps: Exploring Educators' Sensemaking of Antiracist, & Equity-Centered Practice(s). ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, The Florida State University. Scholars Leonard & Woodland (2022) suggest schools and districts face a crucial challenge. Are schools and districts ensuring their personnel are prepared to engage in critical practices to affirm, include, and support all students, families, peers, and communities? Or are schools and districts just haphazardly committing to diversity, equity, and inclusion statements to check a box? Current research lacks a focus on "how" K-12 educators make sense of, learn, and implement, as well as the challenges to implementing equity-centered, culturally responsive, and antiracist practices. Therefore, this exploratory case study sought to address this research gap by focusing on the experiences and perceptions of educators who participated in and graduated from the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) yearlong professional development program, Anti-Racist Educator University (ARE-U). Specifically, this study is interested in examining the processes of sensemaking, learning,… [Direct]
(2015). A Critical Humanist Curriculum. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, v12 n3 p205-227 Dec 2014-Jan. This essay is a critical humanist discussion of curriculum; a departure from the technicist view of education [education meant to support a global capitalist economy] and an analysis of curriculum considering critical humanism, political economy and critical race theory among other modes of critical analysis and inquiry. Our discussion supports a revolutionary curriculum: the turn from a static coercive system of domination where the everyday lives of students are controlled to a dynamic liberatory education where education supports a student's imaginary (Pinar), creativity and their everyday practice of freedom (Freire, Greene, Hooks)…. [Direct]
(2015). What Are You? A CRT Perspective on the Experiences of Mixed Race Persons in "Post-Racial" America. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v18 n1 p1-19. In this article, the author employs Critical Race Theory (CRT) to examine the experiences of mixed race individuals in the United States. Drawing on historical and contemporary conditions involving persons of mixed race, the author considers how key ideas from CRT can be useful to frame an analysis of the experiences of multiracial persons in the US. To supplement the analysis, the author also includes fictionalized narratives in the tradition of CRT. In conclusion, the author considers how this examination of mixed race persons might inform K-12 education…. [Direct]
(2022). "The Kids in Prison Program": A Critical Race Personal Counternarrative of a Former Black Charter School Teacher. Teachers College Record, v124 n11 p58-81 Nov. Background/Context: In New Orleans, Louisiana, in the years following Hurricane Katrina, predominantly white education reformers have used entrepreneurial support to dismantle the predominantly Black city's public education system. Using racial domination without community approval, these education reformers have educationally disenfranchised the Black community by implementing No Excuses (NE) Charter School Management Organizations (CMO). The rise in these organizations has also led to the mass firing of the city's majority Black educator base and the hiring of majority white educators. Scholarship on NE CMOs notes their use of dehumanizing behavioral practices meant to control their student populations. Accounts, however, are limited from those who have witnessed, experienced, or resisted these dehumanizing behavioral practices. Purpose/Objective/Focus of Study: Through the critical race theory (CRT) lens of racial realism, this paper provides a critical race personal… [Direct]
(2018). Leadership Practices of Elementary School Principals Who Narrowed the Race-Based Academic Achievement Gap. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, University of Phoenix. The purpose of this descriptive multiembedded case study was to investigate the perspective of effective elementary school principals in Harvest Bloom School District who narrowed the race-based academic achievement gap in reading by increasing their knowledge, skills, and leadership practices. Data gathered included an archival search, focus group observations and transcripts, and individual interview transcripts. Archived data were used to identify a purposeful criterion sampling of elementary school principals who narrowed the race-based achievement gap by at least 10 percent as measured by state-mandated reading assessments using the Transitional Colorado Aptitude Program. The focus group Critical Race Theory is the theoretical framework supported by the conceptual frameworks of Freire's critical pedagogy, leadership practices of Marzano, and racial consciousness to structure the discussion of data and results. These experiences identified are critical to learning how and why… [Direct]
