(2018). QuantCrit: Rectifying Quantitative Methods through Critical Race Theory. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v21 n2 p149-157. Critical race theory (CRT) in education centers, examines, and seeks to transform the relationship that undergirds race, racism, and power. CRT scholars have applied a critical race framework to advance research methodologies, namely qualitative interventions. Informed by this work, and 15 years later, this article reconsiders the possibilities of CRT applications to quantitative methodologies through "QuantCrit." We ask the question: "Can quantitative methods, long critiqued for their inability to capture the nuance of everyday experience, support and further a critical race agenda in educational research?" We provide an abbreviated sketch of some of the key tenets of CRT and the enduring interdisciplinary contributions in race and quantitative studies. Second, we examine the legacy and genealogy of "QuantCrit" traditions across the disciplines to uncover a rich lineage of methodological possibilities for disrupting racism in research. We argue that… [Direct]
(2020). Voices from the Red States: Challenging Racial Positioning in Some of the Most Conservative Communities in America. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v23 n1 p74-93. Using positioning theory (PT) and critical race theory (CRT), we examine disparate power relations between White governance and faculty of color (FOC) in one rural American teacher education context. PT and CRT allow researchers to analyze how the positionings of White-Other have been historically rooted and impacting the meso-institutional policies/practices and the micro-individual relationships. Findings show that racial relations in academia does not exist in a social vacuum: the cyclical patterns of discrimination and rural racism have endured in university practices under study and shaped the current unequal power relations between White governance and FOC. We suggest changing the current policies and practices to include deliberate initiatives in hiring, retaining, and promoting FOC to leadership positions in teacher/higher education. We conclude that Whites and people of color must redouble efforts to form coalitions with one another that will advance progressive… [Direct]
(2022). What's Hot in 2021: Beyond the Science of Reading. Literacy Research and Instruction, v61 n1 p1-17. Literacy topics fluctuate each year in how much attention they receive in research and practice. The "What's Hot in Literacy" annual survey asks twenty-five leading experts what literacy topics are currently receiving attention, or are hot, as well as which topics should be hot in the field. The results of these interviews are tallied to identify consensus among the participants. The following three levels are used to report the findings: (a) "extremely hot" or "extremely cold" (100% consensus), (b) "very hot" or "very cold" (75% consensus), and (c) "hot" or "cold" (50% consensus). Items are identified as "should be hot" or "should not be hot" if at least 50% of the respondents agree. The four "very hot" topics for 2021 are digital literacy, dyslexia, phonics/phonemic awareness, and social justice/equity/anti-racism in literacy. Discussion of these topics (and others that were deemed… [Direct]
(2024). Pro-Blackness in Early Childhood Education: Diversifying Curriculum and Pedagogy in K-3 Classrooms. Early Childhood Education Series. Teachers College Press Use this inspirational resource to engage in Pro-Black teaching with young children as an antidote to endemic anti-Black racism in schools and society. Drawing from a critical case study of K-3 teachers who used Pro-Black teaching in their daily instruction, this important book puts forth positive perspectives regarding Blackness and Black people that are not evident in most educational settings. An easy-to-understand text provides evidence-based curriculum examples, pedagogies, and resources; demonstrates how teachers can achieve Pro-Black teaching while also addressing curricular standards and other demands on their time; and explains the benefit of Pro-Black teaching for all children. The authors draw from decades of practice and research by Black scholars (e.g., Asa Hilliard, Janice Hale, Amos Wilson) to position racial identities as a key part of Black children's development. They center African diaspora literacy as a Pro-Black pedagogy to ensure that Black children are… [Direct]
(2023). How a City Learned to Improve Its Schools. Harvard Education Press "How a City Learned to Improve Its Schools" tells the story of the extraordinary thirty-year school reform effort that changed the landscape of public education in Chicago. Acclaimed educational researcher Anthony S. Bryk joins five coauthors directly involved in Chicago's education reform efforts, Sharon Greenberg, Albert Bertani, Penny Sebring, Steven E. Tozer, and Timothy Knowles, to illuminate the many factors that led to this transformation of the Chicago Public Schools. Beginning in 1987, Bryk and colleagues lay out the civic context for reform, outlining the systemic challenges such as segregation, institutional racism, and income and resource disparities that reformers grappled with as well as the social conflicts they faced. Next, they describe how fundamental changes occurred at every level of schooling: enhancing classroom instruction; organizing more engaged and effective local school communities; strengthening the preparation, recruitment, and support of… [Direct]
