(2023). Reparative Universities: Why Diversity Alone Won't Solve Racism in Higher Ed. Critical University Studies. Johns Hopkins University Press As institutions increasingly reckon with histories entangled with slavery and Indigenous dispossession, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts occupy a central role in the strategy and resources of higher education. Yet reparation is rarely offered as a viable strategy for institutional transformation. In Reparative Universities, Ariana Gonz√°lez Stokas undertakes a critical and decolonial analysis of DEI work, linking contemporary practices of diversity to longer colonial histories. Gonz√°lez Stokas argues that diversity is an insufficient concept for efforts concerned with anti-oppression, anti-racism, equity, and decolonization. Given its historical ties to colonialism, can higher education foster reconciliation and healing? Reparation is offered as a pathway toward untangling higher education from its colonial roots. Gonz√°lez Stokas develops the term "epistemic reparation" to describe a mode of social-historical accountability that can already be seen at work in… [Direct]
(2022). Plurilingualism in a Constructively Aligned and Decolonized TESOL Curriculum. TESL Canada Journal, v38 n2 p186-198. While learning and teaching English as an additional language are lifelong learning processes for both learners and teachers, these two sectors are largely dominated by West-centric linguistic and cultural imperialism, epistemic hegemony, racism, and neoliberalism, which are tied to colonialism and imperialism. In light of this issue, I argue that it is necessary to decolonize and de-imperialize the teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) teacher education curricula to prepare future English as an additional language (EAL) teachers to identify, challenge, and resist the hegemonic elements embedded in EAL education worldwide. I claim that plurilingual pedagogical approaches can be identified as critical pedagogies since they can empower adult EAL learners by resisting linguistic and epistemic imperialism through activation and endorsement of their plurilingual repertoire, diverse knowledge systems, and identities. Drawing on the literature of plurilingualism,… [PDF]
(2024). Navigating Whiteness: A Critical Autoethnography of the Lived Experience of a Black Female Administrator in the Predominantly White Spaces of Higher Education. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Molloy University. This critical autoethnographic study explored my multifaceted journey of being Black and female in administration within a predominately white higher education institution. I drew upon personal narratives and reflections from 25 years of experience in higher education. This study explored the intricate intersections of race, gender, and power dynamics that have shaped my navigation of self and belonging. The study is framed in a Black feminist theoretical approach, acknowledging how the interconnectedness of being Black and female can intersect to shape individual experiences within systems of power and privilege. I used a six-step thematic analysis combined with a systematic and reflexive approach to explain how my encounters with systemic racism, microaggressions, and institutional biases impacted my personal and professional sense of self and belonging. A key theme was my identity formation, and marginalization experienced through structural inequities embedded in higher… [Direct]
(2022). Transforming Preservice Teacher Perceptions of Immigrant Communities through Digital Storytelling. Journal of Experiential Education, v45 n1 p32-50 Mar. Background: As diverse communities continue to be targets of racism and anti-immigrant sentiments permeate current political discourse, the need to prepare a teaching force that understands immigrant children and their families continues to be a critical priority. Purpose: This study explored the ways in which one digital storytelling project that required 20 clinical hours working with English learners (ELs) engaged preservice teachers in learning about immigrant issues. Methodology/Approach: Data in the form of critical reflections, digital storytelling video transcripts, and archival data were collected from undergraduate teacher education candidates over three semesters. Narrative data from participants were analyzed using thematic narrative analysis. Findings/Conclusions: The findings of the study are organized into themes that included enriching experience, transformed attitudes, and stories of resilience. The results showed the ways that preservice teachers' dispositions about… [Direct]
(2022). International Doctoral Students Negotiating Support from Interpersonal Relationships and Institutional Resources during COVID-19. Current Issues in Comparative Education, v24 n1 p26-40 Win. The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected international students around the world. Chinese international students are challenged in their daily life and study due to the travel restrictions, disruption of research, closure of labs, and the rise of anti-Asian racism. This study investigates the challenges, especially psychological ones, faced by international doctoral students from China studying in the United States. and explores how their social networks and support systems help them navigate their life and study during the pandemic. In light of social networks and support theory, we interviewed 20 Chinese international doctoral students studying in the U.S. and found that falling in between intimate relationships and student-institution relationships, academic departments and advisors are able to provide all types of support, namely, instrumental, informational, and emotional. Their ability to provide emotional support was heavily overlooked, especially during a global crisis…. [PDF]
