(2011). After the Glow: Race Ambivalence and Other Educational Prognoses. Educational Philosophy and Theory, v43 n6 p675-698 Aug. The Right has a long history of questioning the importance of race analysis. Recently, the conceptual and political status of race has come under increased scrutiny from the Left. Bracketing the language of \race\ has meant that the discourse of skin groups remains at the level of abstraction and does not speak to real groups as such. As a descriptor, race essentializes identity as if skin color were a reliable way to perceive one's self and group as well as others, and questions the viability of a social struggle based on race. In other words, race is not real and discourses that insist on its objective status are ensnared in reification. The response–equally from the Left–has been to reassert the centrality and changing dynamics of race in education and society. They argue that we need to develop more, rather than less, complex discourses on race. Orientations that attempt to discredit race analysis are therefore unable to dismantle the racial system because they refuse its… [Direct]
(2010). Some Issues in Affirmative Action in Higher Education in South Africa. South African Journal of Higher Education, v24 n2 p224-237. The purpose of this article is to attempt a surfacing of the assumptions and discourses surrounding the affirmative action debate in higher education in South Africa. The article draws attention to two dominant discourses–the first being that of the patriotic university, and the second being that of the global university. In terms of the first idea, the argument is made that the university should be a mirror of the society in which it operates and therefore, an instrument for realizing its most important policies and ideals. The second insists that the university as an institution arises out of an international commitment to knowledge production, and that this framework provides it with its legitimacy. The article argues that neither of these discourses is able to fully understand and engage with the complexities of affirmative action and its ancillary challenges of racism and racialisation. The first subsumes the university entirely within the dominant politics of the day, whatever… [Direct]
(2011). Policy as Performance: Tracing the Rituals of Racism. Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, v33 n5 p465-483. This article examines the relations between two contrasting education phenomena that occur generally and that have come to light in the geographic location where the author teaches and works. This first phenomenon is the proliferation of interest in issues of diversity and equity through education policies, theories, practices, and initiatives. The second is that while the talk about diversity and justice issues gestures toward social change, equity issues have not made significant inroads in areas of public and post-secondary schooling. In light of the considerable gestures toward equity and then the lapse, or what is sometimes called more politely "a lack of political will," the author wishes to offer that one way of understanding the repetition of sameness may be found in the literature describing collective guilt, fear, shame, and transference. To explore this claim, the first part of this article offers Sara Ahmed's (2004) conjecture that by witnessing to what is… [Direct]
(2013). From White Supremacy to Solidarity: A Pedagogy of Anti-Capitalist Antiracism. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Minnesota. This dissertation focuses on a pedagogical analysis of the intersections of white racial identity, nationalism, and neoliberalism as they manifest and impact teachers and teacher education. After first detailing how my own family became white, I discuss my method in this work in two ways: first, as a form of Freirean Critical Study (an elaboration of Freire, 2006); and secondly, through an overview of Marxism, Marx's importance for working against neoliberalism, and the anti-capitalist foundations of the work. Next, I provide a conceptual history of white racial identity in the United States focusing on the ways in which whiteness is invented and imagined out of blackness and how this "inventing" functions to secure the material interests of the (white) owners of the means of production. I work to show how whiteness and white supremacy work to normalize and maintain capitalism through a logic of racial hierarchy and exclusion. Using this historical analysis, I shift to… [Direct]
(2012). The Student with a Thousand Faces: From the Ethics in Video Games to Becoming a Citizen. Cultural Studies of Science Education, v7 n4 p909-943 Dec. Video games, as technological and cultural artifacts of considerable influence in the contemporary society, play an important role in the construction of identities, just as other artifacts (e.g., books, newspapers, television) played for a long time. In this paper, we discuss this role by considering video games under two concepts, othering and technopoly, and focus on how these concepts demand that we deepen our understanding of the ethics of video games. We address here how the construction of identities within video games involves othering process, that is, processes through which, when signifying and identifying \Ourselves\, we create and marginalize \Others\. Moreover, we discuss how video games can play an important role in the legitimation of the technopoly, understood as a totalitarian regime related to science, technology and their place in our societies. Under these two concepts, understanding the ethics of video games goes beyond the controversy about their violence. The… [Direct]
