(2007). Rethinking White Resistance: Exploring the Discursive Practices and Psychical Negotiations of "Whiteness" in Feminist, Anti-Racist Education. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v10 n3 p323-344 Sep. This article explores how under-theorized representations of whiteness in pedagogical literatures have informed simplistic ideas about white resistance among students. It is argued that the performance and practice of discourses of whiteness in pedagogical contexts, and the subjective, psychical and emotional complexities of engaging with discourses of whiteness, have been neglected in pedagogical research, diminishing the potential for understanding processes of subjective and social change through anti-racist education. Analyzing observational findings from an ethnographic study of a course focused on issues of "women's diversity" in a Canadian Women's Studies programme, the author explores how discourses of whiteness play out in the context of a feminist classroom in ways that contributed to a predominance of individualizing discourses of racism. She draws on psychoanalysis to analyze the highly defensive dynamics enacted among students, examining projective practices… [Direct]
(1975). The Educational System as a Reinforcer of Institutionalized Racism. The educational complex is seen to act as a subsystem of the overall societal system whose main function is said to lie in the socialization of individuals for membership in the larger society. The socialization process, including mastery of norms, beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral patterns of the society, are seen to be permeated with institutionalized racism. As a vehicle of the socialization process, the educational system is considered to incorporate racist norms, standards, behavioral patterns, morals, and sense of social position in such a manner that the socializee is unaware of his absorption of a curriculum that is fundamentally racist. While American institutions contribute to institutionalized racism, the focus on the educational system has particular relevance since minority groups, ethnic minorities, and poverty groups attach high significance to education, particularly as the road to upward mobility. The major conclusion formulated from the evidence presented is that… [PDF]
(2007). Roma Education and Public Policy: A European Perspective. European Education, v39 n1 p11-31 Spr. The trajectory of the Roma is illuminating for understanding the social situation of other minorities, but also for a set of issues concerning the multiculturalism present within states. In this article, the author discusses the context of Roma education–marked by the stateless and marginalized status of the Roma–and provides a brief history of Council of Europe and European Union efforts to improve the plight of Roma children through schooling, focusing on changes that have occurred at the institutional, administrative, and practical levels. While the actions taken thus far have been excellent and necessary, he concludes that they are far from sufficient, as the situation of Roma communities remains difficult and even dire. In particular, Europe is witnessing a resurgence of attitudes and behaviors driven by rejection, violence, and racism, which holds back the implementation of projects promoting an intercultural spirit of education. He recommends rigorous methods of assessment… [Direct]
(2007). Six Multicultural Service-Learning Lessons I Learned in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina. Multicultural Education, v15 n2 p52-54 Win. As a teacher educator who regularly teaches a multicultural education course, the author has often employed service-learning as a pedagogical strategy in assisting preservice teachers to understand better the various multicultural topics they discuss, such as racism, heterosexism, and sexism that impact their schools. Therefore, when she was presented an opportunity through a major U.S. disaster relief agency to serve at a shelter housing Hurricane Katrina evacuees, she jumped at it. She knew that this would be a challenging service experience, challenging her in different ways from the kinds of service (tutoring, working at a homeless shelter, and the like) in which she usually engages. In this article, the author shares six multicultural service-learning lessons she learned as a volunteer…. [PDF] [Direct]
(1994). Developing Conceptions of Racism among Young White Adults in the Context of Cultural Diversity Coursework. An exploratory study was conducted to evaluate a model that predicts a five-step developmental sequence from dualistic to systematic conceptions of racism among young white adults. The model predicts developmental changes for white middle-class young adults within the context of a college cultural-diversity course. The following steps in understanding are predicted: (1) individual prejudice; (2) individual prejudice conflicted; (3) recognition of a multiplicity of inequalities; (4) coordination of a partial system of inequality; and (5) understanding of social and systemic racism. Subjects were 55 white college students (45 female and 10 male) in a cultural-diversity course required of education majors. The majority did respond at step 1 at the beginning of the course and saw racism as simply a matter of individual prejudice. None of the students reached a step-5 conceptualization, but the average student did gain one step, and more than a quarter made two- or three-step gains. The… [PDF]
(2005). "There Ain't No White People Here!": The Transforming Impact of Teachers' Racial Consciousness on Students and Schools. Equity & Excellence in Education, v38 n4 p280-289 Nov. This article examines the impact of racial consciousness on the practice of a group of five exemplary teachers, participants in a long-term professional development program in diversity education. The article draws from transcripts of group discussions in which teachers reflect on the development of their consciousness of race, racism, and whiteness and implications for their work. Teachers provide telling narratives, reflecting common themes that emerged in the data analysis that exemplify their consciousness in practice. They describe supporting students of color, educating about stereotyping, addressing white privilege, and challenging institutional racism. The article points to the value of long-term professional development for fostering critical multicultural education in schools…. [Direct]
(2009). Take the Initiative. Teaching Tolerance, n36 p34-36 Fall. There's a lot wrong with the diversity training that goes on in the nation's schools. There are programs that offer shortcuts for communication across racial and ethnic lines, too often drawing on stereotypes rather than challenging them. There are dialogue programs that usher in difficult conversations about racism, prejudice and bias, sometimes opening wounds and creating tensions that leave participants asking, \How did \that\ help?\ And then there are \feel-good-about-diversity\ programs that seem wholly disconnected from the practice and realities of teaching. Lackluster diversity programs aren't limited to in-services, either. A May 2007 survey by Public Agenda found that most new teachers (76 percent) said teaching an ethnically diverse student body was covered in their pre-service training, but less than half said this training helped them \a lot\ when they got into actual classrooms. But \something\ has to be done, right? The nation's education system has an undeniable… [Direct]
