Intersectional Justice Research Articles

From a Spark, a Mighty Flame: How Germinal Networks Support Teachers of Color to Promote Change in Activist Organizations and Beyond

Background: Recent research has demonstrated that social justice teacher activist networks provide vital support to teachers of Color, reducing feelings of isolation and providing high-quality professional learning opportunities. Yet, there is a need for broader scaled research that looks across multiple activist organizations to add to our understandings of these findings. Focus of Study: Our study examines the network participation characteristics of 26 activist teachers of Color across 14 activist organizations in the United States. Our research questions were: (1) How do activist teachers of Color foster social capital in networks to influence policies and actions in their organizations and beyond? (2) What relationship exists between the participation structures of networks and the involvement of teachers of Color in the activist organizations? Research Design: Our research design used a critical social network research approach informed by Black feminist thought (BFT) and research on teacher activism. Our data included interviews from the 26 teachers and documents from their activist organizations. Our analysis involved a macro-to-micro qualitative network analysis of data, which afforded a broad view of network characteristics and deep descriptions of the stories of a subset of teachers. Conclusions: We found that the teachers of Color who were involved in affinity-based groups and subgroups were often the germinators of policy and action shifts, usually related to racial and intersectional justice in their organization. We call this network phenomenon a germinal network. We explore other features of germinal networks, such as a tendency toward reflexivity and mentorship-seeking and support. This study has implications for future critical research on social networks and the design of radically inclusive and humanizing social infrastructures in education-related organizations.

Beyond omission: analysing the erasure of disability and inclusion in the developmentally appropriate practices

ABSTRACT The 4th edition of the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) guidelines for developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) had an opportunity to provide the field an inclusive blueprint. While there was an attempt in this edition to respond to decades of critiques (e.g. Bloch [1992]. “Critical Perspectives on the Historical Relationship Between Child Development and Early Childhood Education Research.” In Reconceptualizing the Early Childhood Curriculum: Beginning the Dialogue, edited by S. Kessler, and E. B. Swadener, 3–20. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.; Cannella [1997]. Deconstructing Early Childhood Education: Social Justice and Revolution. New York, NY: Peter Lang.; Escayg [2019]. “Who’s got the Power?”: A Critical Examination of the Anti-Bias Curriculum.” International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy 13 (1): 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40723-019-0062-9.; Langford [2010]. “Critiquing Child-Centered Pedagogy to Bring Children and Early Childhood Educators Into the Center of a Democratic Pedagogy.” Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood 11 (1): 113–127. https://doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2010.11.1.113.; Pérez and Saavedra [2017]. “A Call for Onto-Epistemological Diversity in Early Childhood Education and Care: Centering Global South Conceptualizations of Childhood/s.” Review of Research in Education 41 (1): 1–29. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X16688621.; Souto-Manning and Rabadi-Raol [2018]. “(Re)Centering Quality in Early Childhood Education: Toward Intersectional Justice for Minoritized Children.” Review of Research in Education 42 (1): 203–225. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X187595.), the new edition continues to centre dominant developmental approaches where adults hyperfocus on children’s differences or individual characteristics rather than on changing educational structures and practices that promote inequity (Ferri and Bacon [2011]. “Beyond Inclusion: Disability Studies in Early Childhood Teacher Education.”). The revised guidelines do not go far enough to address inequity and to give teachers and programmes tools for addressing injustice for all young children. This manuscript builds on previous critiques of DAP by explicitly addressing the exclusion of disabled children from the guidelines.

Teaching Intersectionality in Instructional Librarianship: Asynchronous Information Literacy Instruction in the Health Sciences

This article explores the topic of intersectionality and its applications in teaching graduate students at a health sciences university. The case study examined the creation of an asynchronous information literacy module that centered intersectionality in the research process. Summative assessment data indicated that students were able to critically reflect on gaps in their knowledge to address health inequities, learn the narratives of multiply-marginalized patients, and make connections between research and intersectional justice. The study also revealed areas for improvement such as restructuring the assessment component of the module to better evaluate student success, strengthening the module as a socially engaging learning space for students, and integrating other metrics to measure the student experience. Findings from this study demonstrate how instructional librarians can create equitable and engaging learning spaces through an asynchronous instruction model as well as teaching intersectionality in STEMM-specific disciplines.

