(2011). Negotiating the Gaze and Learning the Hidden Curriculum: A Critical Race Analysis of the Embodiment of Female Students of Color at a Predominantly White Institution. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, v9 n2 p143-164 Nov. This study examines the hidden curriculum within a predominantly White institution (PWI) of higher education, and examines how women of color encountered the curriculum. I used critical race theory to explore how race and gender influenced the manner in which women of color negotiated their roles and promoted a culture of femininity that helped shape campus life in many ways. Data collection included interviews and focus groups over a two year period. Results revealed that femininity was not performed on campus freed from power relations and different oppressions. The women of color who participated in the study noted that they felt their bodies stood out among the predominantly White bodies across campus. Because of their heightened visibility, the participants felt they had to confront the power of the gaze from White students and professors who read them through a stereotypical lens. According to the seven young women who participated in this study, race and gender are embodied… [PDF]
(2011). \Which\ Interests Are Served by the Principle of Interest Convergence? Whiteness, Collective Trauma, and the Case for Anti-Racism. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v14 n4 p435-459. A primary principle of critical race theory is \interest convergence,\ or the notion that progress toward racial equality will only be made when it converges with the interests of whites. Although I generally concur, I posit that \interest\ must be rendered more complex in order to fully understand the pernicious effects of racism on all people, and on whites in particular. While laws, cultural norms, institutional practices, and even the election of Barack Obama indeed serve the material and emotional interests of whites, their psychological and moral interests are simultaneously undermined. I complicate the meaning of \interest\ to show that while whites indeed benefit from racial hierarchy in numerous ways, a full deconstruction of racism and the collective trauma it induces must be considered with a more nuanced and disaggregated definition of \interest\ in mind. I put forth that while whites are advantaged in real and tangible ways in an endemic system of racial dominance, the… [Direct]
(2011). Racial Silences: Exploring and Incorporating Critical Frameworks in the Social Studies. Social Studies, v102 n5 p211-220. If we are to aim toward a genuine democracy, we must be willing to look at the uncomfortable topics that continue to sabotage what we aspire to as a society. This article aims to problematize the ways we conceive of and implement the social studies. To do so, I investigate the social studies in K-12 practice through critical theoretical lenses, including critical race theory (CRT), Latino critical theory (LatCrit) and tribal critical theory (TribalCrit). Various practical resources are offered for teachers to bring a deeper level of equity to the practice of the social studies. This article provides possibilities based in both theory and practice. I discuss critical frameworks, and then, after each section, I provide resources and links to examples of critical curricula that incorporate those standpoints into the classroom. This can lead to a critical awareness regarding the ways that our democracy has shortchanged many Americans as well as the initiative to work toward change in our… [Direct]
(2015). Sifting for Success: A Grounded Theory Approach to Sponsorship of Black Student Academic Success. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Wisconsin – Madison. Numerous findings and theories have been used to make sense of African Americans students' educational successes and experiences. Along those lines, the purpose of this study is to generate a theoretical framework of sponsorship that is grounded in Black students' educational experiences. Sponsorship is taken to be the process through which agents provide, stymie, and/or enhance access to valued resources for select student(s) (Brandt, 2001; Turner, 1960, 1966). This research interest is informed by my own educational experiences as someone who was "groomed" (Ladson-Billings, 2005, p. 30) for success, by teachers particularly, in ways my peers were not. I imagine many people wanted me to "fall on soft ground" (Hurston, 1937, p. 29) and sought out ways to see that happen. At the same time, I remain mindful of my peers who were not afforded similar, or any, opportunities at greatness. In seeking to understand the process, tensions, and paths that emerge when… [Direct]
(2011). The Value of a Multicultural and Critical Pedagogy: Learning Democracy through Diversity and Dissent. Multicultural Perspectives, v13 n2 p62-69. In this article, the author argues that true knowledge of democracy requires learning about the values of diversity and dissent. The American brand of democratic ideology has inspired numerous movements for inclusion through the securing of rights and opportunities for marginalized populations. Multicultural education is a recent historical movement that follows the same path of inclusion–sustaining the values of diversity and dissent in American democracy. The author therefore argues that multicultural education provides the rare opportunity to practice and experience this unique form of American democracy by explicitly striving for the diversity of perspectives and dissent from domination. As an example of teaching democracy through diversity and dissent, he discusses the critical pedagogy of the Social Justice Education Project (SJEP), a multicultural curriculum he helped to design for the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). While this curriculum meets the senior-year… [Direct]
