(2022). "We Shall Take Their Children Away and Rear Them to the Fatherland": A Critical Discourse Analysis of a "Parent Advocacy" Group. Journal of Language and Literacy Education, v18 n2 Fall. The rise of right-wing populism, embodied in the figure of Donald Trump, has been characterized by conspiracy theories, "fake news," and other forms of mis- and disinformation in what has been described as a "post-truth" era. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this problem, and national conflicts around appropriate content, methods, and modes of schooling often involved disinformation circulated in school board meetings and other local contexts during the 2021-2022 school year. In this study, we adopt a critical literacy lens and take up the tools of discourse analysis to examine the rhetoric of post-truth, conspiracy-oriented groups opposed to public health mandates, critical race theory (CRT), and social emotional learning (SEL) in public schools. Our discourse analysis of Purple for Parents Indiana (P4PI), a local advocacy group, suggests that P4PI and similar groups are engaging in "cosmetic criticality," a project superficially resembling critical… [PDF]
(2023). Resisting Whiteness: Anti-Racist Leadership and Professional Learning in Majority White Senior Leadership Teams in English Schools. Curriculum Journal, v34 n1 p138-155 Mar. Many Senior Leadership Teams (SLTs) are engaging in professional development to nurture explicitly anti-racist practice. Teachers' knowledge gaps about racism, its traumatic, lasting impact and how racism is generated through schooling persist within a cloak of silence. This small-scale study explores interview data from senior leaders in English schools, questioning legacies of colour-evasion and breaking silences to understand the role 'race' plays in their schools, appearing exigent due to Black Lives Matter (BLM) movements and the inescapable reality of racism seen in George Floyd's horrific murder. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) as theoretical tools, we explore negotiations and challenges of leading anti-racist work in systems favouring whiteness as the norm. Findings show senior leaders undertaking the Anti-Racist School Award (ARSA) and/or Race, Identity and School Leadership (RISL) programme are novice 'race' practitioners, despite their… [Direct]
(2023). Cultural Competence in Libraries: Utilizing the Critical Incident Technique and Reflective Journaling to Encourage Reflective Practice. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, v64 n4 p458-475. In a political climate in which intellectual freedom and Critical Race Theory (CRT), among other concepts, are under attack, courses with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) content are especially relevant. Examining Library and Information Studies (LIS) curriculum within the United States, scholars have repeatedly found DEI content, despite being foundational to the LIS profession, is insufficient in preparing future LIS professionals. Furthermore, once professionals are employed, opportunities for additional training are limited, given the one-shot nature of many professional development opportunities. This article describes one attempt to effectively integrate DEI content into a continuing education course in which participants can incorporate material into their professional activities via the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) and reflective journaling. The article examines existing scholarship regarding LIS education to establish the need for concerted efforts to implement… [PDF] [Direct]
(2018). Overkill: Black Lives and the Spectacle of the Atlanta Cheating Scandal. Urban Education, v53 n2 p196-211 Feb. This article examines the 2015 Atlanta cheating scandal trials and sentencing. Using critical race theory, the authors argue that cheating is a natural outgrowth of market-based school reform and that racial realism will always lead to scrutiny of Black performance. The sentences of these Black educators is overkill, rooted in anti-Blackness, and can be best understood as a means of preserving Whiteness as property…. [Direct]
(2019). Dis/ability Critical Race Studies (DisCrit) for Inclusion in Early Childhood Education: Ethical Considerations of Implicit and Explicit Bias. ZERO TO THREE, v40 n1 p43-51 Sep. This article explores the ethical obligation of those in the early care and education field to deconstruct ableism (and other -isms, such as racism, sexism, classism) and to reconstruct an understanding of social identity that is strengths-based and affirming. The authors describe the Dis/ability Studies and Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) framework of understanding ableism and provide examples of potential solutions for early childhood providers to explore the role of bias in inclusion practices and deconstruct dis/ability to enact systemic change for young children with dis/abilities and their families…. [Direct]
