(2001). Negotiating Equity: The Dynamics of Minority Community Engagement in Constructing Inclusive Educational Policy. Cambridge Journal of Education, v31 n2 p239-69 Jun. Problematizes the politics of inclusion in education, examining how Toronto's (Canada) minority groups attempt to negotiate equity in response to the school board's release of a draft policy on anti-racism and ethno-cultural equity in education. Explores the dynamics of community engagement. Examines the politics behind the shifting discourse of anti-racism. (BT)…
(2020). COVID-19 and Rural Higher Education: Rapid Innovation and Ideas for the Future. Issue Focus. MDRC The COVID-19 pandemic has caused seismic shifts for postsecondary education. For rural colleges, the pandemic exacerbated issues that have affected students and communities for decades. Education gaps between rural communities and their more urbanized counterparts are well documented. Rural communities have long been confronted with unique education challenges. Chief among them is the digital divide: Many rural areas lack adequate broadband internet infrastructure, which has become even more critical during the pandemic. In addition, many rural areas seeing the highest poverty rates and the lowest graduation rates are also dealing with interconnected issues of rural poverty and historical, systemic racism. The marginalization of Black and Indigenous people and other people of color in rural communities over many generations has created broad inequities, compounding a continued lack of investment in these communities. Little research in higher education has been conducted in rural… [PDF]
(2024). Promoting Social Justice through Dramatizing Children's Literature: Lessons from EFL Classrooms in Türkiye. TESOL Journal, v15 n4 e857. Social justice language education (SJLE) explores the ways in which language classrooms can be transformed to disrupt the existing oppressive policies and practices in schools and the society at large (Orta√ßtepe Hart & Martel, 2020; Orta√ßtepe Hart, 2023; Ortega, 2021). As an approach within SJLE, dramatizing children's literature can raise the awareness of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) of social injustices across the world, help them voice their own experiences in the class, and contribute to their language development (Caldas, 2018; Garc√≠a-Mateus, 2021; Gualdron & Castillo, 2018; Koss & Daniel, 2018). Focusing on the intersections of drama, children's literature, and SJLE, this qualitative case study explored a) a preservice EFL teacher's trajectory as a social justice educator, and b) the affordances of dramatizing children's literature on developing young learners' English language skills and awareness of social justice issues. Three picture… [Direct]
(2019). Tempted by Whiteness?: Linguistic Capital and Higher Education in Japan. Educational Foundations, v32 n1-4 p49-71. This study uses the lens of Critical Whiteness Studies to examine how students and faculty at a Japanese university viewed 'global education' and 'internationalization'–two concepts that have been ardently promoted and pursued in Japan. This investigation and analysis focus on the critical juncture of the modern Japanese higher education system and Whiteness. It sheds light on the under-addressed issue of the racial power dynamics that affect one's perception towards race and race relations and, the impact of Whiteness on Japanese students' self-esteem and identity. By selecting and adopting privileged standpoints, higher education in Japan has reinforced "the White vistas that centuries of racism have carved in our society" (Ross, 2002, p. 255). The findings of this study suggest that views and attitudes toward English education are influenced by Japan's Westernization movement during the Meiji era (i.e., the second half of the 19th century) that privileged and pursued… [PDF]
(2021). Trailblazers, Reciprocity, and Doctoral Education: The Pursuit of Critical Race Praxis and Survivance among Doctoral Students of Color. Journal of Higher Education, v92 n2 p227-251. This study utilized a mixed-methods, survey research design to explore the experiences and motivations of Students of Color who pursue doctoral studies in colleges or departments of education and the agential decisions they make to carry out their motivations. Data collection included dissemination of a 61-item survey via Qualtrics inclusive of Likert-based and narrative items. Participants included 40 respondents who were either doctoral students, candidates, postdoctoral scholars or early career scholars within two years of obtaining their doctoral degrees. Critical Race Theory and Vizenor's concept of survivance frame an understanding of how race and racism impacted the lives of doctoral Students of Color and how they enacted an active presence in their doctoral studies in spite of obstacles. Findings based on participants' narratives revealed (a) high levels of interest in addressing educational inequities and the collective advancement of Communities of Color, and (b) recurring… [Direct]
