(2018). "The Development of Power Is the Main Business of the School": The Agency of Southern Black Teacher Associations from Jim Crow through Desegregation. Journal of Negro Education, v87 n4 p444-459 Fall. This article provides a history of Black southern teacher associations and the civil rights agenda they articulated from Reconstruction through the desegregation of public schools in the 1970s. Black teacher associations demonstrated historic agency by demanding a fundamental right to an education, equal salaries, and the right to work during the era of desegregation. Black education associations thus served as a professional bulwark against institutional racism. The agency of Black teacher associations constitutes a unique though overlooked role in civil rights history that illustrates the latent potential of teacher associations to serve as bastions of civil rights-based reform initiatives…. [Direct]
(2019). A Commentary on the REA 2018 Annual Meeting. Religious Education, v114 n3 p369-376. This commentary offers a "thick description" and analysis of the 2018 Religious Education Association (REA) meeting from my perspective as a racialized woman from Canada, a member of the REA board, and a professor who teaches anti-racism, preaching, and postcolonial theories among other subjects. My commentary seeks to leave a trail, making a permanent and public record. We, as religious educators, are responsible to pass down teachings to the next generation. Many wise elders have taught that history returns but it never repeats in the same way. We must not forget but remember what happened so that when it returns we will be ready…. [Direct]
(2019). Can We Say the "r" Word?: Identifying and Disrupting Colorblind Epistemologies in a Teacher Education Methods Course. Educational Studies: Journal of the American Educational Studies Association, v55 n6 p633-650. Several educational researchers have critiqued the increasing marginalization of foundations coursework in teacher education programs within the United States. Situated within a teacher certification program at a Predominately White Institution without foundations courses, this self-study examined an English methods course designed to address this curricular gap and prepare candidates to teach racially and culturally diverse students attending urban schools. Through a conceptual framework grounded in critical race theory, interpretive analysis of student work relative to course material evidenced a consistent pattern of omitting themes, discussions, and reflection about race and racism. This finding–consistent with the literature on colorblind epistemologies–led me to implications about pedagogy and curriculum in teacher education centered around opportunities for candidates to develop racial literacy in their methods courses and across their programs…. [Direct]
(2019). '…We Don't Bring Religion into School': Issues of Religious Inclusion and Social Cohesion. Australian Educational Researcher, v46 n1 p1-15 Mar. This paper examines the approaches of cultural and religious inclusion at one small state-funded primary school situated in suburban Australia. The school community is experiencing high levels of racialised, gendered and religious conflict. Through case study data from leaders and teachers, we illustrate the potential and limitations of these approaches and consider their location within the notions of secularity and Christian privilege that characterise Australia's public education system. The paper is situated within the context of current anxieties around social conflict and unrest especially in relation to religious racism or Islamophobia and amid calls for the introduction of a multi-faith education in Australian public schools. Against this backdrop, we highlight key tensions and difficulties confronting schools in their efforts to be inclusive towards creating a climate of social cohesion…. [Direct]
(2023). "Drop Out" Factors of Students from the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands: The Stories That Have Not Been Told. ProQuest LLC, D.Ed. Dissertation, University of Hawai'i at Manoa. The high school dropout problem in the U.S. has been studied extensively; however, the dropout of English Learner (EL) students is an underreported phenomenon. This study sought to understand the lived experiences of EL students from the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) who attended high school on the Westside of O'ahu, in the state of Hawai'i and what contributed to their decisions to discontinue their high school education. The study used a phenomenological approach (Reiners, 2012; van Mannen, 2016) to understand the participants' experiences with the schools and data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 18 EL Indigenous alumni and elders from the FSM and RMI regions. Factors that impacted the discontinuation of high school education for EL alumni from the FSM and RMI included personal care, the impact of school personnel, language discrimination, policy inequities, and invisibility. Other themes that emerged from… [Direct]
