(2023). Review and Scholarly Syntheses as Anti-Racist Action. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, v72 n1 p74-117. At the final session of the 2022 Literacy Research Association Conference, Catherine Compton-Lilly, Marcus Croom, Mary McVee, and Allison Skerrett presented critical work related to equity, representation, and race in literacy scholarship. Panelists shared concerns and pursued a shared goal. Specifically, as literacy scholars, they recognized that like the empirical research conducted in classrooms and communities, review scholarship–scholarship that aspires to make sense of large bodies of available research–is always subject to systemic biases, privileging, and racism. In this panel session, we intentionally sought to dismantle biases through four review-oriented projects that–each in its own way–attempts to counter the systemic whitewashing that has characterized review scholarship in literacy…. [Direct]
(2023). Silenced and Pushed Out: The Harms of CRT-Bans on K-12 Teachers. Thresholds in Education, v46 n1 p96-113. Over the past year, sweeping local and state-wide policies framed as bans against "CRT" are being propagated to restrict how race and racism can be taught in K-12 schools across the nation. As a result, schools are increasingly becoming a place where teachers face interpersonal and professional risk for teaching about US racial realities, including threats to their professional licenses for engaging historical or current day topics of race, inequity and injustice. In this article, we first draw on CRT to analyze how CRT-bans leverage white defensiveness and white comfort to restrict instruction and discourse about systemic racism, thereby upholding it. Second, we describe a mixed methods research study with 117 teachers across the US that provides an initial look at how teachers are being harmed by these bans. The data suggests that CRT-bans are negatively impacting the racial climate of schools and contributing to the systematic pushout of teachers, particularly those… [PDF]
(2024). Resisting Divide-and-Conquer Strategies in Education: Pathways and Possibilities. Myers Education Press "Resisting Divide-and-Conquer Strategies in Education: Pathways and Possibilities" examines the ways in which divide-and-conquer strategies operate in the American public education system. In U.S. education, these mechanisms are endemic and enduring, if not always evident. Coordinated, strategic, well-funded, politically-viable campaigns continue to stoke fear, othering, villainization, and dehumanization of minoritized groups, pushing false and problematic narratives that inhibit progress toward social justice. Weaponizing hegemony and leveraging misinformation, reactionary agents and institutions seek to suppress truth, block access to democratic participation, and dismantle education and other sites of emancipatory possibility through the strength of divide-and-conquer mechanisms, pitting relatively disempowered groups against one another to preserve the dominant social order. Readers of this book will encounter conceptual and critical interrogations of divide and… [Direct]
(2024). Tensions in Decolonizing International School Educators: A Case Study. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Arizona State University. Each year, the existing cohort of elementary teachers at The American School participate in a professional development program. This program includes both academic and social adaptation resources and support for teachers within the school community. Previous to this research study, the program mostly included training on academic programs, assessment strategies that align with the policies and resources for teachers to explore to support their curriculum. Most teachers requested training on the standards and assessment practices as the school made strategic shifts toward new pedagogical practices. Glaringly absent from this training was any support with the cultural transition for teachers, most of whom have not worked within a Mexican school setting with a largely Mexican family demographic. This action research study draws from theories of decolonization, postcolonialism, culturally relevant pedagogy, cultural mindset and critical whiteness studies. This case study took place… [Direct]
(2009). An Examination of the Underrepresentation of African American Faculty in Illinois Institutions of Higher Education. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. The current study was conducted to examine the underrepresentation of African American Faculty in Illinois institutions of higher education. The researcher used the critical race theory and cultural proficiency theory to frame the study. The following research questions guided the study: (1) What challenges and barriers have African Americans experienced in receiving a quality education? (2) In what ways does family structure affect the success of African American professors toward the completion of a graduate degree? (3) What positive experiences have African Americans had throughout their educational career to encourage their pursuit of the professoriate? and (4) How can faculty diversity be obtained among institutions of higher education? The study employed a mixed-methods research design to examine the experiences of African American faculty members employed in Illinois higher education institutions. The quantitative portion of the study consisted of an online survey distributed… [Direct]