Co-creating Inclusive Intersectional Democratic Spaces across Europe (CCINDLE): Counteracting Anti-gender through Feminist Knowledge

Abstract: The construction of feminist democratic societal projects relies on the production of feminist knowledge and ideas within social movements, as well as academic, professional, and institutional settings. In the context of a rising opposition against democracy and gender, race, and sexuality equality at a global level, the European Union has launched the call Feminisms for a New Age of Democracy with the purpose of supporting knowledge production about opposition to gender equality in Europe and feminist democratic responses. The CCINDLE (Co-creating Inclusive Intersectional Democratic Spaces across Europe) project is one of the funded research projects under this call. CCINDLE's objectives include analyzing not only anti-gender politics and the problems that they create for democracy in Europe but especially feminist movements' and institutional responses to anti-gender and anti-democratic forces. The project aims to co-create feminist knowledge with the actors that are already working to counter the antidemocratic project that anti-gender movements and far right parties are trying to construct, and to envision feminist futures building on theories and practices of intersectional justice, inclusion, and participation in European democracies.

Relevance of ecosystem services and disservices from green infrastructure perceived by the inhabitants of two Portuguese cities dealing with climate change: implications for environmental and intersectional justice

Green infrastructure provides ecosystem services (ESs) and disservices (EDSs), although EDSs are understudied. By considering both, this study contributes to the literature. The inhabitants’ perception of the importance of ESs/EDSs is assessed through a survey in two Portuguese cities facing extreme climatic events. “Heat reduction” and “contact with nature” are the most perceived ESs while “risk of fire” and “excessive water consumption” are the most perceived EDSs, respectively, in Elvas and Faro. Using rank-ordered logistic regression models, this study finds that the relevance of ESs/EDSs is perceived differently throughout the different areas of the cities, with Elvas revealing the highest signs of environmental injustice, since the importance of ESs is perceived differently by the inhabitants, specifically those inhabiting impoverished areas. The inhabitants perceiving heatwaves acknowledge less relevance to some ESs and more relevance to several EDSs. Gender, age, and income affect the perceived relevance of some ESs/EDSs, signalling intersectional injustice.

Decolonial Homophobia: Is Decolonisation Incompatible with LGBT+ Affirmation in Christian Ethics?

I evaluate the argument advanced in politics and Christian ethics that I term ‘decolonial homophobia’: that decolonisation and LGBT+ affirmation are contradictory because LGBT+ rights are a global Northern phenomenon that is imperialistically imposed on the global South. I suggest one premise of the argument is valid—neo-colonial imposition of LGBT+ rights does happen and should be opposed. However, the overall argument fails because it erases or distorts diverse views and complexities of pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial history, and it tacitly supports ‘homophobic nationalism’ that is oppressive even when advanced in ostensibly decolonial causes. I grant that there are tensions within many current expressions of decolonisation and LGBT+ rights, but argue that Christians should support both decolonisation and LGBT+ rights as intersecting justice issues. I close by suggesting we listen to global Southern LGBT+ activists like Uganda's kuchus on how to navigate this tension and pursue intersectional justice in all societies.

Institutional Solidarity in The Netherlands: Examining the Role of Dutch Policies in Women with Migration Backgrounds’ Decisions to Leave a Violent Relationship

In The Netherlands, women who experience domestic violence can rely on public policies that aim to support them, such as shelters. Drawing on the lived experiences, through 10 interviews and observations, of women with different cultural backgrounds and nationalities staying in a shelter, and on 37 interviews with social workers working with these women, we observed that this support falls short for them. We argue that immigration rules, together with policies on domestic violence and housing, (unintentionally) often work in tandem with violent partners to prevent women with migration backgrounds from leaving violent relationships. The paper draws on a perspective of institutional considerations of solidarity to unpack the relations between domestic violence, cultural constraints, and public policies but looks also at the positive experiences of women of migrant backgrounds with these Dutch policies. This research indicates that there is a lack of institutional solidarity towards women, especially those arriving as marriage migrants, who have experienced domestic violence. In exploring the intersections of domestic violence and often exclusionary state policies, the paper reflects on how The Netherlands can provide more support to those women and how intersectional justice and solidarity might be expressed.

“Like someone’s got you”: External supports for youth activists and intersectional justice

ABSTRACT The necessity of providing specific forms of support to youth activists engaged in the pursuit of racial and intersectional justice is evident, especially given current unsupportive political contexts of anti-protest and anti-Critical Race Theory legislation. Hence, this qualitative research study assigns importance to the firsthand experiences of youth activists, aged 14–18, to identify external supports (outside of themselves, such as in their school and community). Firstly, the study reveals that youth identify a key external support as the actions taken by adults to bolster their activism. These actions include serving as role models for activism, collaborating with young activists in a nonhierarchical manner, establishing connections with individuals and resources, and striving to ensure their safety. Secondly, youth activists detail the supportive role of belonging, directly or distantly, in coalitions and clubs largely outside of the school day. Understanding the experiences of highly engaged yet vulnerable youth who advocate for presently “risky” subjects forms a crucial aspect of promoting their quest for justice and an elusive asset of safety. The findings uphold a more comprehensive understanding of the frequently cited justice-oriented approach and equitable “asset-enhancing” communities.