(2016). Meritocracy 2.0: High-Stakes, Standardized Testing as a Racial Project of Neoliberal Multiculturalism. Educational Policy, v30 n1 p39-62 Jan. High-stakes, standardized testing is regularly used within in accountability narratives as a tool for achieving racial equality in schools. Using the frameworks of "racial projects" and "neoliberal multiculturalism," and drawing on historical and empirical research, this article argues that not only does high-stakes, standardized testing serve to further racial inequality in education, it does so under the guise of forms of anti-racism that have been reconstituted as part of a larger neoliberal project for education reform. This mix of neoliberalism, high-stakes testing, and official anti-racisms that are used to deny structural, racialized inequalities are a manifestation of what the author calls, "Meritocracy 2.0."… [Direct]
(2020). Walking the Talk: Black Experiences Need to Be an Integral Part of College Curricula. Liberal Education, v106 n3 Fall. When the author looked back at her first two years at Spelman, a historically Black liberal arts college for women, she can see that the African Diaspora and the World (ADW) program had been paramount to her development as a culturally competent scholar with a nuanced understanding of systemic racism. In the majority-White schools she attended for much of her life, Black history and literature were an afterthought. Spelman College implemented the required two-course ADW program for first-year students in the early 1990s. The program aims to center histories of Africa and its people, prepare students to perceive themselves as global citizens, heighten the awareness of diverse cultural and historical experiences, and emphasize the connection between education and social change. In this article, the author shares her experience with the ADW program…. [Direct]
(2021). Musicking a Different Possible Future: The Role of Music in Imagination. Music Education Research, v23 n2 p270-285. Across the globe, many countries are at a nexus of multiple crises. The COVID-19 pandemic, structural racism, the climate crisis, and a severe economic downturn have all converged. These crises have wreaked havoc on minoritized communities in particular. This moment requires imagination to write a different future — to not return to the status quo. Imagination becomes crucial for fathoming a different world. Musicking — the different ways of making music that include listening, performing, creating, and beyond — may allow us to engage in such imagining. Musicking offers a vehicle for dreaming and provides a vision for the future. In this paper, I explore movements in education that inform this political moment including critical reconstructionism, abolitionism, and critical pedagogy from the perspectives of people who theorise these movements. Subsequently I consider the role the arts might play in imagining. I engage in particular the work of Bettina Love and Maxine Greene…. [Direct]
(2021). Examining the Field of Institutional Research: Toward More Equitable Practices. New Directions for Institutional Research, n189-192 p9-28 Spr-Win. As improving equity becomes prioritized in higher education, Offices of Institutional Research (OIRs) find themselves in a central position to identify and address educational inequities faced by racially minoritized students. However, their potential to serve as a catalyst for organizational change has yet to be fulfilled. In this study, we present a critical discourse analysis of mission statements to understand how these OIRs describe their function and purpose in the California Community Colleges system. Results are based on 108 reviewed statements. These results reveal a limited discourse around race and equity. None of the statements in our sample included the word race or any words stemming from it such as racism or racial disparity. The majority (86%) of statements omitted equity from their purpose, failing to describe how OIRs can serve to improve equitable outcomes in community college. Our work prompts the field to reimagine their role within the community college they… [Direct]
(2018). Community as Curriculum: Nurturing the Ecosystem of Education. Schools: Studies in Education, v15 n1 p122-139 Spr. Our ways of living together, communicating, and learning shape social life and our responses to problems such as economic injustice, racism, or climate change. That insight led John Dewey to identify democracy and its engine, democratic education, as the best means for assembling the knowledge necessary to address complex challenges and to ensure that we can live amicably with one another. This article proposes an ecosystem metaphor for democratic education, one that emphasizes the relations between communities and schooling. It calls for a renewed sense of community as curriculum and lays out four major ways in which that can occur. It also discusses contemporary difficulties for democracy and democratic education…. [Direct]