(2017). Storying a Social Drama: How Discourse and Practice Prevent Transformation through Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. Multicultural Perspectives, v19 n1 p26-34. In a sociohistorical moment during which racism has become more widely accepted as a social fact, U.S. scholars and practitioners of education continue to struggle with how schooling might participate in its eradication. In suburban, elite, Midwestern Pioneer City Public Schools, a series of initiatives I refer to as "the transformation" aimed to eliminate racial predictability in standardized test scores through efforts (a) to redistribute children from a racially and economically isolated elementary school across the district's four elementary schools, and (b) to train all district staff in a particular brand of culturally relevant pedagogy. In this article, I argue that Pioneer City School District was unable to address the transformative goals of culturally relevant pedagogy–in part because of irresolvable tensions between an explicitly anti-racist theory and the authoritative discourses suggesting that racism is a thing of the past…. [Direct]
(2021). On Campus Police Forces. American Association of University Professors In the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless other Black people and other individuals by police, large-scale protests calling for an end to systemic racism and for the defunding of police departments, and police violence and brutality in response to those protests, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) publishes this report concerning the role of campus police forces. The intended purpose of the report is threefold: (1) to provide an historical overview of the development of campus police forces that contextualizes their relatively recent existence in US higher education and their alarming rates of expansion and militarization, with particular attention to their role in perpetuating systemic racism and inequities; (2) to demonstrate the clear tensions between the AAUP's core values and the existence and function of campus police forces; and (3) to urge AAUP chapters to address campus policing issues and provide guidance to help chapter… [PDF]
(2019). Considering Antiracism in Student Teacher Placement. Journal of Music Teacher Education, v28 n3 p58-71 Jun. Student teaching represents the culmination of a preservice music educator's preparation. In student teaching, notions of the transformative potential of music education may be reinforced or subverted. The placement of student teachers, an underresearched process in music teacher education, may be a space where teacher educators can work toward racial justice. In this article, I explore critical antiracist theory in music teacher education in two fictionalized vignettes. I apply an antiracist lens to the process of student teacher placement to suggest ways to interrogate problematic policies and practices. Avenues for antiracist praxis include (a) naming the racialized nature of an institution's professional network, (b) mapping the racial landscapes of prospective placements, (c) addressing issues of representation in student teacher placement, and (d) becoming race-power conscious. Through this article, I illustrate how antiracist theory might guide music teacher education toward… [Direct]
(2022). Educate Me Right: College Students Who Were Formal Incarcerated, Demystifying Academic Spaces. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Mills College. This dissertation addresses the unequal incarceration of African-Americans and Mexican Americans in the United States. It examines the historical foundations of the construction of race to create criminality toward African-Americans. The legacy of the prison industrial complex perpetuating and prolonging further criminalization to enslave people of African descent in the U.S. today. Through this lens, the study examines how college students of color, who were formerly incarcerated, can be resilient to achieve their college degrees. The research reveals through laws, customs, and policies enacted in America that the U.S. Justice System has played a significant role in disparities of injustice towards people of African descent. Information obtained by interviews of the participants and scholarly material demonstrates a duality of justice and unresolved inequalities after many decades of pseudo-achievements granted to people of color. The information gathered displays a synopsis of the… [Direct]
(2021). From Taking Ownership to Decolonization: Looking Back over Five Decades of Indigenous Post-Secondary Education in Quebec = De la prise en charge a la decolonisation: Un regard retrospectif sur cinq decennies d'education postsecondaire autochtone au Quebec. Canadian Journal of Higher Education, v51 n3 p67-81. In the early days soon after the release of the landmark policy paper "Indian Control of Indian Education" (1972), postsecondary studies among Indigenous people in Quebec were still new and relatively unknown. Against a backdrop of Indigenous communities starting to take ownership of their own services, the demand for postsecondary Indigenous graduates began to increase significantly, resulting in the development of tailored programs and services: the Amerindianization program led by UQAC in 1971 and the founding of Manitou College in 1973, for example, stand out as two major milestones. The distinctive linguistic reality of Quebec moreover soon became apparent, adding to the initial bilingual dimension (moving from an Indigenous language to an non-Indigenous one) the duality of a francophone and anglophone education system rooted in colonial history. Drawing on a review of literature on postsecondary Indigenous education in Quebec from 1972 to 2021, our analysis in the… [PDF]