Social justice implications of smart urban technologies: an intersectional approach

Techno-optimistic visions around smart buildings, homes, cities, grids, healthcare, etc. have become ubiquitous over the past decade. Using variations of machine learning and artificial intelligence, smart urbanism (SU) envisions an efficient, digital society. However, research shows that smart technologies reinscribe inequalities by prioritising the interests of the free market, technology-centric governance and data monetisation. Although there has been a growing concern over the injustices SU perpetuates, there is a lack of systematic engagement with power systems such as capitalism or heterosexism that underpin SU visions. A novel framework is presented that situates intersectional justice at the heart of SU. A mapping of 70 cases of ‘trouble’ with the promises of SU is used to address three core research questions: What are the ‘troubles’ with SU? To what extent are they intersectional? What can intersectionality add to the development of a just SU? The analysis shows how SU politics play out in relation to how users are understood and engaged, how different actors institutionalise SU and how dominant power systems are challenged. The presented strategy contributes to understanding not just the data politics in urban spaces, but also how they can be renegotiated and re-evaluated to solve multiple and interconnected urban crises without compromising on social justice. Practice relevance Citizen-led initiatives against SU should commit to intersectionality’s radical core to dismantle power structures to ensure local smart urban projects do not entrench global business-as-usual neoliberal agendas. Intersectional thinking can create spaces for deliberative dialogues between civil society groups and build alliances across groups that seek to challenge the hegemony of exclusionary urban policies. Urban planners and local governments, which are at the forefront of SU applications, should decentre technologies and rather focus efforts on working out how smart technologies can work in conjunction with other kinds of urban interventions, such as social, economic and environmental policy changes, collaborative planning, community development, etc. to herald more just urban futures. Designers of smart urban technologies should apply intersectional approaches to further challenge ‘Homo economicus’ (rational, White, technophilic, able-bodied) as the primary user type and to replace it with diverse user archetypes that express humanity, justice and generosity.

Activism for intersectional justice in sport sociology: Using intersectionality in research and in the classroom.

This perspective paper considers what scholars and teachers of sport sociology can (un)learn by applying the concept of intersectionality in research and in the classroom. I focus on contemporary forms of activism in the context of sport in the United States (U.S.) and demonstrate intersectionality's utility through three examples of athlete activism from the past 10 years led by sports people. Although each example is focused on a particular axis of difference and domination, such as sexual harassment (read: gender) and Black Lives Matter (read: race), I show that the cause at stake is always already intersectional. This has consequences for the field of sport studies/sport sociology; in engaging in intersectional research, sport sociologists and researchers alike can inform policymakers in sport in the decision-making process. In the final part of the paper, I offer insight from my positionality as a graduate student through reflection on how I-and my colleagues-might understand our role within the "matrix of domination" that characterizes both our subject and our field. As novice sport scholars, graduate students can translate the theoretical meanings and purpose of intersectionality into lived reality by being intentional in what and how we teach and research. In this case, I suggest that intersectional justice in sport does not just mean on the track/field/court; it can also mean in the classroom, thereby expanding our notion of what activism "in sport" is and looks like.

Data for Equity: Creating an Antiracist, Intersectional Approach to Data in a Local Health Department.

To develop recommendations to embed equity into data work at a local health department and a framework for antiracist data praxis. A working group comprised staff from across the agency whose positions involved data collection, analysis, interpretation, or communication met during April-July 2018 to identify and discuss successes and challenges experienced by staff and to generate recommendations for achieving equitable data practices. Local health department in New York City. The recommendations encompassed 6 themes: strengthening analytic skills, communication and interpretation, data collection and aggregation, community engagement, infrastructure and capacity building, and leadership and innovation. Specific projects are underway or have been completed. Improving equity in data requires changes to data processes and commitment to racial and intersectional justice and process change at all levels of the organization and across job functions. We developed a collaborative model for how a local health department can reform data work to embed an equity lens. This framework serves as a model for jurisdictions to build upon in their own efforts to promote equitable health outcomes and become antiracist organizations.