(1994). Appropriate Selection Procedures for a Multicultural Tertiary Institution. Multicultural Teaching, v12 n3 p35-41 Sum. If entrance to tertiary education in South Africa is restricted to successful school final-examination scores, blacks may be underrepresented for many years. Difficulties in ridding South African education of racism and alternative strategies for conditional enrollment in higher education are discussed. (SLD)…
(1975). The Black Family as Educator. The black family is the primary socializing agent of the black child and, thus, the primary educator. The culture of blacks in America, in which the child is steeped, is unique, complex and rich-the result of a convergence and fusion of African, American, and European influences. In its education of the black child, the black family must deal, from beginning to end, with questions of racism and with questions deriving from racism. Today, most questions involving race in the raising of children still fall into the two main categories of how to deal with overt and covert racist expressions, and the resolution of questions of racial identity. Prime among the special problems facing the black family is the need to raise its children bi-culturally. The black child's bicultural experience is one of the ramifications of racism, and it is pivotal in his struggle for racial identity. Also central to the child's bicultural experience is language. The challenge to the black family, as… [PDF]
(2009). Allophilia: Moving beyond Tolerance in the Classroom. Childhood Education, v85 n4 p212 Sum. Allophilia refers to an individual's feelings of affection, engagement, kinship, comfort, and enthusiasm toward members of a group seen as \different\ and \other\ (Pittinsky, Rosenthal, & Montoya, 2009b). The term allophilia is derived from the ancient Greek words for \liking\ or \love\ and the \other\. The concept of allophilia mitigates the longtime imbalance in the theory and discussion of diversity and difference. The education industry isn't always very helpful to teachers facing the challenge of dealing with diversity in positive ways. The bias toward reducing the negative rather than promoting the positive spills over into the materials and resources available to teachers. Many teaching resources adopt the view that the goal is to bring about \the end of racism, sexism, and other forms of prejudice and discrimination\ (Bennett, 2001, p. 173), rather than to initiate something really positive. Such leading organizations as the Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law…
(2006). Challenging the Politics of the "Model Minority" Stereotype: A Case for Educational Equality. Equity & Excellence in Education, v39 n4 p325-333 Nov. This article examines the political rationale of the "model minority" stereotype about Asian Americans and its ramifications on education. Created by white elites in the 1960s as a device of political control, the model minority stereotype continues to serve the larger conservative restoration in American society today. By over-emphasizing Asian American success and misrepresenting it as proof of the perceived equal opportunity in American society, proponents of the stereotype downplay racism and other structural problems Asians and other minority groups continue to suffer. The theory that Asians succeed by merit (strong family, hard work, and high regard for education) is used by power elites to silence the protesting voices of racial minorities and even disadvantaged Whites and to maintain the status quo in race and power relations. In education, the model minority thesis has always supported conservative agendas in school reform. Now it goes hand in hand with the… [Direct]
(2005). Rainbow Nation or New Racism? Theorizing Race and Identity Formation in South African Higher Education. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v8 n2 p129-146 Jul. This paper explores both the personal narratives of a group of black and white undergraduate students and the institutional discourse at one historically white and Afrikaans medium university now undergoing its own transformation in post-apartheid South Africa. It considers how students talk about their actual experiences and the micro-realties of their personal biographies, what this reveals about how they construct and reconstruct race and identity, and how discourses of race and racialized identities are being reproduced or transformed under new historical and institutional conditions of possibility. The focus is twofold: on the one hand on the contradictions of institutional discourse which both formally admits black students but may subtly work to exclude them as well; and on the other on the friendships that students develop as just one exemplar of how race works itself out biographically and personally. The particular issue is to understand institutional and individual… [Direct]
(2004). Actions Following Words: Critical Race Theory Connects to Critical Pedagogy. Educational Philosophy and Theory, v36 n2 p167-182 Apr. In this essay the authors discuss some of the ways that critical race theory (CRT) could be linked to critical pedagogy in order to provide a more comprehensive analytical framework to analyze the role of race-class dynamics. This approach will attempt to address some of the gaps and silences that critical pedagogy has had regarding critical theoretical positions on race and racism and the operation of white supremacy in education. However, the authors also point out some of the problems and raise more issues of concern related to critical pedagogy and race in educational research and practice. They connect the tenets of CRT to the current color-blind ideology and discourse in education regarding race studies. They highlight some of the limitations of critical pedagogy regarding the permanence of racism, and how CRT perspectives have been utilized to analyze the racism, coupled with social class bias, sexism, etc., that still exists in education. They present an argument for why… [Direct]
(1984). Journalism Instruction Concerning Racism and Related Knowledge: Some Perspectives Held by Administrators. Journal of Negro Education, v53 n1 p50-58 Win. Surveyed administrators of schools of journalism regarding their institutions' programs in the areas of affirmative action, multicultural education, and courses on minorities, racism, and racial issues in American society. (GC)…
(1984). Journalism Instruction Concerning Racism and Related Knowledge: Some Perspectives Held by Administrators. Journal of Negro Education, v53 n1 p50-58 Win. Surveyed administrators of schools of journalism regarding their institutions' programs in the areas of affirmative action, multicultural education, and courses on minorities, racism, and racial issues in American society. (GC)…