(2018). Beyond "Talking Different": White Pre-Service Teachers' Critical Race Talk about Teaching Dialect Diversity. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. This dissertation documents 214 White pre-service English Language Arts teachers' engagement in explicit discussions of race and racism in online class discussions about teaching about dialect diversity. Participants were recruited from eight geographically distinct teacher education programs in the United States that implemented Godley and Reaser's (2018) dialect diversity mini-course. Informed by scholarship on White teachers' talk about racism, I analyzed participants' engagement in what I call "critical race talk"–talk about race that acknowledges systemic racism and White privilege. I used qualitative research methods to identify themes within the subset of White teachers' comments that included critical race talk. Even when prompted to discuss race and dialects in critical ways, only 3% of the 2,900 discussion board posts authored by White teachers included critical race talk. Twenty-nine percent of White teachers voiced critical race talk at least once. Teachers… [Direct]
(2022). "It's My Time to . . . Fight Some of These Battles": The Life History of an Exemplary African American PETE Faculty Member. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, v41 n4 p650-659 Oct. Purpose: To construct the life history of an exemplary veteran African American physical education teacher education faculty member. Method: The participant was Dr. Andrew Lewis, a retired professor from the College of Charleston. Data were collected through formal semistructured interviews, informal interviews, and documents and artifacts. They were analyzed using analytic induction and constant comparison. Findings: Key findings were that Lewis experienced a significant amount of marginalization throughout his life and career. In addition, he was subjected to different forms of microaggression and stereotype threat. Lewis dealt with these forms of racism by emulating several of his teachers and professors, working hard, and performing to a high level. In addition, he altered the pedagogy he employed. Conclusion: Lewis's counter-story has the potential to influence other African American physical education teacher education faculty members, administrators, and those who perpetuate… [Direct]
(2022). Using Afrocentric Praxis as Loving Pedagogies to Sustain Black Immigrant Racial Identities. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE), v35 n6 p569-587. In this article, we chronicle two African American, male teachers' (fourth and fifth-grade teachers at the same school) use of Afrocentric praxis to demonstrate how the identities of African Diasporic students can be honored and sustained. We begin by explaining the conceptual framework and the context of the school and classrooms. We focus our gaze on the two teachers and Yandi, a second-generation immigrant child, because complex cultural identities are often forgotten and negated in school. We reflect on the pedagogical needs of Yandi as a student whose parents are first generation immigrants to the U.S. We demonstrate how layering the content of African-Diasporic people using Afrocentric praxis can serve as methods to actualize pedagogical love and can be used to engage and invite Black students whose parents are recent immigrants. We conclude with recommended resources…. [Direct]
(2021). Understanding the Laws of Harvest: Black and Latino Male Collegians Enacting Critical Race Care as Youth Mentors. Teachers College Record, v123 n12 p155-179 Dec. Background/Context: In recent years, there has been a proliferation of student engagement programs intended to increase college access, retention, and graduation for Black and Latino males. Although supporting Black and Latino male students' educational opportunities and success efforts is an urgent need, few studies examine their collective leadership experiences–either on campus or in the community. These experiences are important in understanding how engagement and leadership are vital components for Black and Latino males' sense of self, community ties, and collective consciousness. Focus of Study: We investigate the collegiate experiences and engagement of 12 Black and Latino male students in the Brothers Empowering Collective Achievement (BECA; pseudonym), a male-centered program at a Hispanic-serving institution. We explored their leadership and mentoring experiences through the following research questions: (1) How do Black and Latino college men make sense of their… [Direct]
(2023). School to Deportation Pipeline: Latino Youth Counter-Storytelling Narratives. Journal of Latinos and Education, v22 n1 p258-270. This article analyzes Julio's counter-storytelling narratives as an undocumented and Latino youth attending schools in the Southeast. Through his narratives, this case study discusses how gender, accent, socioeconomic and immigration status intersect multiple layers of discrimination, pushing Julio out of school prior to his self-deportation. The author concludes how the use of dialogue journaling can allow teachers, school administrators, and other stakeholders to become culturally sensitive to support Latinx youth…. [Direct]