(2024). Am I My Sisters' Keeper? A Phenomenological Study of the Cultural and Institutional Factors Affecting the Professional Advancement of Black Women in Higher Education. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Delaware State University. This study explores the experiences of senior Black women leaders in higher education. It aims to focus on the barriers they face and the support they receive during their professional journeys. The study conducted in-depth interviews with nine Black women in various roles within higher education institutions. The research aims to unveil the nuanced challenges they face and the support they receive in shaping their career trajectories. Using phenomenological analysis, the study centers on participants' lived experiences, focusing on themes related to perceived barriers, sources of support, and how their leaders' attitudes and behaviors influenced their professional advancement. Participants shared insights into the structural, interpersonal, and cultural obstacles they encounter, including systemic racism, intragender and intrarace bias, and intersectional discrimination. The study found multifaceted barriers that impact Black women's advancement in higher education, including… [Direct]
(2023). Multisemiotics, Race, and Academic Literacies: Trajectories of Racialized Academic Writing Faculty in Canadian Postsecondary Education. TESL Canada Journal, v40 n1 p41-60. This study examines the trajectories of two plurilingual, racialized academic writing faculty, presenting how we brought our Southern onto-epistemologies to curriculum, teaching, and assessment. Although plurilingualism has become a significant dimension of Canadian higher education, monolingual norms that emphasize native-like competence continue to be a mainstream discourse in many academic writing courses. Building on the recent raciolinguistic critique of the lack of discussion of racism in academic literacies discourse, we acknowledge that academic literacies continue to force plurilingual, international students into a white subject position. Acknowledging the tension between the monolingual ideal and multilingual realities, we explore how two plurilingual, non-white faculty challenge an academic writing tradition that is constructed by the white listening subject. By co-creating duoethnographic narratives that provide insight into our complex biographical journeys as cycles of… [PDF]
(2018). The Political Economy of Language Education Research (Or the Lack Thereof): Nancy Fraser and the Case of Translanguaging. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, v15 n4 p237-257. This article problematizes the politics of language education research with regard to social injustice, which is not only cultural, but also material. Its starting position is that most language education research today is, following Nancy Fraser, recognition oriented, in that it takes on culture- and identity-based injustices such as racism, gender bias, religious bias, and LGBTQ-phobia. It does not, however, have much to say about more economic and class-based injustices–redistribution issues–and it does not draw on the political economy literature essential to any attempt to explore such issues. The author develops these arguments and then applies them to a specific area of language education research that has become popular in recent years, translanguaging. It concludes that while translanguaging research may deal with recognition issues, in particular ethnolinguistic racism, it is not likely to alter in any way the underlying the current capitalist order that is causing deep… [Direct]
(2023). An Arts-Based Journey: A Mother-Daughter's Dialogue on Cultural Hybridity, Displacement, and Being an Asian American. Art Education, v76 n2 p31-37. Art education has celebrated pluralism and cultural diversity to bring a more profound understanding between people from different backgrounds. However, since the spread of COVID-19, horrendous discriminatory crimes have increased, such as the 2021 Atlanta massacre, a shooting that targeted Asian American-owned massage parlors. These alarming events, among others, have brought attention to systemic racism and racial disparities in the United States. Being an Asian American, one of the authors was deeply concerned by how these unsettling circumstances might impact my teenage daughter, Emilie, the other author, who was 16 at that time. After a few conversations over dinner, they both agreed to have open dialogues critical for challenging and opposing the status quo of the racial divide. Their conversations became a journey filled with narratives of shared identity and reflective arts-based experiences. Each dialogue functioned as a gateway, inviting to question, explore, affirm,… [Direct]
(2021). The University Went to 'Decolonise' and All They Brought Back Was Lousy Diversity Double-Speak! Critical Race Counter-Stories from Faculty of Colour in 'Decolonial' Times. Educational Philosophy and Theory, v53 n3 p233-244. UK Higher Education is characterised by structural and institutional forms of whiteness. As scholars and activists are increasingly speaking out to testify, whiteness has wide-ranging implications that affect curricula, pedagogy, knowledge production, university policies, campus climate, and the experiences of students and faculty of colour. Unsurprisingly then, calls to decolonize the university abound. In this article, we draw upon the Critical Race Theory method of counter-storytelling. By introducing composite characters, we speak back to assumptions that universities are race-neutral, meritocratic institutions. We illustrate some of the key themes that shape the experiences of faculty of colour in UK Higher Education: institutional racism, racial microaggressions, racial battle fatigue, and steadfast fugitive resistance. We argue that, despite the paradox of working under (what purports to be) a 'decolonial' agenda, widespread calls to decolonize our universities have further… [Direct]
