(2022). Legislative Threats to Academic Freedom: Redefinitions of Antisemitism and Racism. American Association of University Professors The past few years have seen an increase in partisan political attempts to restrict the public education curriculum and to portray some forms of public education as a social harm. Two targets are particularly evident: teaching about the history, policies, and actions of the state of Israel and teaching about the history and perpetuation of racism and other accounts of state-enabled violence in the United States. In both cases, conservative politicians have justified restrictive legislation under the guise of protecting students from harm, including discriminatory treatment or exclusion. The core assertion of the American Association of University Professors' (AAUP's) 2021 "Statement on Legislation Restricting Teaching about Race" applies equally to legislative restrictions on teaching about the history and ongoing actions of Israel. The AAUP therefore urges the defeat of these legislative initiatives and others of their kind in order to protect the academic freedom that is… [PDF]
(2022). Crisis Response in California School Districts: Leadership, Partnership, and Community. Policy Brief. Policy Analysis for California Education, PACE Public education today faces a troubling set of challenges, including declining enrollment, staffing shortages, and polarized communities, with school boards at the center of broader political debates. How did we arrive at this current state? This study–described here and, in more detail, in a related report–of seven California school districts conducted during the first 14 months of the COVID-19 pandemic explores how districts responded in real time to the unfolding health crisis as well as to the growing national reckoning about structural racism. Our case studies show that districts–often bolstered by relationships with labor, the community, and leadership–stepped up to a tremendous challenge, demonstrating resourcefulness, collaboration, and commitment to serving students and their communities. However, our findings suggest that challenges for district leaders have been relentless and show no signs of abating. [For the full related report, see ED624681.]… [PDF]
(2021). Responding to Contemporary Education Reform: Maria W. Stewart, Frances E. W. Harper, and Anna Julia Cooper. Journal of Negro Education, v90 n4 p539-545 Fall. As education reform continues a seemingly endless cycle of incremental advancement for students and teachers of color followed by the inevitable White-centric backlash threatened by ideas like equity and anti-racist curricula, it is essential to consider perhaps now more than ever, what the past has to teach us all. Inspired by three voices from the past in particular, this article seeks to begin a conversation to bring back, to recycle what has been too often side-aside at the intersection of racism and sexism: the powerful lessons we may learn yet from African American women teachers. This article represents the beginning of such an effort to bring forward ideas that we already knew…. [PDF]
(2023). Perspectives of Black Students in Music Education Doctoral Programs: Motivations, Experiences, and Information Literacy. Journal of Music Teacher Education, v33 n1 p69-85 Oct. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of Black doctoral students in music education in terms of their motivations to pursue doctoral studies, educational and social experiences while enrolled, and emerging information literacy. Qualitative techniques based on phenomenology were employed to document and better understand the experience of a small, purposive sample of Black doctoral students (n = 14) enrolled at universities throughout the United States. A variety of techniques ensured trustworthiness, including data triangulation, member checking, and use of an external interviewer. After data analysis, four core essences emerged: (1) "Familial support and formative experiences during childhood;" (2) "Overload of information and frustration in conducting research;" (3) "Prejudice and lack of Black representation in the academy;" and (4) "Change-oriented motivations beset by barriers to access." Findings revealed commonalities… [Direct]
(2022). Overcoming Resistance, Stimulating Action and Decentering White Students through Structural Racism Focused Antiracism Education. Teaching in Higher Education, v27 n5 p601-614. There are significant inherent challenges in teaching students about structural racism resulting from white supremacist systems but overcoming these challenges leads to better outcomes. The goal may be to create a level of awareness that spurs action from the micro- to macro level. However, the means may result in further marginalizing students of color and either creating resistance in white students (who refuse to concede they have privilege) or guilt and shame in white students (who focus on their individual atonement rather than promoting structural change). This paper will discuss flaws in current theoretical and pedagogical approaches to antiracism education including first-person accounts of such errors from the experiences of the author. It will then posit how a primary focus on the history and current context of structural white supremacy in the United States may help alleviate the aforementioned failures of educating around issues of race…. [Direct]