(2021). Parables of Passing and Pedagogy: A Practitioner Study of Teaching Africana Literature Online. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, San Francisco State University. The purpose of this practitioner-based self-study was to examine critical race pedagogy (CRP) in online course instruction and design. This was a qualitative study that used narrative inquiry and grounded theory methodological approaches to explore my Africana literature courses taught in an asynchronous online instructional mode of delivery during the Fall 2016 semester. This culminating project was guided by a community of inquiry and critical race pedagogical framework. The first chapter introduces the organization of the study, research problem, and review of the literature focused on online education, CRP in ethnic studies and Africana studies, and community of inquiry. Chapter 2 discusses methodology and my role as a researcher conducting a self-study of my own teaching practices. Chapter 3 presents the findings, narrowing in on a lesson about racial passing. This key chapter highlights student participants in public forums and written reflection assignments. Chapter 4… [Direct]
(2024). Heritage Language Identity Matters: Tracing the Trajectory of a Chinese Heritage Mother and Contested Chinese Dual Language Bilingual Education. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, v14 n1 p75-96. This article presents a narrative inquiry of a Chinese heritage mother to theorize and explicate how historical, relational, and spatial processes impacted her negotiation with power and agency in relation to her own heritage language (HL) identity development. A narrative approach enables us to draw on participant counter-stories against master narratives that erase experiences of marginalization of Asians in Asian language education in the United States. We do this through a model of HL identity development (Zhou & Liu, 2022) supplemented by an AsianCrit lens (Iftikar & Museus, 2018). We show the importance of normalizing Chinese as a HL outside of the home in terms of language maintenance as well as the impact such normalization has on the development of an affirmative Chinese HL identity. We add that spaces for such identity development are deeply associated with language programs like dual language bilingual education (DLBE), especially as the number of DLBE… [PDF]
(2022). Hidden Voices: How Chinese Immigrant Educators Implement Culturally Inclusive Practices in U.S. Classrooms. New Waves-Educational Research and Development Journal, v25 n1 p65-81 Sum. In this article, we investigate Chinese immigrant teachers' cross-national education experiences in determining the implementation of culturally inclusive practices in United States classrooms. Based on a critical framework of culturally responsive teaching, findings of our multiple-case study indicated our participants regard teaching in the U.S. as less certain as a vocation and regard Asian teacher educators in the U.S. as critical bridges to teaching language in the U.S. Although all participants had extensive training in second language teaching, they noted gaps in knowledge of American student culture. The participants also indicated that an ideal classroom was a place of cultural harmony where divergent views could be valued and shared. Given that extremely limited published research exists documenting how Chinese immigrant teachers conceptualize and practice culturally responsive teaching, this study is an entry to understanding the experiences of Chinese immigrant educators… [PDF]
(2022). Three Rs for Dance Education Now: Reexamine! Reevaluate! Reimagine!. Journal of Dance Education, v22 n3 p170-174. America's current sociocultural moment requires that we reexamine, reevaluate, and reimagine our dance education policy documents, curriculum, and classroom practice. This position paper raises questions about the assumptions underpinning our dance education archival discourse and infusing the language we use to articulate it. A return to scientific approaches to education featuring standardization and accountability, which threatens to further marginalize non-dominant voices, makes this inquiry urgent. I describe my current research as an example of this direction for inquiry. Referencing the standards' history, dance education's historical influences and counter-narratives, and motor learning theories in cultural context, I propose that explicit and implicit cultural messages in our standards may convey Euro-Western aesthetic, epistemological, and pedagogical frameworks, reflecting widely accepted dance education practices. Further, I question whether our standards and our practice… [Direct]
(2022). Pre-Brown African American School Leadership Paradigm: A Conceptual Model. Journal of School Leadership, v32 n6 p636-657 Nov. This research answers the question, "How did pre-Brown African American school leaders lead their schools?" After conducting a metasynthesis on the leadership practices of pre-Brown African American school leaders, I constructed the Pre-Brown African American School Leadership Paradigm (PAASLP) and model. The PAASLP describes a paradigm that bridges a gap between under-researched leadership beliefs, goals, and practices of pre-Brown African American school leaders during segregation and up through desegregation. Aspirational beliefs were grounded in the assertion that through an exemplary education student could develop the skills to move beyond the segregated society and aspire to a different life free from imposed barriers. Resistant beliefs focused on practices designed to prepare students to engage and participate fully in democratic citizenship and to resist the constraints of the society in which they lived. This emergent paradigm offers a basis for African American… [Direct]