(2017). Race and Ability Talk in Early Childhood: Critical Inquiry into Shared Book Reading Practices with Pre-Service Teachers. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Kansas. In early childhood contexts, reading literature to engage children in critical discussions about ability and race–and how it impacts their daily lives–is a promising practice. Indeed, critical literacy scholars see the use of language, text, and discourse structures as powerful ways to address inequity in educational settings (Gainer, 2013; Luke, 2012; Rodriguez & Cho, 2011). However, research investigating the ways in which teachers and young children participate in dialogue about ability and race through shared-book reading is sparse. Further, research on ways pre-service teachers' identities and experiences mediate these classroom interactions is limited (Aboud et al., 2012; Yu, Ostrosky, & Fowler, 2012). This study investigated how four pre-service teachers constructed identities and transformed their practice as they facilitated dialogue about ability and race with young children during shared-book reading in preschool fieldwork placements. Grounded in a humanizing… [Direct]
(2009). Encountering Disregard in Australian Academe: The Subjective Perspective of a Disaffiliated Racial "Other". British Journal of Sociology of Education, v30 n3 p275-287 May. This article proposes that progressive frameworks underpinned by diversity are contradictory to the inclusion of the "other" in Australian higher education. I integrate the critical race theory constructs of disregard and convergence with white privilege and indigenous lacking to claim that objective processes underpinned by merit embed the marginalising of the "other". I draw on storytelling to enunciate my subjective experience of disregard as a Maori woman scholar to shed light on institutional culture in the maintaining of insider privilege. (Contains 4 notes.)… [Direct]
(2010). Problematic Conceptualizations: Allies in Teacher Education for Social Justice. Teacher Education and Practice, v23 n4 p507-521 Fall. This review of the literature on the concept ally and ally identity development was inspired by a qualitative study exploring the identities and social justice values of prospective teachers of color. Although the participants in the original study never used the term \ally,\ their narratives inspired me to characterize them as allies in the struggle for social justice education. However, a review of the literature on allies, as analyzed through critical race theory and critical discourse analysis, revealed emerging conceptualizations of ally as being incongruent with minority identities that position people of color at the periphery of this social justice discourse in education. As the emerging literature on allies from student affairs begins to penetrate teacher education, I urge teacher educators to consider the implications of these conceptualizations for the preparation of teachers…. [Direct]
(2010). Racial Identification and Audience in \Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry\ and \The Watsons Go to Birmingham–1963\. Children's Literature in Education, v41 n2 p118-145 Jun. Multiethnic children's literature addresses multiple audiences, providing different reading experiences and benefits for each. Using critical race theory as an interpretive tool, this article examines how two African American historical fiction novels, Mildred Taylor's \Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry\ and Christopher Paul Curtis's \The Watsons Go to Birmingham–1963\, frame anti-racist identifications for readers of all races. It argues that these identifications are key elements in the novels' rhetorical strategies for engaging readers and opposing racism. Both novels portray strong African American families with whom both black and nonblack readers can identify and present African American perspectives on race, but they differ in how directly they approach racism and how they frame the identification of white readers. The conclusion offers implications of analyzing race and audience when teaching multiethnic literature…. [Direct]
(2010). Listening to the Community: Guidance from Native Community Members for Emerging Culturally Responsive Educators. Equity & Excellence in Education, v43 n2 p188-201. Critical race theory (CRT) emphasizes the importance of listening to the counter-narratives of people from marginalized groups. However, the applicability of CRT in practical settings often remains unclear for educators and scholars. This project offers not only a place for Native community members to share their experiences and ideas, it also provides practical guidance for emerging culturally responsive educators and ways to use themes from narratives to guide future scholarship. As a result of interviews with five Native community members, three themes emerged for non-Native educators working in Native communities: (a) learning from the community, (b) transforming thinking through discomfort, and (c) gaining awareness of positive values. These themes can be used to guide future projects, including reservation-based field experiences and research projects exploring educator thinking in reservation communities. (Contains 1 note.)… [Direct]