(2018). The Image Betrays More than It Reveals: Inter(ior) Views from Women of Color on Identity and Social and Academic Experiences in Higher Education. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, DePaul University. This dissertation proposes a further conceptualization of intersectional identity as a fundamental topic in education reform research. Overlaying the theoretical lenses of Critical Race Theory and intersectionality, a modified narrative inquiry methodology was used to investigate the self-perceived identities among seven women of color, who are alumnae of an all-girls secondary school, in their current context of higher education. Analysis of data from in-depth, open-ended interviews, a focus group interview, and a fictional writing sample illuminated the role of meaning-making capacity in determining the extent to which contextual influences shape self-perceptions of gender, race, and other emergent identities at their intersection. This study explored the meaning-making capacity of its participants and the implicit frameworks of understanding around intersecting identities, revealing epistemic accounts that can help address the relationship between knowledge, power, and political… [Direct]
(2018). Black on Black Education 2.0: Critical Race Perspectives on Personally Engaged Pedagogy for/by Black Pre-Service Teachers. Teaching Education, v29 n4 p343-356. Public schools have increasing numbers of its teachers fitting into one demographic, white and female, while the numbers of Black/African American teachers decrease. This trend has not changed since the publication of Black on Black Education: Personally Engaged Pedagogy for/by African American Pre-Service Teachers. Furthermore, African American collegiate students who decide to enter teaching may face a chilly climate because of their cultural and educational experiences as they encounter devaluation in the classroom. This work provides a critical race reflective examination into the teaching and learning experiences and dilemmasI using personally engaged pedagogy as a means of enhancing the quality of the learning experiences for African American pre-service teachers. Critical race theory (CRT) and Critical Race Feminism (CRF) will be used as the theoretical framework for understanding the role of race and gender in teacher education. Critical autoethnography is the methodological… [Direct]
(2018). 'I Love a Curry': Student-Teacher Discourse around 'Race' and Ethnicity at a UK University. Journal of Education for Teaching: International Research and Pedagogy, v44 n2 p162-174. This paper presents aspects of a small scale study that considered student teachers' language and discourse around race and ethnicity at a university in the northwest of England. The first part of the paper critiques current education-related policy, context and practice to situate the research and then draws upon aspects of critical race theory and whiteness theory as frames of reference. In the research, 250 student-teachers completed questionnaires that invited responses to statements about race and ethnicity and this was followed by two semi-structured group interviews. A discourse analysis approach was taken to analyse the language used in the questionnaire responses and, in particular, the group interviews. Recurrent discursive configurations were characterised by language that signified othering, correct knowledge, personalisation and discomfort. Hesitations and silences during group discussions perhaps intimated thinking time and also maybe a reluctance to talk about aspects… [Direct]
(2018). A Grounded Theory Approach to High-Achieving African American Male College Student Success at Dominantly White Institutions. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D./HE Dissertation, Azusa Pacific University. In recent years, research has shifted from low-achieving African American male college students to high-achieving African American male college students. Specifically, what can institutions of higher education learn from high-achieving African American male college students in order to help all African American male college students succeed at dominantly White institutions? This grounded theory study examined the attitude, mindset and identity of 10 high-achieving African American male college student successes at a dominantly White institution. The data was collected through interviews, and the interview protocol was based on the conceptual framework of critical race theory and niggering. The findings include four themes: support, self-awareness, attitude, and organization. These themes interact to create the Black male excellence model and serve as a roadmap for other dominantly White institutions to utilize to create an environment that fosters student success for African American… [Direct]
(2018). Whose Interests and under Whose Control?: Interest Convergence in Science-Focused School-Community Collaborations. Cultural Studies of Science Education, v13 n1 p85-91 Mar. In this dialogue with Monica Ridgeway and Randy Yerrick's "Whose banner are we waving?: Exploring STEM partnerships for marginalized urban youth," I engage the critical race theory (CRT) tenet of interest convergence. I first expand Derrick Bell's (1980) initial statement of interest convergence with subsequent scholarly work in this area. I then explore ways CRT in general and interest convergence specifically have been applied in the field of education. Using this framing, I examine how interest convergence may be shed new insights into Monica Ridgeway and Randy Yerrick's study. For example, the tenet of interest convergence is used to frame why it was beneficial for the White artist, Jacob, and the Achievement Scholars to collaborate in the service-learning mural. Then the idea of interest divergence is brought into explore the ways in which Jacob benefitted from his participation in the service learning project while the Achievement Scholars were left with an unfinished… [Direct]