(2021). From Antiblackness to Cultural Health in Higher Education. Education Sciences, v11 Article 57. Antiblackness has a long and storied history in higher education in the United States, and unfortunately, antiblack attitudes and practices continue in the 21st century. With implications for countering antiblackness in higher education and institutionalizing support for cultural health and wellness, we documented experiences of antiblackness in the African American Student Network (AFAM). AFAM was a weekly networking group, co-facilitated by Black faculty and graduate students, where Black undergraduates could come together and share their experiences. Participation in AFAM was associated with Black holistic wellness, and AFAM was a source of cultural health, where we conceptualized cultural health as having a sense of pride and resilience in one's cultural background. We analyzed notes of 277 AFAM discussions from 2005-2006 to 2017-2018 using an adaptation of consensual qualitative research methods to identify four domains of antiblackness: racial trauma (n = 51), racial… [PDF]
(2023). Student and Parent Perceptions of STEM after Student Participation in a Virtual Summer Program Hosted by National Laboratory. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo. Minoritized communities, including Black and African American, Hispanic and Indigenous populations have remained historically underrepresented in STEM careers due to persistent challenges in the STEM pipeline. The STEM pipeline has struggled to retain minoritized students in their journeys to pursue STEM degrees and careers due to systemic racism, micro aggressions, as well as barriers and gatekeeping. To address this persistent issue, informal science education programs have been developed to offer students opportunities to engage in STEM activities outside of school and bolster their decisions to pursue STEM majors and careers. This instrumental case study examined one informal science education program through the use of interviews with student participants and their parents, as well as reflective analytic memos to analyze the perspectives of students and their parents regarding the program's influence on their views of STEM majors and careers. This case study is an extension of a… [Direct]
(2024). Universal Design for Learning and Writing Centres in South African Higher Education. Perspectives in Education, v42 n2 p15-30. Could a transformative, inclusive and emancipatory educational framework like the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) advance academic success for all? Could racism and dis/ableism be dismantled through such an emerging educational trend that offers a redefinition of dis/ability abolishing oppressive pedagogical practices that perpetuate constructed views of special needs, often negatively correlated with racial and intellectual superiority? Could such a framework that foregrounds physical, cognitive and linguistic injustices advance achievement beyond merely meeting academic literacy standards within higher education settings like writing centres in a post-COVID 21st-century South Africa? These critical questions are some of the tensions raised in this paper proposing a compelling, yet controversial attempt at advancing student learning and achievement within an expanded definition of disability offered by the UDL framework developed by Rose and Meyer at the Center for Applied… [Direct]
(2024). Black Bodies, White Communities: Interrogating Hierarchies That Impede Transformative Instruction for Refugee Students. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, v73 n1 p25-46. Social and economic changes are shaped globally by voluntary and involuntary migration patterns. Voluntary migrations are associated with the desire for family unification, economic gain, and the pursuit of educational opportunities; while involuntary migrations include fleeing from civil or political unrest, human rights violations, and war. Contentious discourses about immigration are fueled by arguments about the perceived impact of migrants on the demographics, social well-being, and economics of communities. At the core of anti-immigration rhetoric about "who is included and who should be excluded" are views that privilege one group above another in terms of desirability based on race, culture, and gender. The debates about which languages, values, perspectives, and people who belong in the United States extend beyond the boundaries of society, the door of schools, and the homes of the families served by the school community. Black African refugees have experienced… [Direct]
(2023). The Underground Railroad Critical Race Theory, Oppression, and the Fight for Equitable Treatment in the North Carolina Healthcare System: A Critical Phenomenological Study. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, University of Dayton. This study was a qualitative participatory action research study that focused on the lived experiences of Black women who received prenatal care and gave birth in the state of North Carolina. The study was meant to investigate and address the racism and implicit biases these women experienced from the medical community they encountered, and the often-unintended consequences of those actions and mindsets. A cohort of Black women who received prenatal care and gave birth in the state of North Carolina was assembled to help provide qualitative data for the study through sharing their lived experiences. The women were interviewed using a peer-to-peer method. The Aaron J. White Foundation (AJWF), a Black owned, 501c(3) non-profit organization, will use this study to help create a comprehensive action plan to offer healthcare and healthy living education and resources to Black women and other marginalized communities in North Carolina. This study will add to the existing body of knowledge… [Direct]