(2007). Neo-Racism toward International Students. About Campus, v11 n6 p28-30 Jan-Feb. International students and their dependents contribute more than $12 billion a year to the U.S. economy, yet for institutions of higher education, the greatest gains lie not in dollar amounts but in new insights and perspectives. As international students enter U.S. colleges and universities, they bring with them a wealth of curricular and cocurricular benefits that, if accessed, can substantially contribute to achieving an institution's educational goals. International students who stay in the United States add to the country's intellectual capital, while those who return to their home country tend to take with them a positive regard toward the United States. However, in a case study that the author and Charles Rice recently conducted, they uncovered tremendous discrimination against international students. Their study revealed that students from the Middle East, Africa, East Asia, Latin America, and India endured far greater difficulties in U.S. institutions than students from… [Direct]
(2010). Schools as Sites of Race Relations and Intercultural Tension. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, v35 n7 p93-108 Nov. Australia's education system endeavours to provide an environment in which students can learn in a safe and comfortable manner, free of fear of verbal or physical abuse. However, for many schools, the ability to create this safe environment has been undermined by a recent rise in society-wide intercultural tensions that inevitably permeate the school boundary. Empirical data from a national project about racism among Australian youth provides evidence that these intercultural tensions are generating an unsettling level of verbal, and in some cases, physical abuse in Australian secondary schools. These project findings inform the discussion presented in this paper that schools, as sites of intercultural relations, reflect wider societal attitudes. Nevertheless, this paper also contends that schools as microcosms of social realities have the potential to change social attitudes gradually, including those about diversity, culture and race. To do so, schools need to be supported by… [PDF]
(2004). \So When It Comes Out, They Aren't That Surprised That It Is There\: Using Critical Race Theory as a Tool of Analysis of Race and Racism in Education. Educational Researcher, v33 n5 p26-31 Jun-Jul. Given the insidious and often subtle way in which race and racism operate, it is imperative that educational researchers explore the role of race when examining the educational experiences of African-American students. Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a useful perspective from which to explore such phenomena. In this article, the authors illustrate how CRT can be used to examine the experiences of African-American students. They use the counterstories of African-American students at Wells Academy, an elite, predominately White, independent school. (Contains 6 notes.)… [Direct]
(2011). Elevating the Role of Race in Ethnographic Research: Navigating Race Relations in the Field. Ethnography and Education, v6 n1 p97-111. Little work in the social sciences or in the field of education has fully explored the methodological issues related to the study of race and racism, yet qualitative researchers acknowledge that race plays (and should play) a role in the research process. Indeed, race frames and informs the context, practices and perspectives of everyday lived experiences in society and schools–even in those instances when race is not expressly recognised. In the case of ethnographic research, race emerges as a pivotal factor that is often undertheorised and sometimes unacknowledged. Though ethnographic research seeks to illuminate \culture\, and often does so in the context of research inquiries that are both racialised and that occur with researchers and participants who come from different racial backgrounds, this work often fails to place race at the centre. Drawing from data collected in a multi-sited ethnographic study on risk and academic achievement and using key insights from narrative… [Direct]
(2009). Examining the Impact of Historical/Developmental, Sociodemographic, and Psychological Factors on Passive Suicide among African-American Men. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Howard University. Nationally published reports on death rates for substance abuse (drug-alcohol related), violence (homicide), and risky sexual behaviors (HIV/AIDS) among African-American men are deeply concerning. The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between historical/developmental factors (masculine identity, racial identity, racism), sociodemographic factors (income, education, employment status, marital status), psychological functioning (depression, post-traumatic stress, self-esteem, anger), and the impact that they have on passive suicide (substance abuse, risky sexual behaviors, and violence) in a sample of 150 (75 community; 75 incarcerated) African-American males from the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. The purpose of this study was to examine the complex issues that may contribute to passive suicide and begin to understand and conceptualize at-risk behaviors as a form of suicide. All analyses were conducted using the Statistical Program for the Social Sciences [SPSS]…. [Direct]