(2023). With Some Responsibility Comes Great Power: Exploring the Decision-Making Process of Higher Education Administrators through the Implementation of Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Massachusetts Boston. This qualitative study applied the concept of Institutional Neglect to a higher education setting and explored how federal Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) requirements, along with the implementation choices at a public university, facilitated Institutional Neglect for financial aid dependent students, especially Students of Color. This study examined how higher education administrators understood, made meaning, and interpreted federal guidelines established by the 2011 updates to the federal SAP policy. This study also analyzed how SAP updates changed the responsibilities and influenced the decision-making process of administrators. Framed in the tradition of transformative research, this single-site case study was conducted at a public four-year higher education institution on the east coast of the United States. The conceptual framework was drawn from two fields of research, Institutional Neglect, and Critical Race Theory. Institutional Neglect was used as an analytical lens… [Direct]
(2023). Exploring Engagement through Critical Pedagogy for Black Students in a GED Program. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, University of Dayton. This study examines and utilizes Critical Race Theory to understand how pedagogical training fails to train educators in recognizing and countering racism in standardized testing and General Equivalency Diploma (GED) preparatory courses. Black students continue to have the lowest pass rates in GED test performance based on a study of race and ethnicity, and this study examines a potential connection between the lack of critical pedagogy in GED preparational courses and the practices of GED teachers to address persistent inequities that add to race-based disparities. This research inquiry contributes to closing the race gaps in GED test scores for Black students by incorporating GED preparatory testing using critical pedagogy and multiculturalism to offer solutions to the ongoing and persistent failure rates in high-stakes testing. Examining educational disparities must include countering the lack of multiculturalism and anti-racist pedagogy in the GED test and preparatory courses…. [Direct]
(2023). A Narrative Study of an African Immigrant High School Student. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Wisconsin – Madison. This research inquiry is a narrative case study centered on uncovering or exploring the educational experiences of a local African immigrant high school student. This study's epistemological framework is centered on critical race theory, third space theory and the theory of hybrid or multiple identities. In addition to discussing relevant extant research on the intersectional aspects of African immigrant youth identity, such as gender, religious, ethnic, tribal and linguistic identities, the literature review establishes varying responses of African immigrant youths to American racialization; as well as the fluid, situational identities these youths develop as a result of unique, contextual interactions with their peers and instructors. It should be noted that this study's purpose was not designed nor should be interpreted as comparative of the focal population–local high school students who identify as African and immigrant–with other ethnic or racial student groups. Moreover,… [Direct]
(2023). Attendance Rates and Assessment Scores in the Nanakuli-Waianae Complex Area and the State of Hawaii Pre- and Post-COVID-19. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, University of La Verne. Purpose: The purpose of this quantitative, nonexperimental descriptive study was to explore whether there has been a significant decrease in attendance rates or a significant decrease in achievement as evidenced by assessment scores for students in the K-12 public school system after the COVID-19 compulsory distance learning period for the Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) students of the Nanakuli-Waianae complex area versus the state of Hawaii as a whole. Theoretical Framework: The theoretical framework that directed the lens of this study was AAPI critical race theory (CRT). The AAPI CRT lens provides insight into the unique and specific difficulties experienced by the culturally unique AAPI communities of the Nanakuli-Waianae complex area and the state of Hawaii as a whole. Methodology: In this quantitative, nonexperimental descriptive study, secondary data and descriptive statistics were used to determine any significant decreases in attendance rates or achievement… [Direct]