(2018). Race Critical Action Research: 8th Grade Global Studies Teachers Move beyond the Status Quo to Address Issues of Race and Racism in Our Classrooms. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Minnesota. Research has shown that despite a recent emphasis on issues of race and racism in US society, White teachers struggle to construct adequate learning environments for their students of Color (Epstein, 2009; Martell, 2013; Sleeter, 2017). Further, Milner (2006) posits that when White teachers lose themselves in the "having of good intentions," their failure to act enshrines the status quo in classrooms. Using race-critical action research, the author presents the work of a group of White female teacher partners (n = 6) who collaborated over two years to critically examine the role of race and racism in their teaching practice. Data included transcripts of group meetings, reflective journals and interviews. Building on a framework of sociocultural and race-critical theories, the author explores the role that resistance and appropriation played as the teacher partners worked to improve their anti-racist teaching practice. Specifically, the teacher partners sought to defy… [Direct]
(2001). Examining Transformational Resistance through a Critical Race and LatCrit Theory Framework: Chicana and Chicano Students in an Urban Context. Urban Education, v36 n3 p308-42 May. Uses critical race theory and Latino/a critical race theory as a framework, and qualitative inquiry and counterstorytelling, to examine constructs of student resistance, developing a race- and gender-conscious framework that explains Hispanic student resistance in urban contexts. Examines two events in Hispanic student history, analyzing interviews with participants that illuminate the concepts of internal and external transformational resistance. (SM)…
(2008). Secular Blasphemy: Utter(ed) Transgressions against Names and Fathers in the Postmodern Era. Qualitative Inquiry, v14 n6 p926-948. Unnaming the axiomatic constructs of a named identity–that which is thought to be fitting within a given regime of definition–becomes then an act of secular blasphemy, a performance of decanonizing translation that discursively relocates and reinscribes communicated meaning from power, prefix, and prefigurement to perpetual movement. Departing from Homi Bhabha's description of blasphemy as a transgressive act, this article blasphemes the certainty of definition in research writing, illuminating the performance of blasphemy as a source of new social names and the migration of norms and meaning. This article is the third in a trilogy of research forays exploring the intersection of autoethnography, critical race theory, and performance studies. This new research, written to follow up Rolling (2004a, 2004b), is a continuation of the author's effort to establish the efficacy of a poststructural and poetic aesthetic in qualitative research writing. (Contains 5 figures and 7 notes.)… [Direct]
(2010). Teaching African American Youth: Learning from the Lives of Three African American Social Studies Teachers. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. This study examines the life histories of three African American social studies teachers, focusing on the evolution and changes in their identities, perspectives, and attitudes related to their profession and instructional practice. In addition, the study addresses the significance of the teachers' racialized experiences as African Americans and how these experiences influence their use of culturally relevant pedagogy and other culturally responsive instructional strategies to teach their African American students. In the context of this study of three African American social studies teachers, critical race theory is used to acknowledge the teachers' life experiences with racism and the ways in which the teachers combat and address racism and oppressive mainstream educational ideologies, by sharing their counter-stories of experience in educational scholarship and their daily classroom teaching. A life history methodological approach was used to collect and interpret meaning from… [Direct]
(2010). Paraprofessional Teacher Aide to Teacher: An Oral History Study of Five Alumnae of the Career Opportunities Program (COP). ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo. This oral history study addressed the problem of under-representation of minority teachers through the voices and perspectives of five African American female paraprofessional teacher aides who entered the teaching profession through participation in the Career Opportunities Program in Erie, Pennsylvania from 1970 through 1974. Two theoretical perspectives were used to analyze the findings. Critical Race Theory's (CRT) notion of "storytelling" provided a lens to fill in the gaps in the literature on the Career Opportunities Program from the experiences of the participants themselves. Black feminism's notion of giving "voice" articulated how the presence of African American women helped to change the racial makeup of professionals in the schools. The findings of this oral history unearthed four themes: (1) the quest for education discussed by each of the participants as personal growth; (2) their characterization of education as a social good and their desire to be… [Direct]
(2002). Afterword: (E)racing Education. Equity & Excellence in Education, v35 n2 p181-95 May. Presents an afterword to a collection of articles that illustrate how critical race theory shapes educational research and enables scholars to analyze educational outcomes that might otherwise remain hidden. Offers insight into the forward movement of critical race theory and education, suggesting that the articles collectively make a case for "racecentricity" (an explicitly race conscious approach to education) and demonstrate the potential of interdisciplinary approaches to education policy. (SM)…
(2007). Negotiating Identity in a Bubble: A Critical Race Analysis of African American High School Students' Experiences in an Elite, Independent School. Equity & Excellence in Education, v40 n1 p26-35 Jan. This study used critical race theory to examine how African American adolescents negotiated race and class identity at Wells Academy, a predominately white, independent school. Interviews were conducted, exploring the experiences of six African American high school students. Their counterstories were analyzed focusing on the critique of liberalism, including meritocracy and colorblindness. Several common themes emerged from the students' counterstories regarding their experiences, including Wells' reputation, problems with the elite context, and the difficulty of negotiating African American identity in a \bubble.\ Recommendations are made regarding African American identity in the independent school context. (Contains 4 notes.)… [Direct]
(2005). Seeing Every Student as a 10: Using Critical Race Theory to Engage White Teachers' Colorblindness. International Journal of Educational Policy, Research, and Practice: Reconceptualizing Childhood Studies, v6 n1 p31-50 Spr. In this article, the author shares how he has attempted to carry on the critique and analysis of colorblindness in education in his work as a teacher educator. In working with in- and pre-service teachers, the author has found that some teachers who claim to be colorblind tend to enact practices that betray their beliefs about race. As a white researcher working with primarily white teachers, the author has found Critical Race Theory (CRT) to be valuable in addressing the colorblindness that still exists in teachers' thinking and teaching practice while also tapping into the way teachers value students. Here, the author discusses how CRT has helped him address colorblindness in his work with primarily white teachers, drawing from examples of an ongoing qualitative research study with high school teachers–four white, one Thai American, and all from middle-class backgrounds–about issues of colorblindness and race. The author also comments on his experiences working with white… [PDF]
