(2023). White Supremacy in Postgraduate Education at Elite Universities in England: The Role of The Gatekeepers. Whiteness and Education, v8 n1 p101-119. Home BAME students are under-represented on postgraduate courses in England, especially at elite universities, however, there has been little research on why this should be. This research starts to fill this gap, arguing that gatekeepers to postgraduate courses at some of the most elite universities contribute to maintaining white supremacy. Innovatively combining Critical Race Theory with Bourdieu's tools, the study found that at these institutions, white supremacy is upheld firstly by an operationalising of discourses of meritocracy; secondly by non-transparent recruitment to programmes from UG courses which are mainly white; and thirdly by the gatekeepers interpreting the low numbers of BAME students either as 'unconscious bias', which in their view cannot be helped, or a result of individual or cultural deficit on the part of the students themselves. All of this, we argue, allows gatekeepers to excuse their own role and that of the institution in maintaining white supremacy…. [Direct]
(2019). Exploring the Intersection of Transnationalism and Critical Race Theory: A Critical Race Analysis of International Student Experiences in the United States. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v22 n1 p38-58. International student mobility to the United States (US) has increased over the past two decades. Despite the increase in numbers, international students may experience racism, nativism, and other forms of discrimination within the US context. Much of the existing literature focus on how international students can assimilate and cope with these issues rather than interrogating the systems of oppression that create negative student experiences. Thus, we utilized critical race theory (CRT) as a framework for interrogating how international student experiences are portrayed in current literature. Although CRT is grounded in US-based legal theory, we argue that CRT must move beyond the rigid confinement within US borders and expand to consider how transnationalism and global exchange contributes to the fluidity and applicability of this theory. We also provide recommendations for critical race praxis, with an emphasis on implications for practice, theory, and future research…. [Direct]
(2022). Transitioning during a Pandemic: Examining the Institutional Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic for Latina/o/x First Year and New Transfer Students. Journal of Latinos and Education, v21 n3 p289-303. The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of COVID-19 on the college transition for Latina/o/x students who enrolled at Citrus State College (pseudonym) during the Fall of 2020 as either first-year or transfer students. In particular, the authors explore the effects of the pandemic on students' sense of belonging, academic integration, and access to support services on the campus. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 self-identifying Latina/o/x students who enrolled at CSU during remote instruction. Using Critical Race Theory as the theoretical framework, findings of the study highlight how inequality was exacerbated for Latina/o/x college students who were expected to understand how to navigate college without the proper institutional support…. [Direct]
(2019). A Critical Race Theory Analysis of the 'Demographic Diversity' Gap in Schools: College Students of Color Speak Their Truth. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v22 n6 p836-857. The shortage of Teachers of Color relative to the growing racial/ethnic diversity of the U.S. public school student population has caught the attention of many educators and policy makers. Several factors contribute to this teacher-student demographic diversity gap, especially the lower numbers of college Students of Color, relative to white students, enrolled in teacher education programs. Using a Critical Race Theory framework and qualitative data, this study examined the perceptions of college Students of Color about the teaching profession. Findings reveal that college Students of Color are not interested in pursuing careers in teaching because they feel that: 1) teachers are underpaid and undervalued by society; 2) teachers are negatively represented, and Teachers of Color are underrepresented, in media and popular culture; and, 3) the cumulative negative impact of the racial microaggressions they experienced over the course of their schooling has discouraged them from… [Direct]
(2022). Teacher Perceptions of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Newcomer Parents: Shifting the Paradigm from Deficit Perspectives to Asset-Based Approaches. Excellence in Education Journal, v11 n2 p50-84. This study explores teacher perceptions of newcomer parents and investigates how a small sample of teachers are making the shift from deficit to asset-based approaches to working with newcomer parents. This research uses one-on-one semi-structured interviews with three Toronto District School Board high school teachers to examine their perceptions of newcomer families living in Toronto, Ontario. Critical race theory is used as the theoretical framework for this study to critically analyze teachers' conceptualization of asset-based approaches. Research findings reveal specific strategies used by the participants in incorporating asset-based approaches to working with newcomer parents and their children. This study also provides critical reflection opportunities for teachers who wish to engage in asset-based work in and beyond their multicultural classroom…. [PDF]
