(2021). School Choice, Exclusion, and Race Taming in Milwaukee: A Meta-Ethnography. Urban Review: Issues and Ideas in Public Education, v53 n5 p785-813 Dec. This article presents a meta-ethnography (Urrieta Jr and Noblit (eds), Cultural constructions of identity: meta ethnography and theory, Oxford University Press. 2018. doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190676087.001.00…) of school choice across education sectors in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. A site of intense contention and experimentation around school choice, Milwaukee constitutes a unique case that can offer insights into similar education reforms increasingly being implemented on a global scale. In synthesizing six book-length qualitative research studies, I engage key differences among the texts and then offer a lines-of-argument synthesis (Noblit and Hare, Meta-ethnography: synthesizing qualitative studies. Sage Publications, 1988. doi.org/10.4135/9781412985000) that reinterprets the studies as stories about whiteness' right to exclude across school sectors (Aggarwal, in: Fernandes (ed), Feminists rethink the neoliberal state: inequality, exclusion, and change, New York… [Direct]
(2019). Teaching for Diversity: Intercultural and Intergroup Education in the Public Schools, 1920s to 1970s. Review of Research in Education, v43 n1 p1-31 Mar. This historiography chronicles educators' efforts to teach for diversity through heightening awareness of immigrant experiences as well as discrimination against minoritized religious and racial groups in public school classrooms from the 1920s through the 1970s. This curriculum and pedagogical work was couched under various terms, such as intercultural education, intergroup education, human relations, and cultural pluralism. Drawing from published secondary research literature as well as primary archival sources, we aim to disrupt commonly held views that intercultural education/intergroup education met its demise in the 1950s and show how curriculum and pedagogy shifted after the landmark 1954 ruling of "Brown v. Board of Education" toward improving intergroup relations within the context of school desegregation. In the end we identify common themes across the decades that include the failure to recruit and support a diverse teaching force, the importance of teacher-led… [Direct]
(2020). Education, Migration and Citizenship in Europe: Untangling Policy Initiatives for Human Rights and Racial Justice. Intercultural Education, v31 n5 p562-577. The 21st century has seen changes in migration patterns in Europe with implications for schooling and civic education: movement from eastern and central European Union member states to western Europe; increased movement between member states for study or work; and growth in the numbers of migrants and refugees seeking asylum in Europe as a result of regional conflicts and global inequalities. This article reviews European standards and policy frameworks on education and migration and considers whether they translate into policy and practice at national and sub-national levels. It identifies tensions between European standard-setting in the field of human rights and democracy, and the responsibilities of national governments in the field of migration and education, specifically education for citizenship. While European rhetoric emphasises democracy and human rights, national education policies stress language acquisition and national values in the integration of newcomers. Less… [Direct]
(2021). Black Campus Life: The Worlds Black Students Make at a Historically White Institution. Critical Race Studies in Education. SUNY Press An in-depth ethnography of Black engineering students at a historically White institution, "Black Campus Life" examines the intersection of two crises, up close: the limited number of college graduates in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, and the state of race relations in higher education. Antar Tichavakunda takes readers across campus, from study groups to parties and beyond as these students work hard, have fun, skip class, fundraise, and, at times, find themselves in tense racialized encounters. By consistently centering their perspectives and demonstrating how different campus communities, or social worlds, shape their experiences, Tichavakunda challenges assumptions about not only Black STEM majors but also Black students and the "racial climate" on college campuses more generally. Most fundamentally, "Black Campus Life" argues that Black collegians are more than the racism they endure. By studying and appreciating the… [Direct]
(2021). Sports as Education: Is This a Stereotype Too? a National Research on the Relationship between Sports Practice, Bullying, Racism and Stereotypes among Italian Students. Cogent Education, v8 n1 Article 1938385. This article is based on scientific evidence from a national survey carried out in Italy in 2017 on a sample of 4011 students. The results of the statistical analysis show that the potential educational role of sports is not an explicit value embedded in its practice. In these terms, today the causal link between sports and education appears to be a stereotype. The study shows that teenagers who play sports outside of school have an increase in their levels of tolerance of bullying and racism. In addition, respondents who play sports have highly stereotyped opinions about gender roles and ethnic diversity. The neutrality of sports practice in Italy, with regard to social inclusion and the dissemination of positive values, has been demonstrated. Although sport can be a useful educational tool to mitigate limits arising from disadvantaged social conditions, a direct relation between sports and education has not been observed. In order to spread positive social values and promote social… [Direct]