Are managed retreat programs successful and just? A global mapping of success typologies, justice dimensions, and trade-offs

As managed retreat programs expand across the globe, there is an urgent need to assess whether these programs are reducing exposure to climatic hazards, enhancing adaptive capacity, and improving the living conditions of communities in a just and equitable manner or are they exacerbating existing risks and vulnerabilities? Strictly speaking, are retreat programs successful? Using an expansive intersectional justice approach to examine 138 post-resettlement case studies published between 2000 and 2021 across the Global North and South, we identified five typologies of success – techno-managerial, eco-restorative, compensatory, reformative, and transformative – and their trade-offs and synergies. Our meta-analysis incorporated a variety of metrics: relocation types, funding, decision making, socio-economic class, land use change, livelihood options, and social impacts. We found 26% of cases failed, 43% were successful, and 30% are on-going and therefore success was undetermined. The techno-managerial cases, while successful in the limited terms of relocating residents, paid little attention to equity and justice. The eco-restorative and compensatory cases reduced hazard exposure but revealed the synergies and tensions associated with social, ecological, and intergenerational justice. The reformative and transformative cases improved community wellbeing, rootedness, and access to livelihoods while incorporating diverse justice concerns to different degrees. By intersecting these typologies with multiple dimensions of justice, this study advances a novel planning and analytical tool for assessing the potential success or failure of current and future retreat programs.

Reimagining Black and Latinx Student Success Efforts: An Instrumental Case Study Analysis to Inform Intersectional Justice

This instrumental case study examined why institutional diversity efforts on US campuses gained limited success through a case of a predominantly white research university in the Midwest. Through the lens of reimagined organizational behavior theories for intersectional justice, we analyzed the lived experiences of Black and Latinx students and staff members, as well as institutional practices of the case university. The findings suggest that change-oriented leadership and a consciousness of intersectionality are essential for changes.

Emotional Geographies of Exclusion: Whiteness and Ability in Teacher Education Research

Context: Geographies of exclusion (e.g., segregated special education classrooms, school district zoning) are constituted through intersecting oppressive ideologies (e.g., ableism, racism, classism) that co-naturalize notions of “normalcy” and deviance and yield harmful consequences for disabled children of Color. Geographies of exclusion dynamically contribute to and constitute teacher candidates’ feelings about themselves and their social worlds. White teacher candidates’ investment in dominant racial ideologies is well-documented, and recent scholarship has interrogated the role of white emotionality in these processes. However, the extent to which white teacher candidates emotionally ascribe to oppressive constructions of ability have been underexamined. Focus of Study: We sought to uncover how white teacher candidates (TCs) used emotional practices to position themselves in relation to ability within geographies of exclusion as they narrated their educational journeys. Such an examination is necessary to upend ongoing constructions of racial-ability hierarchies in and through teacher education. Using disability critical race theory and emotional geographies, our study was guided by the following question: How do white, nondisabled TCs engage in emotional practices in relation to geographies of exclusion? Research Design: This critical narrative study took place in two teacher education programs in the Pacific Northwest with 42 white, nondisabled teacher candidates. We drew on qualitative mapping as a method for participants to tell stories about themselves and their relationships to places and people over time. All participants generated narratives through written reflections after creating their maps, clarifying aspects of their maps and providing details not captured in their visual representations. Data sources included 42 written narratives and 36 qualitative maps. We analyzed emotional dimensions of TCs’ written narratives and qualitative maps through multiple rounds of both deductive and inductive coding. Conclusions/Recommendations: Our analysis revealed ways white TCs weaponized emotionality to uphold racial-ability hierarchies through emotional geographies of gratitude, ambivalence, and claims to care. By sentimentalizing multiply-marginalized children’s suffering, TCs preserved a façade of being committed to educational justice. We conclude with suggestions for educational researchers, emphasizing that research with white teachers cannot ignore emotional practices that perpetuate harm for multiply-marginalized children. Instead, researchers must surface these engagements head-on, using DisCrit as a driver in teacher education research toward intersectional justice.

Intersectional justice denied: Racist warring masculinity, negative peace, and violence in post‐peace accords El Salvador

AbstractThe skyrocketing violence in Central America calls upon scholars to examine the needed conditions for peace. This article challenges the assumption that the absence of violence among factions in conflict is the chief goal around which peacemaking efforts should operate. Based on ethnographic research with women relatives of male gang members and civil war veterans in El Salvador, I argue that the 1992 Salvadoran Peace Accords that ended twelve years of civil war developed a male‐centered notion of negative peace that ended the armed conflict while naturalizing racialized state violence as part of security measures and ongoing violence against women as low‐grade part of everyday life. In the post‐accords era, gang members advance their version of negative peace, promising to protect women and the nation while continuing to oppress their women relatives. I suggest that the effective path to attain substantive peace is to proactively engage in intersectional justice to redress multiple and intersecting forms of violence. The consequences of peacemaking efforts without this attention will result in continued massive killing and immigration to the United States.