(2016). Reproducing Monocultural Education: Ethnic Majority Staff's Discursive Constructions of Monocultural School Practices. British Journal of Sociology of Education, v37 n7 p928-946. This paper investigates the role of ethnic majority staff in the perpetuation of monocultural education that excludes non-western, ethnic minority cultures and reproduces institutional racism in schools. Based on qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews in four ethnically diverse schools in the Flemish educational system, we specifically investigate the role of ethnic majority staff in the reproduction of monocultural school practices through a discursive theoretical lens. The study advances the current literature on institutional racism by showing how situated meanings of monocultural school practices at the micro level of individuals are discursively inter-linked with the macro-level monocultural model of education…. [Direct]
(2020). Diaspora Literacy and Afro-Latin Humanity: A Critical Studyin' Case Study of a World History Teacher's Critical Sociohistorical Knowledge Development. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v23 n6 p820-840. The development of critical sociohistorical knowledge is needed to assist teachers in negotiating and deconstructing the relevance of race, racism, and black history in global-themed social studies courses. Drawing from Diaspora Literacy as theory and Critical Studyin' as method, I situate Afro-Latin humanity within educational research relevant to black history knowledge development, and its proximity to the teaching and learning of race in social studies education. This Critical Studyin' case study examined how one world history teacher developed critical sociohistorical knowledge relevant to Afro-Latin humanity, inclusive of Afro-Latinxs and Afro-Latin Americans. Concurrently, I analyzed how the teacher positioned their knowledge for a Diaspora Literacy conceptualization of world history curriculum. Findings point to the utility of black studies frameworks in aiding social studies teachers' knowledge development. I conclude with a call to more appropriately situate Afro-Latin… [Direct]
(2021). Educating Informal Educators on Issues of Race and Inequality: Raising Critical Consciousness, Identifying Challenges, and Implementing Change in a Youth and Community Work Programme. Education Sciences, v11 Article 410. The debate regarding institutional racism and White privilege within higher education (HE) remains prevalent, and higher education institutions (HEIs) are not exempt from the racial equality debate. Youth and Community Work is underpinned by anti-oppressive practice, highlighting a need to educate informal educators on the structural underpinnings of Race and inequality, so that they can be challenged in practice to bring about social change. For Youth and Community Workers, this is primarily done through informal education and critical pedagogy. The research aimed to unearth race inequality within the Youth and Community Work programme at Wrexham Glyndwr University (WGU). Critical reflection methodology was used to deconstruct departmental processes of recruitment, learning and assessment, student voice, and support. Research data was analysed using thematic analysis, determining three themes: critical consciousness, challenge, and change. These are discussed within the framework of… [PDF]
(2021). Maligned Mobilities, Absences and Emergencies: Refugee Education in Australia. International Journal of Inclusive Education, v25 n6 p720-734. Refugees are seldom admired or applauded for their resolve and resilience, and their post and pre-migration experience rarely serves as the basis for the development of educational practice or policy solutions. Using a postcolonial theoretical framework this paper argues that while the maligned mobility and disparaged figure of the 'refugee' serves to establish and reconstruct exclusionary national identities, the same identities can be re-presented to offer new possibilities for inclusive education. Informed by southern epistemology and the sociology of absences and emergence (Boaventura de Sousa Santos, 2012. "Public Sphere and Epistemologies of the South", Africa Development. 37(1) 43-67; Boaventura de Sousa Santos, 1997 "Toward a Multicultural Conception of Human Rights", Zeitschrift fu ®r Rechtssoziologie, (10) 1-5), this paper discusses the anticipatory and emergent dimensions of refugee education. A focus on the pre- and post-settlement experience of… [Direct]
(2021). Subaltern Thinking in Religious Education? Postcolonial Readings of (German) Schoolbooks. British Journal of Religious Education, v43 n1 p103-122. This paper deals with the disclosure of subaltern thinking in current German-language textbooks for religious education. For the hermeneutical framing of this analysis, the approach of a postcolonial reading is particularly profitable. Obvious hierarchical relationships from clearly up and down can consequently be made visible and their presumed self-evidence unmasked. Even hidden hegemonic forms of expression can be uncovered in this way. With regard to current theology and religious education racism and misogyny, environmental degradation and sexual exploitation are attitudes that have already and almost as amatter of course been taken up critically. They are pedagogically reflected and attempted to overcome by using counter-models such as cultural diversity, equal rights, sustainability and sexual self-determination. In exciting contrast to this there are still nowadays textbooks used with remnants of exactly such formats of colonial thoughts. We argue that decolonising… [Direct]