(2022). Black Student Success: Improving Educational Outcomes for Black Kids through Increasing the Number of Black Teachers. Children Now The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented uncertainty both within teacher preparation programs and in schools. While it has exacerbated existing and long-standing inequities in California's educational system, the pandemic also presents an opportunity to innovate teacher education programs and rethink how they prepare and sustain candidates of color, particularly Black teachers. Qualified, engaged teachers are critical for all students, but especially for students who face systemic barriers. Racism, poverty, immigration threats, and community violence hinder students' ability to achieve their full potential. Today, California is facing an acute teacher shortage, fueled in part by the pandemic, an overall workforce shortage, a dearth of applicants, as well as the unevenness of current teacher preparation programs. The result is inequities in instructional quality that disproportionately affect Black students. Well-prepared teachers who reflect the diversity of the students they… [PDF]
(2023). Underrepresented Students' Perspectives on Higher Education Equity in the University of California's Elimination of the Standardized Testing Requirement: A Critical Policy Analysis. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Loyola Marymount University. In July 2022, the University of California (UC) permanently eliminated the standardized tests requirement for its freshman admissions in order to alleviate the severed socioeconomic gap and college access barriers that were heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic. This critical policy analysis research explored the immediate effects of UC's policy reform on higher education equity. All 14 participants were underrepresented minority (URM) students who applied to at least one UC campus for fall 2022's freshman admissions and were enrolled in four-year universities at the time of this study. From demographic surveys, focus groups, and in-depth interviews, I applied critical race theory (CRT) tenets and internalized oppression theory to explore, interpret, and provide counter-narratives of URM students' college planning and application experiences after the policy reform. From analyzing these students' perceptions of the elimination of the standardized tests requirement and UC's admissions… [Direct]
(2024). Academic "Supervivencia" and "Sesi Irekani": Refusing, Reimagining, and Rearticulating Decolonization in the Social Foundations of Education. Educational Studies: Journal of the American Educational Studies Association, v60 n3 p257-269. The American Educational Studies Association (AESA) was established in 1968 in a context of both local and global social justice movements. The AESA's mission and ongoing commitment to the analysis of education and society with underlying liberal activist aims has been ongoing since. Although AESA and its membership have been critiqued and questioned for their larger impact in the field, especially in its disconnect between university academics and pk-12 teachers, the original charge and purpose has largely remained. This address seeks to put a spotlight on the foundations of the social foundations of education and by extension AESA by using settler colonial and structural racism frames to examine the enduring problematics of how academia and academic enterprises are, as Quechua scholar Sandy Grande would say, "an arm of the settler state" (p. 47). Namely, I ask, how does AESA and the field of social foundations of education advance settler futurity? However, most… [Direct]
(2021). The Important Role of Chemistry Department Chairs and Recommendations for Actions They Can Enact to Advance Black Student Success. Journal of Chemical Education, v98 n7 p2209-2220 Jul. There is a severe shortage of Black scientists in the United States. Amid the recent national movement to dismantle systemic racism and racial injustices, many scientists publicly highlighted the prevalence of racist learning environments in STEM, contributing to the underrepresentation of Black students in STEM fields. Acknowledging this longstanding troubling reality, this article emphasizes the instrumental role of chemistry department chairs in advancing Black student success in chemistry and STEM broadly. Guided by literature on systemic change and equity in higher education as well as our research on the Black student experience and teaching practices in chemistry, this article describes the following five recommendations for actions that chemistry chairs should consider enacting to promote equity-mindedness within their departments to advance Black student success: (1) disaggregate data to make publicly visible racial inequities; (2) offer formal opportunities for Black… [Direct]
(2021). How Can Educators Prepare for Teaching Controversial Issues? Cross-National Lessons. Social Education, v85 n4 p228-233 Sep. With the eruption of political, racial, and pandemic-related conflicts and unprecedented threats to U.S. democracy, educators have raised their voices about the need to teach controversial issues in social studies classrooms. However many teachers feel unprepared to take up this challenging practice. They may also avoid it because they fear loss of control, classroom conflict, harm to students, recriminations from parents and community members, and sanctions from their administration. With the pandemic crisis, a reckoning with systemic racism in the United States, an unimaginably contentious presidential election, an assault on the U.S. Capitol, and massive disinformation, the urgency and fear of teaching controversial issues have grown exponentially. Although social studies education literature contains abundant scholarship on teaching controversial issues, little has been written about learning to take up this practice. In this article, Judith Pace summarizes essential lessons from… [Direct]