(2022). A CRT Analysis of Policy Making in Nevada: A Case Study for Social Work Education. Journal of Social Work Education, v58 n4 p768-779. This study uses critical race theory (CRT) to uncover racialized interactions that influence legislative processes. The transcripts from public hearings from the 2017 Nevada State legislative session were included in the data analysis. Results demonstrate the utility of CRT as an analytic tool to examine the policy-making process, identify narratives that sustain and protect white supremacy imbedded in policies governing high school education, and uncover racist testimony throughout the policy-making process. More specifically, results demonstrate the ways that subtle racialized interactions drive conversations where White constituents protect white interests at the expense of racial equity. Conversely, findings highlight how People of Color issue a counternarrative by providing necessary historical context and perspectives to work toward racial justice goals…. [Direct]
(2019). The Pathway to Achieving Classroom Equity: Computational and Critical Thinking through Storytelling and 3D Models. Educational Research: Theory and Practice, v30 n1 p62-66. Alignment with the Montana Indian Education for All (IEFA) Act, tenets of Tribal Critical Race Theory (TribalCrit) (Brayboy, 2006) and the 7 Essential Understandings, results in the effective integration of Computer Science and Storytelling into the classroom. Teacher disposition and pedagogies that reflect current education transformation trends are also discussed…. [PDF]
(2024). Accessing Resistance Capital: First-Generation Latina/o/x College Students in Higher Education. Journal of Latinos and Education, v23 n2 p550-565. Centered in critical race theory (Latcrit) and conceptualization of community cultural wealth, this study explores first-generation Latina/o/x students' motivations to attend college and persist to degree completion. Additionally, this study examines the overlapping forms of cultural wealth that participants access throughout their educational journeys, with particular focus on the overlap of resistance, familial, and aspirational capital. Finally, this project examines how citizenship status impacts participants' motivations and cultural wealth. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews of 14 California university or community college students who self-identified as Latina/o/x. Findings indicate that participants' motivations are deeply connected to familial relationships that also lead to broader understandings of social inequity and injustice. Specifically, participants situate their motivations to attend college within personal aspiration, and familial ties, but also… [Direct]
(2024). The Curious Case of Seemingly Incurious Children: Refugee Flight and (Mis)Representation of Children's Power and Agency in Children's Literature. Journal of Multilingual Theories and Practices, v5 n2 p226-251. English-language teachers are increasingly recognizing the pedagogical value of using children's literature that authentically represents diverse multilingual learners, including children who have sought refuge. This study analyses representations of children who have experienced displacement and sought refuge in picture books. Framed by a critical multicultural perspective of children's literature, critical refugee studies and critical race theory, the study investigates how children's emotions and agency are represented in focal stories. Our findings suggest that, contrary to the complex intellectual and emotional ways children and youth process displacement, picture books about seeking refuge tend to represent child protagonists as incurious about why they are forced to flee. Such representations construct legally scripted narratives associated with refugee status that normalize war and violence. These narratives ultimately mask colonialism, imperialism and racism that contribute… [Direct]
(2024). (Re)Constructing Environmental History: Excavating Ecomemory with Ecowomanist and Intersectional AsianCrit Framings for Eco-Justice Pedagogical Praxis. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, v21 n4 p396-417. This article investigates the role of autoethnographic research as the methodological tool of choice for an Asian American educator-activist-scholar (Suzuki & Mayorga, Multicultural Perspectives, 16(1), 16-20, 2014) who positions herself with a collaborative, critical, and intersectional ecofeminist perspective. I propose that "ecomemory," a counter memory of environmental history and the environmental histories of people of color, should be used as valid ethnographic research and can contribute toward the AsianCrit tenets of (re)constructive history and story, theory, and praxis. Autoethnography, ecomemory, critical race theory, and AsianCrit, define how I think about the world and have influenced how I engage in educational research. Producing autoethnographic research validates and acknowledges my positionality and interrogates my marginal position inside dominant structures of education and environmental education. Rooted in my own environmental autobiography,… [Direct]