(2019). "Sometimes Things Get Worse before They Get Better": A Counter-Narrative of White Suburban School Leadership for Racial Equity. Leadership and Policy in Schools, v18 n2 p195-209. Elizabeth is a middle-class white woman and principal of Eagle Wings High School, a large, well-resourced, high-performing suburban high school. This manuscript uses a Critical Race Theory composite counterstory to analyze Elizabeth's experiences of racial conflict that resulted after she enacted equity reforms to address her school's history of racial inequity. We examine the manner in which Elizabeth's decision-making for students of color related to her racial meaning-making and identities and how the resistance Elizabeth faced was not merely from teachers or white parents, but also from within herself…. [Direct]
(2023). How to Do QuantCrit: A Reflexive Account of Applying Critical Quantitative Methods to a Study of Black Women in STEM. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Nebraska – Lincoln. There has been extensive research into the underrepresentation of minoritized students in STEM disciplines since the 1990s with limited success in improving the representation of Black women in math-intensive STEM fields. This dissertation aims to address how the guiding tenets of critical quantitative (QuantCrit) methods work when used with publicly available datasets and commonly used statistical approaches. Additionally, this dissertation provides a framework for how to apply reflexivity as a method while utilizing a QuantCrit approach. The publicly available HSLS:09 dataset is used as part of a reflexive study to demonstrate how the tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT) map onto a QuantCrit study utilizing structural equation modeling. Through personal, methodological, and conceptual reflexivity, disconnects between the tenets and the QuantCrit study are highlighted and discussed. These findings indicate a need for more robust guidelines surrounding QuantCrit research…. [Direct]
(2023). A Guise of Inclusion: The Survival of 'Non-Ideal' Students in White Supremacist Heteropatriarchal Systems of Education. Journal of School Leadership, v33 n2 p179-197 Mar. Since its inception, the United States (U.S.) education system has worked vigorously to stymie and subvert the needs of those deemed to be 'non-ideal' (Grumet, 1998; Apple, 2006). From maintaining exclusionary curricula to the manipulation of anti-racist approaches to practice, heteropatriarchal white supremacist structures of education ensure a label of 'Other' for those who fail to meet colonial ideals (Pinar, 1998). Marginalized students and practitioners–those who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual+ (LGBTQIA+), people with disabilities, and those with low socioeconomic status (SES), are, as Cathy J. Cohen (2005) suggests queer outliers throughout systems of education. To address exclusionary practices, this article underscores the guise of diversity in schooling and its material impacts on those deemed not ideal. By implementing Critical Race Theory (CRT) (Crenshaw, 1995) and Queer of Color Critique… [Direct]
(2017). Recounting Racism, Resistance, and Repression: Examining the Experiences and #Hashtag Activism of College Students with Critical Race Theory and Counternarratives. Journal of Negro Education, v86 n3 p283-304 Sum. This article offers a qualitative examination of one predominantly white university in the Midwest. Racist epithets and threats targeting African Americans were painted on buildings. While faculty and staff struggled to compose a collective written response, researched state law and the University's Code of Conduct around hate speech, and waited for words of encouragement from the administration, students collectively rallied to demonstrate their status as full members of the University, to reaffirm their humanity through tweets, Facebook PSAs, Snapchat videos, and with walk-outs and sit-ins. Employing Critical Race Theory, specifically counter-storytelling as an analytic tool, this case study uses interview data to historicize the racial violence and document students' civil disobedience, activism, and subsequent administrative actions in that moment…. [Direct]
(2024). Supporting the Literacy Success of African American Students with Religious Literacy Programming. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Oakland University. This dissertation explores the intricate connections between African Americans, the Black Church, and educational outcomes, with a focus on implications for literacy development. Grounded in Critical Race Theory, the research seeks to unravel the structural complexities that contribute to the academic achievement gap faced by African American students. The theoretical framework guides an investigation into the potential impact of affiliations with the Black Church on academic success, reading skills, and family literacy needs. The study draws on a comprehensive literature review and a culturally relevant literacy intervention aligned with the Black Church. A unique family literacy book club, incorporating culturally relevant Biblical texts, serves as a focal point for exploring its impact on children's attitudes and beliefs towards literacy. Findings suggest that aligning interventions with the Black Church significantly improves academic success, with CRT revealing structural… [Direct]
