(2019). Discovering Cultural Wealth in Latinx First-Generation Participants of a College Access and Enrichment Program: A Phenomenological Inquiry. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D./HE Dissertation, Azusa Pacific University. Nationwide, Latinx students are the largest minority group on college campuses and represent the largest increase in the rate of college enrollment (Pew Research Center, 2016). Sixty-one percent are first-generation, compared to 25% of White and Asian and 41% of Black students (Postsecondary National Policy Institute, 2018). First-generation college students are typically low-income minorities who have historically had and continue to have the lowest levels of academic performance and college degree attainment (Postsecondary National Policy Institute, 2018; Terenzini, Springer, Yaeger, Pascarella, & Nora, 1996). There exists a prevailing deficit perspective at all levels of education that asserts students of color are responsible for their lack of educational progress, and their social, cultural, and economic environments deter academic advancement (Garcia & Guerra, 2004). More research is needed to gain insight into the lived experiences of first-year first-generation Latinx… [Direct]
(2013). Resisting the Status Quo: The Narratives of Black Homeschoolers in Metro-Atlanta and Metro-DC. Peabody Journal of Education, v88 n3 p265-283. Trends suggest that homeschooling continues to increase among black families. Yet, research on contemporary Black homeschooling remains scarce. Given black educational history, the phenomena of Black families choosing homeschooling over public and private schools in the post-Desegregation era is worthy of investigation. Further, documenting the ways in which black homeschool families engage their children in learning will inform the needs of black education in conventional schools, public and private. The phenomenon of increasing black home education represents a radical transformative act of self-determination, the likes of which have not been witnessed since the 1960s and '70s. This work highlights the primacy of agency among black homeschooling families. Thus, contrary to the negative depictions of black families as disengaged from the educational pursuits of their children, we evoke hooks's (1990) notion of homeplace to argue that black home education represents a vehicle of… [Direct]
(2011). Activists, Allies, and Racists: Helping Teachers Address Racism through Picture Books. Journal of Literacy Research, v43 n3 p275-313 Sep. Teachers often resist discussions about racism in the classroom, yet it is a topic that is frequently addressed in multicultural literature. This study examines teachers in a graduate reading program (N = 58) who used picture books reflecting African American heritage with elementary school children in a summer reading practicum. Prior to teaching children, a subset of these teachers participated in a course that addressed issues of racism, allowing for an investigation of a course effect on teachers' comfort level with the literature and their addressing of themes that surfaced in the books. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyze questionnaires, planning forms, lesson evaluation forms, and transcripts of teachers using the books to test the hypothesis of a course effect and to identify the range of variation in teachers' ways of using the literature. The teachers in both \course\ and \comparison\ groups tended to focus on the perspectives, feelings, and traits of… [Direct]
(2014). Radical Musicking: Towards a Pedagogy of Social Change. Music Education Research, v16 n3 p229-250. This research examines the work of four elementary music educators who strive to challenge the dominant paradigm of music education. I employed the methodology of a multiple case study to consider the discourses, practices and philosophies of these four educators. I observed in each school for an eight-week period for two full days each week, conducting semi-structured interviews at the beginning, middle and end of each observation process. At each school, I followed an observation protocol, in addition to completing three interviews and keeping a journal. In this work, I mobilise a tri-faceted lens that combines the theoretical frameworks of anti-colonialism, anti-racism and anti-racist feminism towards counterhegemonic goals. The teachers' diverse practices include critically engaging with issues of social justice, studying a broad range of musics, introducing multiple musical epistemologies, contextualising musics, considering differential privilege and subverting hegemonic… [Direct]
(2014). Beyond School-to-Prison Pipeline and toward an Educational and Penal Realism. Equity & Excellence in Education, v47 n4 p410-429. Much scholarly attention has been paid to the school-to-prison pipeline and the sanitized discourse of "death by education," called the achievement gap. Additionally, there exists a longstanding discourse surrounding the alleged crisis of educational failure. This article offers no solutions to the crisis and suggests instead that the system is functioning as it was intended–to disenfranchise many (predominately people of color) for the benefit of some (mostly white), based on economic principals of the free market. We begin by tracing the economic interests of prisons and the prison industrial complex, juxtaposing considerations of what we call the "educational reform industrial complex." With a baseline in the economic interests of school failure and prison proliferation, we draw on the critical race theory concept of "racial realism," to work toward a theory of educational and penal realism. Specifically, we outline seven working tenets of… [Direct]