(2019). Fund Development and Donor Race: How Colorblindness and a 'Sales Mentality' Delimits Expanding the Donor Base. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Arizona. This qualitative case study examined the practices used by higher education development professionals and institutions to better understand how a donor's race is considered as part of the fundraising process. It employed a Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework (Delgado, 2001) designed to combine the scholarship on fund development and race. The central frames of color-blind racism (Bonilla-Silva, 2006) were key organizing concepts for the analysis of findings in this study. Additionally, this research used concepts of White savior ideology (Cammarota, 2011) and poverty porn (Collin, 2009) to interpret the messages and language used in the higher education development field. To provide context for this study, the concept of academic capitalism (Slaughter & Rhoades, 2004) is engaged relative to the pressure higher education development professionals may experience connected to their fundraising efforts. This study employed several qualitative methods for gathering data which… [Direct]
(2018). "Black Elephant in the Room": Black Students Contextualizing Campus Racial Climate within US Racial Climate. Journal of College Student Development, v59 n4 p456-474 Jul-Aug. The systemic racism in US society being resisted through larger movements such as Black Lives Matter is also reflected and reproduced in US higher education. In this qualitative study, we examined how Black students contextualize their campus racial climate within broader race issues, tensions, and movements occurring across the nation. Findings revealed 4 themes: (a) perceptions of Blackness on campus, (b) campus racial climate mirroring societal racial climate, (c) experiencing and engaging in movements on campus, and (d) impact of racial climate on future planning…. [Direct]
(2023). Hear Our Voices: Supporting Black Undergraduate Women in Cultural & Affinity-Based Student Organizations at Predominantly White Institutions of Postsecondary Education in the Midwestern United States. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, University of Wisconsin – La Crosse. The United States is a nation rooted in imperialism, colonialism, and racism, built on the backs of minoritized people whose perspectives are not reflected in dominant narratives at every level of society. Historically, Black women have had both racialized and gendered experiences generally and specifically in institutions of postsecondary education, via exclusion and adverse experiences (Collins, 2000; Garcia, 2019; Karkouti, 2016). This historical exclusion exists in part due to the white male hegemony. As a result, and as a coping mechanism, Black women often created or assisted in the creation of affinity-based student organizations. These organizations were aimed at supporting Black students and serving as activist and catalysts for change. This study examines the experiences of Black women engaged affinity-based groups at PWIs in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. The purpose of this study is to understand the perceptions held by the study population regarding their institution… [Direct]
(2021). Decolonizing English: A Proposal for Implementing Alternative Ways of Knowing and Being in Education. Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, v15 n2 p77-83. There is a need to decolonize English in order to reframe our relationships with fellow beings and our environment. English can frame water or oil as infinite, uncountable nouns, a tree as an inanimate, unconscious being, traditional and respected territories as wasteland, and animals as wildlife. With the current climate crisis, we know that these categorizations fall short and can normalize environmental racism and injustice. A more equitable and sustainable way to use language would be to question the worldview or belief system that informs "ecologically destructive" assumptions and perceptions. The English language also carries a colonial and assimilationist legacy. In many cases, this colonial history is omitted in our history books or plainly avoided in many forms of curriculum. The danger of ignoring this legacy resides in the human exceptionalism, or "epistemological error", which dominates the current mainstream Western worldview, colonial education, and… [Direct]
(2019). Asian Americans, Affirmative Action, and the Political Economy of Racism: A Multidimensional Model of Raceclass Frames. Harvard Educational Review, v89 n2 p201-226 Sum. Utilizing a critical raceclass theory of education, OiYan A. Poon and colleagues analyze interviews with Asian Americans who have publicly advocated for or against affirmative action and acknowledged how their understandings of racial capitalism informed their perspectives and actions. Limited research has considered Asian American subjectivity in examining what shapes their diverse perspectives on affirmative action. This study adds to research on the racial politics of the debate, which has increasingly centered Asian Americans and their interests, and introduces a multidimensional model of raceclass frames representing different political perspectives and choices around affirmative action: abstract liberalism, ethnocentric nationalism, conscious compromise, and systemic transformation. The model offers insights on Asian American frames and ideologies of racism, capitalism, and education to account for their divergent political perspectives and choices in the affirmative action… [Direct]