(2021). Policing Is a Public Health Issue: The Important Role of Health Educators. Health Education & Behavior, v48 n5 p553-558 Oct. For decades, marginalized communities have been naming the harms of policing–and the systemic racism that undergirds it–for health and well-being. Only recently have policing practices and racism within policing gained more widespread attention in public health. Building on social justice and emancipatory traditions in health education, we argue that health educators are uniquely prepared to use the evidence base to reframe narratives that drive aggressive policing and their disproportionate impacts on communities of color, promote disinvestment in militarized policing, and build relationships with community-based organizations and community organizers developing community-centered approaches to safety. Using public health institutions and institutions of higher education as examples, we suggest specific strategic actions that health educators can take to address policing as a public health issue. Health educators are uniquely poised to work with diverse community and institutional… [Direct]
(2023). Leading with an Equity Lens: Addressing the Intersection of Racism and Ableism in Public Schools. TEACHING Exceptional Children, v55 n5 p302-313 May-Jun. The Council for Exceptional Children studied the profession of special education and found that a substantial number of special educators rated their confidence as lower in culturally responsive instruction strategies (Fowler, et al., 2019). The recommendations in this article highlight how to confront the intersection of racism and ableism and eradicate deficit ideology in educational structures. Leading with an equity lens requires a conceptual framework and diversifying the workforce, adopting a theoretical framework, engaging with diverse students and families, developing skills through systemic professional development, and using practices such as culturally and linguistically sustaining practices, and anti-racist Universal Design for Learning (UDL)…. [Direct]
(2023). Attending to What Prospective Teachers Notice about Students' Intersecting Identities. School Science and Mathematics, v123 n8 p461-475. To develop an equity-centered orientation in teacher education programs, it is essential to recognize what prospective teachers (PTs) attend to in classroom events and how they relate these events to mathematics instruction. We examined how race-gender intersections of a child (Black boy, Black girl, White boy, and White girl) in a written vignette shape PTs' noticing. Using an intersectional noticing lens, we analyzed PTs' responses with respect to race-gender intersections. The results indicated how racism and sexism can permeate PTs' implicit bias, positionality, and social expectations, which continue to oppress Blacks and girls within mathematics teaching and learning…. [Direct]
(2022). International Students and the Neoliberal Marketplace of Higher Education: The Lived Experiences of Graduate Students from Sub-Saharan Countries in Africa of a U.S. University's Internationalization Policy. Higher Education: The International Journal of Higher Education Research, v84 n3 p505-521 Sep. Prior to the pandemic, approximately 42,000 students from countries in sub-Saharan countries in Africa enrolled in U.S. universities (IIE 2021). Despite this strong and growing presence, little research exists focusing on their experiences of education in the U.S. Through a small-scale study of the experiences of graduate students from sub-Saharan African countries, we see evidence of material and discursive representations of race that produce material inequalities that are then used to legitimize racial formations. We couple these experiences to the background of campus internationalization policies and the university's responses to argue that the policies reproduce and reinforce cultural and social racism that positions white Americans as the norm and unproblematically contributes to Western supremacist positionality in the academy and beyond for economic benefit. In this paper, we demonstrate ways in which the implementation of campus internationalization programs is part of the… [Direct]
(2020). Racism and Sexism in Superhero Movies: Critical Race Media Literacy in the Korean High School Classroom. International Journal of Multicultural Education, v22 n2 p66-86. Past research on critical race media literacy (CRML) in multicultural education has primarily focused on identifying ways of fostering critical awareness of racism in the U.S. educational context. This study aims to present a situated account of a CRML pedagogy in the Korean high school classroom where students critique the racial and gender discrimination perpetuated in films. Using qualitative research data, such as teacher interviews and student presentation videos, the current study depicts ways in which Korean female high school students raise critical awareness of racism and sexism with the help of an English-speaking native teacher…. [PDF]