From Support to Action: A Critical Affinity Group of Special Education Teachers of Color

Special education teachers of color (SETOC) multiply experience marginalized positions as students of color in P-12 classrooms, as teachers in teacher preparation programs, and alongside the experiences of students of color with disabilities. Instead of drawing from their identities, SETOC tend to be absorbed into the ableist, behaviorist, and racist system of special education and are expected to become complicit in the system. For educators of color, critical affinity groups provide support, reduce trauma, and support work toward collective intersectional justice. Using qualitative narratives, this paper describes how a critical affinity group (re)positioned three SETOC as smart, knowledgeable, and addressing racism and ableism in schools. Disability studies and critical race theory (DisCrit) illuminated SETOC’s unique experiences and how they came together to process racist/ableist interactions and resisted the erasure of their identities as teachers of color. Implications discuss how teacher preparation programs can support the needs of SETOC.

The politics of intersectional practice: competing concepts of intersectionality

The recent intensification of both intersecting inequalities and demands for change calls for an intersectional approach which can account for the complexity of factors and processes structuring social relations, risk and outcomes. Yet intersectionality is thought to be a challenging theory to apply, and represents a puzzle to policymakers and practitioners navigating policy area and equality strand silos. Based on the first empirical study internationally to explore how both practitioners and policymakers themselves understand how to operationalise ‘intersectionality’, this article establishes different ways in which the theory of intersectionality is applied in practice. ‘Intersectionality’ is understood and used in five contradicting ways in UK equality organising and policy, an integral insight because some of these advance intersectional justice while others serve to further entrench inequalities. This typology is proposed as a heuristic to analyse the ways in which intersectionality may be institutionalised in other countries and sectors, and their outcomes, discursive and material.

Is intersectional racial justice organizing possible? Confronting generic intersectionality

ABSTRACT This article empirically charts how a discursive construction of the separation of race and racial justice organizing, and “intersectionality” serves to uphold white supremacy and efface intersectional marginalization among people of colour. Undertaking the first-study of how UK policymakers and practitioners in equality organizations understand and operationalize “intersectionality”, it maps “generic intersectionality”, which is delivered to benefit “all”. Through empirical examples, its detrimental effects for racial and intersectional justice are demonstrated. First, it is used as a rationale for a relinquishment of a focus on race/racism; racial justice organizations are constructed as uniquely incapable of doing intersectionality. Second, “neutral”, “unspecific” representatives are constructed those capable of knowing about and doing intersectionality. Intersectionally marginalized people are constituted as non-credible knowers and doers of intersectionality. Generic intersectionality is a novel use of intersectionality, which gives a new name to liberal sameness and constructs its beneficiaries as a monolithic, white “everyone”.

“Seeing” Difference Differently: Inquiry-Based Learning as a Site/Sight of Intersectional Justice in English Language Arts

Braiding together theoretical perspectives from critical geography, intersectionality, and critical literacy studies, this article describes how two first-grade teachers in the Northeast facilitated inquiry-based learning to question power, opportunity, and (in)justice in their local school community.

Toward an Intersectional Approach to Health Justice.

Despite unprecedented global wealth creation, health inequity-the unjust health inequality between classes and groups among and within countries-persists, reviving the relevance of social justice as a lens to understand and as an instrument to intervene in these issues. However, the theoretical aspects and polysemous character of social justice as applied in the field of public health are often assumed rather than explicitly explained. An intersectional justice approach to understanding health inequality, inequity, and injustice might be useful. It argues that preexisting class-, race/ethnicity-, and gender-based health injustice and the socially differentiated impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are shaped, interconnectedly, by economic maldistribution, cultural misrecognition, and political misrepresentation. Pursuing health justice requires analyses, strategies, and interventions that integrate the economic, cultural, and political spheres of redistribution, recognition, and representation, respectively. Such an intersectional approach to health justice is even more relevant and compelling in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article is broadly about class, race/ethnicity, and gender political economy of public health-but with a narrower focus on maldistribution, misrecognition, and misrepresentation, shaping social and health injustices.