(2023). Leading within Systems of Inequity in Education: A Liberation Guide for Leaders of Color. ASCD This timely guide will help leaders of color succeed within white spaces while working to dismantle those spaces for a new system where they–and students–thrive. As a leader of color, what do you need to succeed in the systems that often have marginalized the populations you represent? What skills and support will help you to replace these existing systems with new ones that will better serve today's students? In "Leading Within Systems of Inequity in Education," Mary Rice-Boothe addresses these questions with specific recommendations, outlining the "whys" and "hows" of 10 individual, interpersonal, and institutional competencies for leaders: (1) Demonstrate self-awareness; (2) Operate outside your comfort zone; (3) Practice love and rage; (4) Practice self-care; (5) Engage in authentic dialogue; (6) Attend to relationships; (7) Create a coalition; (8) Be patient but persistent; (9) Take a stand in pursuit of a liberatory education system even if it's… [Direct]
(2016). Challenging Racism through Schools: Teacher Attitudes to Cultural Diversity and Multicultural Education in Sydney, Australia. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v19 n3 p618-638. How school teachers act to challenge racism in schools is a vital concern in an immigrant society like Australia. A 10% response from a self-administered online survey of government (public) primary and secondary school teachers across Sydney, Australia's largest EthniCity, examines attitudes of classroom teachers towards cultural diversity, goals of multicultural education, and strategies to implement anti-racist strategies. Principal components analysis (PCA) of attitudes tease out the varied influence of opinion on multicultural education, diversity, and anti-racism. Classroom teachers are overwhelmingly supportive of cultural diversity, multicultural education and strategies to combat racism and discrimination, and these views hardly vary across the different geographic zones of the city, unlike attitudes within the general community. However, teacher knowledge about the implementation of multicultural policy does vary, and is positively associated with the extent of population… [Direct]
(2019). Just Joking? White College Students' Responses to Different Types of Racist Comments. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, v12 n4 p341-350 Dec. When communicated in a humorous way, racially prejudicial comments may be dismissed as "just jokes." The current study investigated White undergraduate students' antiracist responses to different types of prejudicial comments. Participants (N = 252) were randomly assigned to read about a peer who denigrates Black intelligence by either joking or making a nonjoking statement. Compared to those in the statement condition, those in the joking condition reported less negative evaluations of the speaker and less assertive responding. Students' own symbolic racist attitudes moderated these effects; those who endorsed stronger symbolic racism reported less assertive responding but only in the joking condition. Furthermore, students in the joking condition tended to evaluate the speaker less negatively than did those in the statement condition, leading to less assertive responding to jokes but only for those who endorsed at least moderately high symbolic racism. These results… [Direct]
(2021). Affective Strategies of Abolition Pedagogies in Higher Education: Dismantling the Affective Governmentality of the Colonial University. Equity & Excellence in Education, v54 n2 p121-135. I highlight the importance of paying attention to the affective strategies of abolition pedagogies in higher education to mobilize abolitionist praxis. Affective strategies can make a contribution in either changing or reproducing the affective culture that has long been established at the colonial university. In the analysis here, I argue that the affective strategy of invoking sentimental empathy, which is often used in education when addressing issues of slavery, racism, and coloniality, is not only superficial but also reproduces colonial-feeling rules. Instead, I suggest a number of affective strategies–such as mobilizing affective solidarity with the affective worlds of marginalized students and identifying complicity, while engaging in anti-complicity praxes–that enable educators and students to begin imagining and enacting the abolition university. I argue that a more comprehensive understanding of abolition pedagogies in higher education can be attained by a heightened… [Direct]
(2019). The Sociology of Race & Racism: Key Concepts, Contributions & Debates. Equity & Excellence in Education, v52 n1 p29-46. In this paper we highlight key conceptual, empirical, and theoretical contributions of the sociology of race and racism, particularly those relevant to education scholars. We suggest that educational researchers could benefit from incorporating some of the insights of sociological research on race and racism into their scholarship as such engagement would help to refine and deepen understandings of what race is and is not, how racial dynamics shape what happens in schools, and how schools matter for society. Similarly, studies of school processes, practices, politics, and outcomes can help us to understand more about the construction, negotiation, and transformation of racial knowledge, racial boundaries, and racial hierarchies. We thus advocate for more robust interdisciplinary exchange and believe that the potential benefits are substantial not only to academic fields but also to efforts to advance racial justice more generally. How we conceptualize race informs how we measure it… [Direct]