(2023). Supporting the Whole Child during Pandemic Remote Learning. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Washington. The education system is like a dialectical system that holds both hope and harm in its operations. However, at the same time, the realities of the educational system have historically and continue to bring great harm to BIPOC communities and have hindered them from flourishing from the ideals of what schools have the potential to bring (Ladson-Billings, 2006). The pandemic further exacerbated racial inequities in the education system for BIPOC communities. This study conceptualized the school system as the unit of change and explored how a school system that has made institutional commitments in moving towards educational justice engaged in efforts to attend to the well-being of students and families during remote schooling. The Whole Child (WC) approach is a framework that conceptualizes school systems as spaces that can foster the overall well-being of the whole child and extends beyond social emotional programming in schools. However, the WC approach is limited in explicitly… [Direct]
(2021). Creating Diverging Opportunities in Spite of Equity Work: Educational Opportunity and Whiteness as Property. Whiteness and Education, v6 n2 p200-219. This qualitative study of an urban high school draws on critical race theory's tenet of whiteness as property and the notion that educational opportunity is a race-conscious construct to interrogate the impacts of school improvement work intended to increase educational opportunities for students of colour. Educational opportunity is defined as students having access to culturally relevant pedagogy, highly qualified teachers, rigorous curricula, and appropriate resources (fiscal, technological, texts, learning spaces, etc.). Findings demonstrate that the school's equity-minded work actually increased educational opportunities for white students while limiting opportunities for students colour. The inequities in educational opportunity along racial lines was the result of leadership's inability to decouple educational opportunity as an expectation of whiteness and resist the bullying forces of whiteness. Implications demonstrate how schools can decouple connections between educational… [Direct]
(2022). Grounded in Relationships of Support: Indigenous Teacher Mentorship in the Rural West. Rural Educator, v43 n1 Article 8 p88-104 Feb. This article explores the power of Indigenous teacher mentorship as essential to address "the change in point of view" long called for in Indigenous education. Drawing from a longitudinal, ethnographic study of an Indigenous teacher education program in a predominantly rural, high need region, we examine the basic questions: What do Indigenous master teachers uniquely bring to teacher education? In what ways do Indigenous master teachers support the development of socially, culturally, linguistically, and place-responsive teachers? Using the theoretical frameworks of Tribal Critical Race Theory (TribalCrit) and situated learning, our findings elucidate the importance of Indigenous mentorship for re-membering and re-claiming Indigenous epistemologies, ontologies, and axiologies in relational and intergenerational learning–practices that interrupt coloniality in teacher education and school leadership. Discussion of Indigenous teacher mentorship centers the importance of… [PDF]
(2022). The Human Dimension in Education: Essential Learning Theories and Their Impact on Teaching and Learning. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers This is an educational psychology book that focuses on human development, the human being, teaching, and learning. It is appropriate for preservice teachers who are seeking to comprehend essential theories and concepts in educational psychology. It is also appropriate for practicing teachers who want to understand and apply these theories and concepts at increasingly higher levels. As well, it can be used by decision-makers or anybody else who wants to better understand human development, human beings, human learning, and educational processes. Besides the traditional topics related to human development and learning found in most educational psychology textbooks, this book describes topics that are typically not addressed. These topics include mental health for children and adolescents, intuition, an evolutionary perspective on emotions, poverty, disability and race, systemic racism, critical race theory, culturally responsive teaching, teacher reflection, language learning and… [Direct]
(2022). A Case Study of the Underrepresentation of African American Male Educators: Career Choices and Experiences in Secondary Schools. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College. The purpose of this intrinsic case study was to examine the career choices and experiences of African American male teachers in secondary grade settings. Participants included 17 African American males who taught core subjects at varying grade levels. All participants worked at schools in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, metropolitan area. The main source of data collection was completed through semistructured interviews with 17 African American male teachers. I arranged to visit the different schools and address all potential teachers interested in participating in this study. Additionally, I contacted all interested subjects through email. The findings provided important information related to improving the percentage of African American educators. The case study was framed by critical race theory, antideficit achievement theory, and career choice framework. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited… [Direct]