(1977). Beyond the Victim: New Avenues for Research on Racism in Education. Educational Theory, 27, 3, 196-204, Sum 77. The school as a social institution reflects the attitude of society as a whole when it labels and stereotypes black children, assuming that their achievement level will be lower than that of their white peers. (JD)…
(2018). Exploring the Moderating Effects of Racial/Ethnic Socialization, Academic Motivation and African American Identity on the Relation between Microaggressions and Mattering of African American Students at Predominantly White Institutions. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Nebraska – Lincoln. African Americans remain underrepresented in higher education (Thompson, Gorin, & Chen, 2006) and experience subtle forms of racism called microaggressions (Sue et. al, 2007). The impact of microaggressions in post-secondary institutions may manifest in the achievement gaps that exist between African American and White people; moreover, they may influence the inequitable treatment of African American students by staff, teaching assistants and faculty (Ancis, Sedlacek, & Mohr, 2000; Becker & Luther, 2002). 108 African American undergraduate students at three Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) participated. The current study employed an online survey to explore relationships of microaggressions, racial/ethnic socialization, African American racial identity, academic motivation, and mattering of African American students at PWIs, including moderating relationships. Generally, results demonstrated the following significant relationships: experiences of microaggressions… [Direct]
(2013). Rocking the Foundations: The Struggle for Effective Indigenous Studies in Australian Higher Education. Higher Education Review, v45 n3 p36-55 Sum. Foundation courses that provide knowledge and understanding about the social, cultural and historical factors shaping Indigenous Australians' lives since colonial settlement and their effects are endorsed in Australian higher education policy. Literature highlights the complexity of changing student views and the need for sustained, comprehensive approaches to teaching foundation content. This paper analyses one such course in its capacity to increase knowledge and understanding, and promote positive attitudes, particularly amongst non-Indigenous students. It finds significant shifts in views and knowledge gained from studying the foundation course, and a change in commitment to social justice and reconciliation for Indigenous Australians. Students also significantly changed their view as to whether all Australians should understand this material. Despite these gains, our experiences indicate that foundational courses can be eroded through institutional processes. We argue this… [Direct]
(2021). Urban Students' Critical Race-Class Narratives: An Examination of the Relationship between Race and Class within the Context of Punitive School Discipline. Teachers College Record, v123 n14 p21-40 Dec. Background/Context: In the wake of the 1994 national call for zero tolerance and the growth of school policing programs in the United States throughout the 1990s and 2000s, an abundance of research has demonstrated that Black and Latinx students are disproportionately targeted for suspension and expulsion from school, and students of color, particularly those attending racially segregated schools in high-poverty neighborhoods, are substantially more likely to be subjected to daily policing and arrests. In addition, there is a significant body of critical scholarly work that examines the larger social-historical context of punitive school discipline and policing. Such studies illuminate the historical and structural underpinnings that give rise to punitive school discipline and reveal how school discipline policies have become an extension of the societal project of mass incarceration and aggressive policing in high poverty, racially segregated neighborhoods in the United States and… [Direct]
(2010). Critical Race Talk in Teacher Education through Movie Analysis: From \Stand and Deliver\ to \Freedom Writers\. Multicultural Education, v17 n3 p51-56 Spr. In an attempt to enact equitable practices in U.S. public schools, many critical multicultural and anti-racist theorists, researchers, and practitioners strongly suggest that teacher educators move beyond diversity approaches to multicultural education in their teacher preparation programs to address the more uncomfortable issues of power and equity–namely, racism. Teacher educators commonly find that race talk, especially with their White students, leads to a host of dysfunctional classroom dynamics that may actually perpetuate the racial logic teacher educators, and even teacher education students, would hope to disrupt. This article seeks to provide a rationale for some of the dysfunctional aspects of race talk in teacher education programs and offers an alternative framework for engaging students in critical race talk. As a way to demonstrate how teacher education students in a graduate multicultural course critically examined race through a discursive framework of racism, this… [PDF] [Direct]