(2024). Narratives of Race and Identity in English Language Teaching. Language Learning Journal, v52 n1 p77-91. The continued spread of Western ideology, English as a lingua franca, and the myth of the native speaker all play a role in the racialisation of language teaching (Phillipson, R. 1992. "Linguistic Imperialism." Oxford: Oxford University Press; Ramjattan, V. A. 2019. Raciolinguistics and the aesthetic labourer. "Journal of Industrial Relations" 61, no. 5: 726-738. doi:10.1177/0022185618792990.). As a former English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher, numerous racialised encounters compelled me to reflect on my own professional identity as an educator and seek out the lived experiences of other teachers of colour. A framework that connects foundational elements of sociocultural identity theory to theoretical perspectives from critical race theory was utilised to co-construct narratives from four EFL teachers. Data collection relied on three interviews and four forum posts. Transcribed data were then coded using first and second cycle coding methods, and… [Direct]
(2024). Black Religious Engagement and Post-College Educational Pathways: The Role of Demographic Variables. Innovative Higher Education, v49 n3 p581-599. This article employs quantitative critical race theory (QuantCrit), set against a historical context backdrop, to understand key aspects of Black religious engagement and post-college educational pathways. The variables selected for this study illuminate post-graduation outcomes for Black students valued by the Freedmen's Bureau and other similarly focused organizations that coalesced immediately before, during, and shortly after the American Civil War. Data from the 1979-80 National Survey of Black Americans (NSBA) provides the content for an analysis herein of Black Americans engaging in the church following college graduation and their pursuit of advanced degrees. This survey conducted roughly 100 years following the Civil War, has remained influential to policymakers to the present day and allows an opportunity to reflect on today's views on Black education at this sesquicentennial juncture. So doing provides for a reconceptualization of Black post-college success as originally… [Direct]
(2023). "Life Was Brought Back into My Body": A Critical Race Feminista Analysis of Racial Microaffirmations. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v26 n6 p701-718. This qualitative study utilized a Critical Race Feminista approach to explore the experiences of graduate Students of Color with racial microaffirmations. Racial microaffirmations are the subtle verbal and nonverbal strategies People of Color engage that affirm each other's dignity, integrity, and shared humanity. These moments of shared cultural intimacy allow People of Color to feel acknowledged, respected, and valued in a society that constantly and perpetually seeks to dehumanize them. A Critical Race Feminista approach is grounded in Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Chicana feminist theoretical foundations. These theories guide the overall research design, and specifically, the methodological process. Four group pl√°ticas were conducted with 30 students who also participated in the co-construction of knowledge during data analysis. This analysis revealed how racial microaffirmations can be embodied experiences, as sensory forms of knowledge that connect us to shared cultural… [Direct]
(2023). Engaging (or Not) in Coalition Politics: A Case Study of Black and Latinx Community Advocacy toward Educational Equity. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v26 n7 p851-871. The potential for cross-racial coalitions between minoritized communities in educational advocacy and policymaking is enhanced as communities become increasingly diverse. In this qualitative case study, we use interviews and archival data to explore coalition politics between Black and Latinx community leaders in a large, metropolitan school district in the U.S. Mountain West. Utilizing postcolonial feminist theory and critical race theory, we explore how and why Black and Latinx communities engage (or not) in coalition politics to advocate for educational equity. We found that although these communities rarely engaged in coalition politics, they sometimes developed what we termed micro-coalitions. This is a small, yet powerful and promising coalition grounded in a deep understanding of historical racial injustices and explicit efforts to navigate tensions and support both communities. We further highlight how district and state leaders leveraged existing tensions and adopted… [Direct]
(2023). The Silent Schooling of Whiteness in Social Studies Content Standards. Whiteness and Education, v8 n1 p39-63. Race shapes the policies and history of the United States. Current research shows that state-approved social studies content standards are written in a non-racial and colour-evasive whiteness language that reinforces racist policies and practices in education. This qualitative framework analysis study examines the language of social studies content standards from New Mexico and Texas; two states on the US-Mexico border. This research, theoretically grounded in Critical Race Theory and Critical Whiteness Studies, analyses how the silent schooling of whiteness uses language to support racist ideals in social studies content to promote property rights and wealth over human rights. Furthermore, whiteness language in education reinforces the racist power structure by intentionally silencing culturally relevant and anti-racist instruction to students. Learning to identify whiteness language is an important step towards developing racial literacy, cultural responsiveness and social justice… [Direct]