(2022). An Anti-Ableist Framework in Art Education. Art Education, v75 n1 p30-35. The study of ableism, often defined as disability discrimination and prejudice, is still nascent when compared with racism, homophobia, and sexism. Anti-ableism highlights the inequities of institutions, including public education, in the United States that are structured for the success of the White middle class and offer little hope and resources for children of color and with disabilities. In this article, Alice Wexler examines ways to conceive drawing with children with disabilities that would not require accommodation, which is an unintentionally ableist practice because it separates them from their peers–both physically and emotionally. She inquires what kind of drawing methods might be interesting to all students and invite children with diverse disabilities to participate. She suggests two examples of anti-ableist drawing methods: collaborative doodles and walking a/r/tography. Doodling, however, has been central in two of her recent teaching experiences, which she describes… [Direct]
(2018). Antiracism Education? A Study of an Antiracism Workshop in Finland. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, v62 n2 p186-199. In doing antiracism education there is a risk that it can in effect reinforce the very racialisation it is supposed to fight against. This paradox becomes a formidable challenge given the ubiquity of race in contemporary ways of knowing and ways of being for both its subjects and its objects: more so in an era of "racism without race," a neoliberal attempt to move beyond racism without fully coming to terms with racial histories and their accompanying racialising consequences. This study examines the challenges of doing antiracism education within a multiculturalist framework using the case of KYTKE, a non-governmental organisation project in upper-secondary schools in Finland. We argue that when antiracism education fails to critically examine power relations in established traditions and knowledge or when it does not genuinely prioritise knowledge generated through the creative resistance of racialised groups, it can participate in re-inscribing racialised social relations…. [Direct]
(2019). Who We Are and How We Do: Portraits of Pedagogical Process and Possibility When Teaching and Learning about Race and Racism in Social Studies Classrooms. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University. This dissertation study documented and analyzed the key curricular and pedagogical features of three secondary social studies teachers who center issues of race and racism in their classrooms by examining their decision-making processes and the impact of relevant lived experiences on their practice. I utilized portraiture methodology, which included ethnographic field notes, document analysis, interviews, and impressionistic records to document and analyze the key curricular and pedagogical features of each teacher. Data were collected during the 2016-2017 school year across three racially diverse social studies classrooms located in southern New England. My findings were that each teacher treated race and racism as central objects of historical inquiry and enacted a set of curricular and pedagogical moves that were guided by a combination of what they know (technical pedagogy) and who they are (relational pedagogy). I refer to the relevant lived experiences that give shape and form… [Direct]
(2023). Dismantling Dehumanizing Educator Talk about Children and Families: The Moral Imperative for Early Childhood Teacher Educators. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, v44 n4 p980-1001. This reflection on practice explores dehumanizing educator talk as an explicit topic within multicultural/diversity/anti-bias and anti-racist teacher education. Dehumanizing educator talk is defined as formal or informal conversation during which targeted individuals or groups are openly demeaned with offensive generalizations in the absence of discernable educational goals leading to improved outcomes. The significance of deficit-based dehumanizing educator talk is supported with linguistic theory, critical race theory, cultural capital theory, and the theory of funds of knowledge. A counter-educator talk of ethics, care, and resistance to bias is proposed with examples. Recommended topics for early childhood teacher educator reflection include potential resistance of White future teachers to acknowledgement of racism as well as the presence of deficit-based and dehumanizing ideas in early childhood-focused educational scholarship. Recommended actions include emphasis on critical… [Direct]
(2021). A QuantCrit Analysis of Context, Discipline, Special Education, and Disproportionality. AERA Open, v7 n1 Jan-Dec. Using a dis/ability critical race theory (DisCrit) and critical quantitative (QuantCrit) lens, we examine disproportionate application of exclusionary discipline on multiply marginalized youth, foregrounding systemic injustice and institutionalized racism. In doing so, we examined temporal-, student-, and school-level factors that may result in exclusion and othering (i.e., placing into special education and punishing with out-of-school suspensions) within one school district. We frame this study in DisCrit and QuantCrit frameworks to connect data-based decision making to sociocultural understandings of the ways in which schools use both special education and discipline to simultaneously provide and limit opportunities for different student groups. Results showed a complex interconnectedness between student sociodemographic labels (e.g., gender, race, and socioeconomic status) and factors associated with both special education identification and exclusionary discipline. Our findings… [PDF]