(2022). The Importance of Anti-Racism in Trauma-Informed Family Engagement. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, v49 n1 p125-138. Students of color are disproportionately affected by exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), racial trauma, and traumatic stress. Trauma-informed interventions in schools can promote healing among ACE-impacted students of color. These interventions require collaboration with family members to decide upon services and referrals; however, educators commonly face challenges with engaging families. The study purpose is to understand barriers and facilitators to engaging families in trauma-informed mental health interventions for ACE-impacted students of color. As part of a larger school-based trauma-informed trial ("Link for Equity"), 6 focus groups were conducted with parents/guardians of color and school staff (n = 39) across 3 Midwestern school districts. Participants were asked open-ended questions about trauma, discrimination, school supports, and family engagement. Transcripts were coded by two team members, and thematic analysis was used to identify… [Direct]
(2024). Workers United: A Non-Assimilatory Approach to Indigenous Leadership in Higher Education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE), v37 n10 p2909-2925. Indigenous leaders in higher education are restive, disaffected, and dissatisfied with the slow gyrations of change. Using Interest Convergence Theory, this paper will unravel the constraints inherent in institutional reform that delimit the influence of Indigenous senior leaders in the sector. Positioned amidst the burgeoning impact of neoliberalism, an architecture of colonial governance models, and systemic resistance to change, Indigenous leaders are affecting reform. By providing examples of reform-driven agential actions shouldered by senior Indigenous leaders across Canada, Aotearoa, America and Australia, this paper, underpinned by relationality, details how Indigenous leaders are engaging with Indigenous Institutional work and Entrepreneurship, speaking back to interest-driven institutional policies and practices in the sector with a pronounced focus on nation building. Drawn from an international, comprehensive qualitative study, we investigate how Indigenous leaders in… [Direct]
(1980). \Plus Ca Change…?\: Racism in Higher Education. The meaning, operation, and impact of institutional racism in higher education are examined with attention to both past and present conditions. Institutional racism is examined with reference to several specific issues: barriers to the entry of blacks, as both students and staff, into American higher education; curriculum and academic programs; and treatment and on-campus experiences of blacks once entered. Brief attention is given to facilities, and other differentials between white and black institutions of higher education, as well as the relationship between black communities and white universities. The role of the status allocation functions of colleges and universities, intergroup competition and conflict in the larger society, and on campus, organizational imperatives of the institution, general societal attitudes about race, and attitudes and bigotry are considered. A distinction is made between structural and adaptive reform in attempts to combat institutional racism and…
(2024). Visualising Insecurity: The Globalisation of China's Racist 'Counter-Terror' Education. Comparative Education, v60 n1 p195-215. This paper analyses the Chinese party-state's production of visual racism towards Uyghurs as a discursive foundation for its ethnic policy, as globally reproduced and disseminated by non-state actors. The paper draws from theoretical literature on the relationship between visual politics and affect, stressing the need for visual literacy to reflect on how images emotionally affect audiences' identities and insecurities. It focuses this analysis on education texts in China's post-2012 'de-extremification' and 're-education' campaigns, specifically on how images tell stories about life-or-death security issues that define Chinese identity. Chinese education about Uyghurs tends to frame Uyghur identities as racialised, culturally external existential threats to be defeated by state violence or teaching them to be Chinese. However, Uyghurs' own visibility strategies in global advocacy counter the party-state's imagery by centring their lives and experiences. The article shows how these… [Direct]
(2010). Teaching African American Youth: Learning from the Lives of Three African American Social Studies Teachers. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. This study examines the life histories of three African American social studies teachers, focusing on the evolution and changes in their identities, perspectives, and attitudes related to their profession and instructional practice. In addition, the study addresses the significance of the teachers' racialized experiences as African Americans and how these experiences influence their use of culturally relevant pedagogy and other culturally responsive instructional strategies to teach their African American students. In the context of this study of three African American social studies teachers, critical race theory is used to acknowledge the teachers' life experiences with racism and the ways in which the teachers combat and address racism and oppressive mainstream educational ideologies, by sharing their counter-stories of experience in educational scholarship and their daily classroom teaching. A life history methodological approach was used to collect and interpret meaning from… [Direct]