(2024). Beyond the Label: Investigating the Psychosocial Cost of "Nameism" for Students with Distinctively Black Names in Interracial Learning Environments. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, University of Dayton. Past and current research has explored the link between the "blackness" of a person's name and socioeconomic outcomes in American society. Black-sounding names were shown to influence employment prospects, access to credit markets, and choice of housing among other opportunities. While education research had identified a relationship between teachers' perceptions of students with distinctively Black names and perceived academic potential, it had yet to examine how targeted students perceive and internalize nameism, a portmanteau of name and racism, in predominantly white learning environments. A qualitative study examined nameism and its influence on students' self-conceptions and learning experiences. Using a phenomenological gaze to study participants' experiences, the results revealed mixed, contradictory views on Black-sounding names within the sample. Study participants expressed feeling compelled to maintain varying situational identities to avoid name-identity… [Direct]
(2024). Being and Becoming Well in the Most Transparent of Times: The Limits of Racialized Healing Strategies in Educational Research. Educational Studies: Journal of the American Educational Studies Association, v60 n2 p135-155. This article examines the possibilities and limits of strategies directed toward racialized healing amidst declarations of pandemics and legislative attacks on public school teachers. We question what these strategies take as a self-evident truth: that race and racism can be conceptualized in terms of health and transparently addressed through research and practice focused on racialized healing. To complicate this assertion, we locate the strategies within a race-health nexus, a form of biopower. This nexus establishes norms, categories, and classifications that justify ranking and comparing, dividing and differentially intervening on some in the name of the health and wellbeing of all. We historicize how this nexus became integral to schooling in the United States in the 19th century, normalizing populations according to civilizational values that doubled as health standards. We argue that this nexus makes possible biopolitical strategies of "tailoring treatments" and… [Direct]
(2024). Perceived Barriers and Facilitators for Underrepresented Minority Certified Registered Nurse Anesthesiologists in Faculty Roles. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, William Carey University. Certified Registered Nurse Anesthesiologists (CRNAs) are in an ideal position as healthcare providers to eliminate health disparities and inequities in the many areas of healthcare CRNAs influence while providing anesthesia and pain management care. The problem is that the CRNA workforce lacks the ethnic and racial diversity necessary to mirror the diversity in the patient population within the United States. Developing a diverse workforce is significantly enhanced when the faculty teaching in healthcare education programs are diverse. The purpose of this study was to identify perceived barriers and facilitators for underrepresented (URM) current and former CRNA faculty in nurse anesthesiology programs and to identify possible strategies for increasing the success of URM CRNAs in nurse anesthesiology faculty roles. Using interpretive description as the qualitative research methodology, data was collected through interviews with 14 current or former URM CRNA faculty. The three themes… [Direct]
(2019). Champions of Equity: Fostering Civic Education to Challenge Silence, Racial Inequity, and Injustice. Multicultural Perspectives, v21 n2 p78-84. This article presents a study that explored how race and racism impact teaching and learning and how civic education can be employed to promote racial justice. We argue the need to examine educators' perspectives on how increased awareness of existing inequities coupled with ongoing professional development can better equip them to understand their identity, engage in meaningful dialogue, and teach in culturally responsive ways. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of teaching implications related to self-assessment, disruptive discourse, and inclusive practices…. [Direct]
(2024). A Quantitative Study of the Multiracial College Student Experience with Identity Denial, Perceptions of Multiracial Discrimination, and College Belonging. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, California Baptist University. This quantitative research study examined the experiences of multiracial college students regarding racial identity and perceptions of discrimination against multiracial people, as well as college belonging, compared to their monoracial peers. Multiracial individuals can encounter microaggressions and racism as a result of not fitting into societal norms based on a monoracial paradigm. By examining lived experiences, the research study advocates for higher education institutions to examine systemic practices that can impact all students, emphasizing inclusivity beyond monoracial perspectives. Using critical multiracial theory (MultiCrit) and investigating structural determinism in conjunction with the diversity, equity, and inclusion framework, the study examined the impact of race as a social construct and how external factors affect identity development. In response to survey questions in this quantitative research, the study analyzed identity denial, perceived discrimination, and… [Direct]