(2012). Urban Schools: Challenges and Possibilities for Early Childhood and Elementary Education. Urban Education, v47 n2 p515-550 Mar. Addressing the seemingly perpetual turbulent landscape of urban schools, the role that elementary educators and teacher educators can play in reversing negative trends and trajectories is considered. Three urban education journals were examined over a 5-year period (2005-2010) to determine the emphasis on elementary students or schools. Of the 429 articles, only 8% focused on the elementary years. Schools and teacher education programs that are willing to learn from existing successful models and to straightforwardly and vigilantly address endemic racism in policies and practices offer the most hope for transforming urban schools. Collaborative grassroots efforts are recommended. (Contains 3 notes and 3 tables.)… [Direct]
(2010). Exploring Racism through Photography. Art Education, v63 n5 p44-51 Sep. Photography is a powerful medium with which to explore social issues and concerns through the intersection of artistic form and concept. Through the discussions of images and suggested activities, students will understand various ways photographers have documented and addressed racism and discrimination. This Instructional Resource presents a selection of photographs from the collection of the Center for Creative Photography (CCP) at the University of Arizona. The photographs of Marion Palfi, Ansel Adams, and David Levinthal are included as examples of documentary, found, and staged imagery that reflect historical and social practices of individual, societal, and institutional racism in the United States. These photographs were originally presented as educational programming at CCP, where they were discussed with classes studying racism, writing, and art and visual culture education. Areas of study across the curriculum, including art, photography, language arts, history, sociology… [Direct]
(2013). Teaching and Learning African American History in a Multiracial Classroom. Theory and Research in Social Education, v41 n4 p514-534. The author explores the challenges of teaching and learning African American history, a history fraught with uncomfortable implications about contemporary race relations and race-based inequalities. Drawing on various theories of anti-oppressive education, and using data from an ethnographic study conducted in one history classroom, the author explores possibilities and limitations in that realm. With its focus on a racial minority group whose history is not fully explored in traditional history courses, the course provided a curricular context for students to explore issues of racial difference and inequality. Consistent with much of the research and theoretical literature, teacher and student discourse revealed difficulties in teaching and learning multicultural content in a classroom setting where students enter with a range of experiences with and beliefs about race and racism…. [Direct]
(2011). \We Better Learn Something\–Antiracist Pedagogy in Graduate School. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Minnesota. While many understand the need for improved pedagogy in advanced graduate school education regarding issues of race and racism, we also need to better understand what happens in classrooms when issues of racism are centered in the pedagogy. I employed qualitative methods to examine what happened when racism and antiracism were taken up as explicit topics(s)/area(s) of study in a graduate school classroom. In this dissertation, I studied a multiracial and multicultural graduate school classroom situated in a Euro-centric university. I first explain how I and the students from racially under-represented populations in higher education are positioned and constructed in the classroom. I then explore how European Americans learned via those of various racially under-represented backgrounds in the classroom–learning from the \Other.\ Finally, I explain our emotional responses to antiracist pedagogy and how these emotions were racialized. Findings reveal several things. One is that… [Direct]
(2017). The Ties That Bind: The Experiences of Women of Color Faculty in STEM. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles. As women of color (WOC) enter the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) pipeline with aspirations to join the faculty ranks, it is important that the academy is prepared to address their unique needs to ensure they are supported as they engage in scientific and technological research, support students, and advance in their career. Thus, the purpose of this study was to test the theoretical constructs included the Science identity model, and determine how the relationship among the concepts are moderated by race and gender (Carlone & Johnson, 2007). Moreover, the study examines how identity shaped WOC's navigation of the STEM academic workplace. This study employs a convergent mixed methods design, using Higher Education Research Institute surveys of 272 underrepresented WOC, compared with 544 White men and women, and interviews with 10 WOC participants. The findings indicate the ways that stress from discrimination impacts the dimensions of "performance" and… [Direct]