(2020). Youth Sport and Community Segregation: A Study of Kids' Participation in Australian Rules Football and Soccer Clubs in an Australian Community. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v23 n5 p732-746. This research addresses the appeal for more empirical-based research on exclusionary practices in local community sport that often go unchallenged within dominant discourses. By examining how organised community sport clubs can uphold systemic segregation of various ethnic, racial, linguistic, religious and socioeconomic groups, this study also draws attention to the importance of research on race, ethnicity, and education in primary school age children; a population group often ignored in both racism studies and studies of sport. Using interview and focus group data from school principals and students (aged 9-12), including students from refugee and asylum seeker migrant backgrounds, collected over 3 years from two schools in the same multicultural community in Melbourne, Australia, this paper challenges the depiction of sport as an uncontested inclusive space in national and educational discourse, and instead demonstrates the continued existence of exclusion through systemically… [Direct]
(2019). "Why Am I White?": Race Consciousness and Racial Identity Development in Teacher Preparation. AERA Online Paper Repository, Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (Toronto, Canada, Apr 5-9, 2019). Teacher educators have sought to understand the challenges associated with teaching predominantly White teacher candidates about race, racism, power, and privilege and preparing them to teach and act for racial and social justice. In this article, I build on this work by exploring (1) how White teacher candidates express race-consciousness upon completion of a social justice-oriented teacher preparation program; and (2) what White teacher candidates' expressions of race-consciousness indicate about the role of White racial identity development in social justice-oriented teacher education. Findings show that White teacher candidates express varying degrees of race-consciousness that have important implications for teacher education and teacher induction. I argue that race-consciousness and White racial identity development needs to be carefully mediated by teacher educators throughout the preparation program and that future research needs to examine how teacher education can… [Direct]
(2022). Pathways to Success for African American Students at Predominately White Institutions: A Qualitative Study Exploring Academic Readiness. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Western Michigan University. African American students' completion of post-secondary education is among the lowest of any other subgroup in higher education (Banks & Dohy, 2019; Broom, 2018; CarterFrancique et al., 2015; Cokley et al., 2016; Dulabaum, 2016; Karkouti, 2016; Moragne-Patterson & Barnett, 2017; Strayhorn, 2017). This study focuses on addressing this problem by exploring the academic and social experiences of African American college students who persisted at a regional predominantly White institution (PWI) in the Midwest and secure information that can be used to improve their graduation rates. To address this issue, this study is designed to explore initiatives and practices that encourage the successful matriculation and graduation of African American students from PWIs (Gross & Berry, 2016). This study utilized individual interviews in a qualitative inquiry to capture the lived experiences and deeper understandings of eight African American students who persisted through to their… [Direct]
(2022). The Impact of Student-Teacher Relationships on Black Middle School Boys. School Mental Health, v14 n2 p254-265 Jun. Research has consistently shown that Black boys experience opportunity gaps in the American public education system. Beyond disproportionate outcomes in academics and behavioral outcomes, Black boys have less access to mental health support and may experience heightened symptoms due to systemic inequities. Despite many hypotheses, few explanations account for the lived experiences of Black boys. Research indicates that positive student-teacher relationships may increase academic, mental health, and behavioral outcomes for diverse learners. An exploration of the teacher-student relationship that centers the voices of Black males is needed to understand how to best develop a school culture that promotes the well-being of all students. This paper explores Black middle school male students' perceptions of the student-teacher relationship. Participants included 12 Black boys in a public middle school in two urban districts in the Midwest. Students identified the need to be recognized as… [Direct]
(2020). Using College Football as an Analogy in Teaching College Diversity Courses. Multicultural Learning and Teaching, v15 n2 Article 20180008 Sep. Diversity can be a difficult subject to teach in higher education, especially in settings where exposure to diverse cultures can be limited The use of analogies or metaphor can be particularly useful to provide students with opportunities to think critically about new topics while relating the material to familiar subjects. In this article, we propose the use of an analogy of college football as a way to better integrate diversity topics into college classrooms. The broad appeal of college football on college campuses lends itself as a great platform to discuss otherwise challenging topics such as privilege, racism, sexism, sexuality, and power in the United States. The use of analogies can create a non-confrontational and less defensive environment in college classrooms. We outline the potential use of this analogy with a fictional case study in a university setting. Potential benefits and limitations of the approach are discussed…. [Direct]