(2024). Million Dollar Question: What Is the Most Effective and Equitable Way to Deliver Services to Advanced Learners?. Journal of School Leadership, v34 n2 p151-176. School district administrators must address structural racism and inequitable access to advanced learning opportunities in their school districts. District administrators in one large district in the northwestern part of the United States sought research-based advice by asking the authors to provide the answer to the "million-dollar" question, "What is the most effective and equitable way to deliver services to advanced learners?" This paper shares the response provided to the school district and discusses the complexity of the question. Based on a systematic literature review of best practices in the field of gifted education, we share our findings in three categories: (1) administrative structures, (2) pedagogy of gifted education, and (3) social and emotional considerations for advanced learners. We conclude by offering recommendations drawn from this review to develop a holistic view of programming and serving all students with advanced academic needs…. [Direct]
(2022). "They're Just Students. There's No Clear Distinction": A Critical Discourse Analysis of Color-Evasive, Gender-Neutral Faculty Discourses in Undergraduate Calculus Instruction. Journal of the Learning Sciences, v31 n4-5 p630-672. Background: Calculus instruction is underexamined as a source of racialized and gendered inequity in higher education, despite research that documents minoritized students' marginalizing experiences in undergraduate mathematics classes. This study fills this research gap by investigating mathematics faculty's perceptions of the significance of race and gender to calculus instruction at a large, public, historically white research university. Methods: Theories of colorblind racism and dysconsciousness guided a critical discourse analysis of seven undergraduate calculus faculty's perceptions of instructional events. Findings: Our analysis revealed two dominant discourses: (1) Race and gender are insignificant social markers in undergraduate calculus; and (2) Instructional events can be objectively deemed race- and gender-neutral. We illustrate how calculus faculty varyingly engaged these colorblind discourses as well as discourses that challenged such conceptions of instruction. We… [Direct]
(2024). Schooling Entanglements: Clipboards, Write-Ups, and Resignation Letters. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE), v37 n8 p2288-2303. This article describes how schooling — the oppressive, disciplinary force of much U.S. education — is a lively actor, with the agency to change in response to efforts to resist it. Using an agential realist account, the article traces how humans, nonhumans, and discourses intra-act to shape the ongoing power of schooling. The posthumanist framing decenters the human and affords the possibility of acknowledging the agency of more than human actors — clipboards, write-ups, resignation letters, schooling discourses, racialized discourses — that may not be accounted for within humanist framings. In doing so, it also offers a unique perspective on how efforts to challenge or resist schooling must take a broader range of actors into account, from clipboards and handouts to adultism and racism…. [Direct]
(2024). Anti-Blackness in Schools of Social Work: A Black Feminist Polyethnography. Journal of Social Work Education, v60 n3 p419-432. Considering the significant contributions of Black women social workers to our profession, and the unyielding stressors and expectations disproportionately affecting Black women in the context of Black Lives Matter and COVID-19, addressing anti-Blackness and understanding the lived experiences of Black women within higher education are essential first steps toward eliminating racism, the 13th and most recently adopted Grand Challenge. Guided by Black feminist polyethnography, this study examined how anti-Blackness is collectively felt and experienced by six Black and mixed Black women faculty and graduate students in schools of social work over their academic careers. Initial steps schools of social work can take to acknowledge and address manifestations of anti-Blackness within existing policies, procedures, curriculum, and dominant school culture are discussed…. [Direct]
(2024). Intersections of Racism, Ableism, and Gender Violence in the Special Ed to Prison Pipeline. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Brandeis University, The Heller School for Social Policy and Management. The special education to prison pipeline is a documented facet of the school to prison pipeline, in which Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and other youth of color disproportionately experience exclusionary school discipline, increasing their likelihood of incarceration. The special ed to prison pipeline is a sub-trend in which BIPOC youth who are identified as having disabilities experience even higher rates of exclusionary discipline, in part because the disability policies and programs do not serve all students equitably. At the same time, scholars and governmental agencies such as the CDC recognize that people with disabilities across gender identities experience higher than average rates of sexual and other gender-based violence. There is a dearth of research documenting the structural issues contributing to that trend outside of direct care programs. This dissertation, consisting of three papers, examines relationships between these two trends. Each paper addresses the relationship… [Direct]