(2019). Laughing to Sexual Education: Feminist Pedagogy of Laughter as a Model for Holistic Sex-Education. Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, v19 n5 p568-581. This paper describes and analyses the 'feminist pedagogy of laughter' deployed in an original sex education presentation for college students, entitled Sexual Pleasure, Health, and Safety (SPHS). This work seeks to advance scholarship on liberatory education and humour in education by emphasising how we can use laughter to casually and joyfully deconstruct sexism, racism and heterosexism as they concern sexual stigma, violence, health and pleasure. This style of pedagogy also defuses discomfort around stigmatised topics and identities, disrupts oppressive norms about sex and bodies, and builds communities that enhance learning. We position the feminist pedagogy of laughter as a technique that may be replicated to empower participants to pursue sexual pleasure and wellbeing despite sexist, racist and heterosexist obstacles. Educators may apply the feminist pedagogy of laughter to create sex education lessons and curricula that participants can enjoy, learn from and apply in real life…. [Direct]
(2019). Race for Education: Gender, White Tone, and Schooling in South Africa. International African Library. Cambridge University Press Following the end of apartheid in 1994, the ANC government placed education at the centre of its plans to build a nonracial and more equitable society. Yet, by the 2010s a wave of student protests voiced demands for decolonised and affordable education. By following families and schools in Durban for nearly a decade, Mark Hunter sheds new light on South Africa's political transition and the global phenomenon of education marketisation. He rejects simple descriptions of the country's move from 'race to class apartheid' and reveals how 'white' phenotypic traits like skin colour retain value in the schooling system even as the multiracial middle class embraces prestigious linguistic and embodied practices the book calls 'white tone'. By illuminating the actions and choices of both white and black parents, Hunter provides a unique view on race, class and gender in a country emerging from a notorious system of institutionalised racism…. [Direct]
(2021). A Radical Doctrine: Abolitionist Education in Hard Times. Educational Studies: Journal of the American Educational Studies Association, v57 n3 p211-223. In the United States of America, the year 2020 will be remembered as a year of sorrow, infection, greed, violence, loss, devastation, protest, resistance, and death. The tragedies of this year were made possible by America's long history and obsession with anti-Blackness, racism, white supremacy, violence, and capitalism. America's schools, populated by Black, Brown, and Indigenous children for centuries, have ensured the wrath of this rage. With this amount and scale of oppression, we argue that there is no need to (re)imagine or reform schools; instead, we need to abolish schools with a radical doctrine. We use the word radical as civil rights and community organizer icon Ella Baker defined it: "[R]adical in its original meaning–getting down to and understanding the root cause. It means facing a system that does not lend itself to your needs and devising means by which you change that system." "A Radical Doctrine: Abolitionist Education in Hard Times"… [Direct]
(2018). Unlearning Colonial Identities While Engaging in Relationality: Settler Teachers' Education-as-Reconciliation. McGill Journal of Education, v53 n2 p254-27575. Before the TRC's Calls to Action, we were a collaborative teacher-education partnership of Anishinaabekwe and White settler researching and teaching reconciliation as pedagogical practice with five cohorts of settler teacher-candidates. Engaging theories of settler-colonialism, decolonization and Indigenous studies, we outline the obstacles and struggles in settler teacher education, such as exposing the legacies of colonialism in education, cultural harms and systemic racism in curriculum, and ongoing ignorance as entitlement by teachers. In addition, we focus on the complexities of methods for improving respectful relationality with Indigenous students and community as well as our hopes in helping new teachers commit their professional practice to focus on supporting Indigenous children and youth…. [Direct]
(2022). DisCrit Literacies: Early Childhood Teachers Critically Reading School as Text and Imagining an Otherwise. Reading Research Quarterly, v57 n4 p1237-1257 Oct-Dec. In this participatory case study, we explored the critical literacy practices of early-career early childhood teachers in a year-long inquiry group, examining how they collectively read school as text through DisCrit literacies. Bridging literature from Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) and critical literacies scholarship, DisCrit literacies involve practices of critically reading school itself as text and uncovering intersecting systems of ableism and racism. We describe teachers' collective engagement in DisCrit literacies, in which they: (a) deconstructed literacy practices and broader schooling mechanisms through repeated shared readings; (b) implicated themselves through critical readings of literacy classroom artifacts; and (c) identified and designed spaces of subversion and refusal in their literacy classrooms. Across each of these practices, early career early childhood teachers in our study used critical reading practices rooted in interdependence and presumptions… [Direct]