Identity Performance and Race: The Use of Critical Race Theory in Understanding Institutional Racism and Discrimination in Schools

Abstract

In this chapter, I explain two ways in which Critical Race Theory (CRT) offers useful contributions to the field of race and education and, more specifically, to discussions of institutional racism and classroom discrimination. I begin with some background on CRT and its use in education, both in the United States and increasingly, in the United Kingdom. I then set out the first illustration of the use of CRT in education, which focuses on the use of storytelling or chronicles in CRT scholarship and their use in examining the operation of processes of institutional racism at a national, local or school level. The second illustration concerns the use of theories of ‘identity performance’ from the work of CRT legal scholars Devon Carbado and Gulati to interrogate practices of discrimination at the micro-level of the classroom. By no means do I mean to suggest that these are the only productive uses of CRT, only that these appear to be two examples of the use of the theoretical and methodological tools offered by CRT.