(2008). Negotiating Sociocultural Discourses: The Counter-Storytelling of Academically (and Mathematically) Successful African American Male Students. American Educational Research Journal, v45 n4 p975-1010 Dec. This study documents the counterstories of four academically (and mathematically) successful African American male students. Using participative inquiry, the participants were asked to read, reflect on, and respond to historical and current research literature regarding the schooling experiences of African American students. Their responses were analyzed using a somewhat eclectic theoretical framework that included poststructural theory, critical race theory, and critical theory. Collectively, the participants' counterstories revealed that each had acquired a robust mathematics identity as a component of his overall efforts toward success. How the participants acquired such \uncharacteristic\ mathematics identities was to be found in part in how they understood sociocultural discourses of U.S. society and how they negotiated the specific discourses that surround male African Americans. Present throughout the counterstories of each participant was a recognition of himself as a… [Direct]
(2008). \Todos Somos Blancos\/We Are All White: Constructing Racial Identities through Texts. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, v7 n3-4 p272-293 Jul. Research has revealed an underlying link between identity construction and academic success for adolescents (Nasir & Saxe, 2003); however, research has not addressed how students' identities are formed and negotiated in the cultural practices of elementary school. This article examines how early elementary Mexican-origin bilinguals' racial, ethnic, and linguistic identities are constructed and negotiated during a literacy event on Martin Luther King, Jr. Using critical race theory (Ladson-Billings, 1999) and critical discourse analysis (Gee, 1999), a racial and power dichotomy in the text is uncovered. The moment-to-moment interactions around a text expose the students' understandings of race and the racial assumptions of the literacy practices. A critical discourse analysis of the moment-to-moment interactions shows the students' self-identify as \White.\ The teacher and researcher collaboratively examine how racial dichotomies in early elementary literacy texts and institutional… [Direct]
(2008). No Child Left Behind: A Legislative Catalyst for Superintendent Action to Eliminate Test-Score Gaps?. Educational Policy, v22 n5 p675-704. Proponents of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) hail it as vital legislation that supports a civil rights agenda because of explicit recognition that achievement gaps are unacceptable. One way to make sense of NCLB's impact on school divisions and to understand whether NCLB recognizes the complexity of why minority and low-socioeconomic-background students often struggle in schools is to look through the lens of superintendents. District leaders, as moral agents, are tone setters for change in schools and negotiators and enactors of state and federal policies. This study explores how NCLB has affected achievement gaps in Virginia and not only investigates how superintendents have made sense of the federal legislation but also seeks out strategies employed by district leaders that target minority groups and the elimination of the achievement gap. Critical race theory allows consideration of superintendent perspectives across issues such as race, racism, poverty, class, power, test scores,… [Direct]
(2000). Critical Race Theory, Racial Microaggressions, and Campus Racial Climate: The Experiences of African American College Students. Journal of Negro Education, v69 n1-2 p60-73 Win-Spr. Used critical race theory to examine racial microaggressions (subtle insults) and how they influenced the collegiate racial climate. Data from focus groups with African American students at three elite, predominantly white universities revealed that racial microaggressions existed in both academic and social spaces and had a negative impact on the campus racial climate. (SM)…
(2002). Critical Race Theory and the Perspectives of Black Men Teachers in the Los Angeles Public Schools. Equity & Excellence in Education, v35 n2 p119-30 May. Used critical race theory to examine black male teachers' perspectives on their racial identity in relation to their connection and responsibility toward students, noting trends in educational research and theory (black teachers as invisible or inconsequential and more nuanced understandings of black teachers' roles in urban schools). Black male teachers reported clearly understanding the relationship between teaching and social change. (SM)…
(2018). (R)Evolving Closet Door: Leadership Experiences of LGB School Superintendents of Color. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Grand Canyon University. Leadership experiences of lesbian, gay male, and bisexual (LGB) school superintendents of Color were explored in this dissertation. All LGB superintendents in recent research were White; this finding, along with literature on LGB identity, race and ethnicity, discrimination, and educational leadership, provided context for two research questions about how LGB superintendents of Color experience being leaders and being stigmatized. Critical race and queer theories provided the theoretical framework for the study. Semi-structured, in-person interviews, observations, and demographic data were compiled in a phenomenological approach to examine leadership experiences of the superintendents. Five current and former superintendents and assistant superintendents were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling from the U.S. Northeast and Pacific Coast regions. Participants included one African American gay male, one Asian American bisexual female, one Asian American gay male, and two… [Direct]
(2005). Education Policy as an Act of White Supremacy: Whiteness, Critical Race Theory and Education Reform. Journal of Education Policy, v20 n4 p485-505 Jul. The paper presents an empirical analysis of education policy in England that is informed by recent developments in US critical theory. In particular, I draw on 'whiteness studies' and the application of critical race theory (CRT). These perspectives offer a new and radical way of conceptualizing the role of racism in education. Although the US literature has paid little or no regard to issues outside North America, I argue that a similar understanding of racism (as a multifaceted, deeply embedded, often taken-for-granted aspect of power relations) lies at the heart of recent attempts to understand institutional racism in the UK. Having set out the conceptual terrain in the first half of the paper, I then apply this approach to recent changes in the English education system to reveal the central role accorded the defence (and extension) of race inequity. Finally, the paper touches on the question of racism and intentionality: although race inequity may not be a planned and deliberate… [Direct]