(2011). Biculturalism among Indigenous College Students. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Brigham Young University. "Indigenous" college students in both Canada and the United States have the lowest rates of obtaining postsecondary degrees, and their postsecondary dropout rates are higher than for any other minority (Freeman & Fox, 2005; Mendelson, 2004; Reddy, 1993). There has been very little research done to uncover possible reasons for such low academic achievement and high dropout rates for Indigenous students. Some of the research that has been done indicates that one challenge for Indigenous students is the difficulty in navigating the cultural differences between higher education and their Indigenous cultures. Biculturalism is the ability of an individual to navigate two different cultures (Bell, 1990; Das & Kemp, 1997). Several scholars have suggested that biculturalism is an important construct in understanding academic persistence among Indigenous students (Jackson, Smith & Hill, 2003; Schiller, 1987). This study explored biculturalism among Indigenous college… [Direct]
(2010). Critical Race Theory and Community Colleges: Through the Eyes of Women Student Leaders of Color. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, v34 n1-2 p78-91. While the majority of students at California community colleges are students of color, few complete their schooling and transfer. This study examines how women leaders of color perceive transfer at a diverse, transfer-intensive community college in southern California. Critical race theory is used to analyze how these raced and gendered institutions fulfill their democratic promise of academic transfer. Over the course of a year, I employed semistructured interviews, a focus group interview, and participant observation of 11 women in four racial/ethnic student organizations. Preliminary findings point to a complex relationship between transfer, race, and gender. By utilizing critical race theory (CRT) in community college practice and research, we see the importance of validating students everyday realities as students of color. In addition, the covert and overt issues of racism and sexism must be addressed with a critical lens of race and gender. The experiences of these women… [Direct]
(2011). Traditionally Untraditional: The Career Trajectory Navigation of California Community College Women of Color Administrators. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, University of California, Davis. This qualitative study examines deeply the career trajectories of 13 women of color administrators at the dean, vice president, and president levels in the California community college (CCC) system. The study focuses particular attention on the specific opportunities and challenges that some of these women have encountered on their leadership career journeys by analyzing the following research question: How have women of color administrators navigated their career trajectories in the California Community College system? In addition, a subquestion asks, what strategies and sources of support have women of color in the California Community College system used to overcome multiple obstacles in their professional lives as administrators? In addition to describing the context of a post-affirmative action/Proposition 209 environment that does not allow race to be a sole or primary factor in CCC hiring decisions, the study reviews the relevant literature on the subjects of career… [Direct]
(2010). The Scholarship Informing the Practice: Multicultural Teacher Education Philosophy and Practice in the United States. International Journal of Multicultural Education, v12 n2. This study examines the scholarly literature identified by multicultural teacher educators in the United States as most influential to their work. More than 200 multicultural teacher educators were surveyed about the books and the journals that have most influenced the ways they conceive and practice multicultural teacher education (MTE). Responses were tabulated, creating lists of the most-identified books and journals. These lists were analyzed around three primary questions: (1) What do these data suggest about the philosophical frameworks and operationalizations of MTE among multicultural teacher educators?; (2) What do they reveal about the issues multicultural teacher educators consider more or less integral to MTE?; and (3) What might they uncover about the "null curriculum" of MTE? Findings suggest that, in contrast with much of the existing scholarship, MTE practitioners do engage with critical approaches to MTE, even if this might not be reflected consistently in… [PDF]
(2009). Intercultural Universities in Mexico: Progress and Difficulties. Intercultural Education, v20 n1 p5-17 Feb. This paper introduces the problem of the very limited representation of indigenous groups in higher education in Mexico, as well as some of its causes, namely: the poor quality of education received by indigenous populations at earlier educational levels; racism and discrimination which are still prevalent in Mexican society and limit options and opportunities open to indigenous populations; and the excessive centralization in urban regions of higher education institutions, among others. It then deals with the experiments that Mexico and other countries have engaged in to increase the enrollment of indigenous populations in higher education institutions. It emphasizes the Mexican experience of intercultural universities, eight of which were created between 2003 and 2007 in different indigenous regions of the country. Their objectives, progress and difficulties encountered to date are discussed. Finally, it reflects on what this means for the advancement of the indigenous movement and… [Direct]