(2010). Silenced Memories: An Examination of the Sociocultural Knowledge on Race and Racial Violence in Official School Curriculum. Equity & Excellence in Education, v43 n2 p139-154. Drawing from the theoretical lenses of cultural memory and critical race theory, we examined how elementary level and middle school level social studies textbooks represent the history of racial violence directed toward African Americans and resistance to this violence in the U.S. Using a literary analysis method, we found that textbooks often presented vivid accounts; however, these narratives often presented these acts as detached from the larger structural and institutional ties that supported and subsequently benefited from these actions. We contend that this limited representation of racial violence has an adverse effect on the larger sociocultural memory and sociocultural knowledge available to students, thus limiting the extent to which students can fully understand the legacy of racism and racial inequity in the U.S. (Contains 1 table and 1 note.)… [Direct]
(2009). On "White Supremacy" and Caricaturing, Misrepresenting and Dismissing Marx and Marxism: A Response to David Gillborn's "Who's Afraid of Critical Race Theory in Education". Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, v7 n1 p29-49 Jun. In this journal in 2007, the author and Alpesh Maisuria critiqued two central tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT) from a Marxist perspective (Cole and Maisuria, 2007). These are its primacy of "race" over class, and its concept of "white supremacy". Part of the critique focused on the work of leading UK Critical Race Theorist, David Gillborn. A year later Gillborn (2008) responded briefly to their critique. There followed an interchange between the author and Gillborn (Cole, 2009a; Gillborn, 2009). The author welcomes Gillborn's willingness to enter the debate between Marxism and Critical Race Theory. In Gillborn, 2009, Gillborn raises a number of issues in reply to the author's paper (Cole, 2009a). In this paper, the author limits his response to what he considers to be the most important issues for the readers of this journal: the concept of "white supremacy", and Gillborn's caricature, misrepresentation and dismissal of Marx and Marxism. At the… [PDF]
(2013). Fighting through Resistance: Challenges Faced by African American Women Principals in Predominately White School Settings. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Capella University. African American women represented a growing proportion within the field of education in attaining leadership roles as school principals. As the numbers continued to rise slowly, African American women principals found themselves leading in diverse or even predominately White school settings. Leading in such settings encouraged African American women to find ways to deal with resilient behaviors that were encountered in such settings. Using critical race theory, phenomenological variant ecological systems theory (PVEST), and Black feminist theory, this qualitative, phenomenological study explored the experiences, challenges, and perceptions of three African American women principals who lead in predominately White school settings in the southeastern United States. This replicated study investigated their experiences in such settings and how they dealt with the challenges faced while leading in predominately White school settings. The research methodology was grounded in… [Direct]
(2013). New Orleans Education Reform: A Guide for Cities or a Warning for Communities? (Grassroots Lessons Learned, 2005-2012). Berkeley Review of Education, v4 n1 p123-160 Jan. Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, co-chair of the Senate Public Charter School Caucus in Washington, DC, hosted a forum for education policymakers. It centered on "New Orleans-Style Education Reform: A Guide for Cities (Lessons Learned, 2004-2010)," a report published by the charter school incubator New Schools for New Orleans (NSNO). Through human capital and charter school development, the report asserts, New Orleans has become a national leader in education reform. In this essay, members of Urban South Grassroots Research Collective, including education scholars and those affiliated with longstanding educational and cultural organizations in New Orleans, reveal that such reform has been destructive to African American students, teachers, and neighborhoods. Inspired by critical race theory and the role of experiential knowledge in challenging dominant narratives, authors draw heavily on testimony from community-based education groups, which have typically been ignored,… [PDF]
(2013). Exploring Faculty Diversity in the South: A Case Study on Campus Climate and Leadership Commitment to the Recruitment and Retention of African American Faculty. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Capella University. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore faculty diversity in the South by examining the campus climate and leadership commitment to the recruitment and retention of African American faculty. The Critical Race Theory (CRT) concept of storytelling captured the participants' personal experiences and perceptions. Three higher education institutions participated in this study. Taking part were eight participants, including two senior administrators (deans), and six African American faculty members, all of whom answered 11 questions via an on-line questionnaire that provided answers to the three research questions. First, how do African American faculty members and the university's leadership describe the university's leadership and campus climate at selected higher education institutions in the South in regard to recruitment and retention strategies that promote faculty diversity? The participants described that the strategies are not evident on the college campus and… [Direct]