Race In Education Research Articles

Counteracting racism in education? Norwegian principals’ efforts in working against racism

ABSTRACT Education plays a fundamental role in the counteraction of racism. Although school leaders hold a central position in counteracting racism, little is known about their everyday efforts in this endeavor. Considering the persistent presence of racism, it is imperative to understand the efforts undertaken by these powerful actors. In this study, in-depth interviews with 14 Norwegian principals have shown patterns of avoidance and denial of racism. Using the concept of everyday racism, principals’ practices were analyzed as multilevel work. This study highlights the importance of awareness of the complexities of racism and the need for powerful actors to engage in the critical exploration of racism and antiracism, and it argues that by making racism a nonissue, principals play a key role in absolving their schools of the pedagogical responsibility to counteract racism. Meanwhile, it also places focus on the structures around principals that inhibit their opportunity to engage in antiracism.

“I Almost Died”: Knowledges of Pain in a Finnish School for Refugee-Background Adults

This critical ethnographic study investigated how knowledges of pain (KoP) surfaced and were negotiated in the classroom discourse of a Finnish adult basic education (ABE) context, more specifically, a school for adult learners with forced migration experience. The emergence of students’ KoP, for instance, their stories of war, violence, and injury, are analyzed through the framework of Critical Race Pedagogy (CRP), which aims to validate and center the experiences of people of color (POC) in educational settings. Conceptualizing KoP as world knowledges, as invitations for self-reflection and re/positioning, and as interruptions, allows for an examination of their pedagogical and transformative potential. The findings show that a variety of KoP came to the fore, claiming and receiving different amounts of space and attention, including instances when they complemented the lesson content. KoP tended to cause minor interruptions to traditional power dynamics and classroom roles, which could nevertheless be entry points for developing ABE-specific CRP. Also, instances of teacher-imposed KoP were documented, which raises the question of how antiracist education can legitimize and incorporate students’ desire for peace and belonging.

“It Scared the Crap Out of Me”: Taking Risks and Talking About Race in a Principal Preparation Course

University faculty have fixated on ways to adequately prepare social justice-oriented school leaders for quite some time. This teacher action research project documents the experiences of 14 aspiring school leaders in a principal preparation course focused on a critical race pedagogy curriculum. Using interview data, this qualitative study examines how white and Latinx students experience coursework grounded in the notion of risk-taking rather than safety. Findings from this study illustrate the following: (A) participants most resistant to the curriculum entered coursework having internalized dominant ideologies regarding merit and achievement; (B) these same students had adverse views regarding their critically conscious classmates and instructor; and lastly (C) all participants in this study demonstrated growth in their thinking regarding racial justice and educational equity. The discussion and implications address the nuances and complexities of promoting a pedagogy framed as risk-taking in preparation programs, particularly in mixed-race settings.

Abandoned lands: Toward a critical race pedagogy and framework for content analysis of U.S. history curriculum

In response to the current debate concerning the (in)appropriateness of using Critical Race Theory (CRT) in K-12 education, and critical race theorists’ competing call for CRT to be intentionally used to shape K-12 Social Studies education in particular, this study presents the results of a content analysis which assessed the extent to which, if at all, CRT perspectives were present within, or advanced by, New York State’s official U.S. History curriculum and the Buffalo Public School District’s most recently mandated middle school U.S. History textbook. Findings from this study suggest that while these curricular materials do not constitute a CRT-based approach to Social Studies Education, they do demonstrate the validity, appropriateness, and value of using CRT in Social Studies Education. This article concludes by offering both a CRT-based pedagogical approach and framework for future content analyses of U.S. History curriculum.

Reducing racism in education: embedding Indigenous perspectives in curriculum

This paper begins with a discussion of a program of work to map and embed Indigenous perspectives at RMIT University, outlines issues relating to the uptake of its guiding principles and actions, and then proposes a rethinking of the work. The authors argue that non-Indigenous educators are often ill equipped to undertake curriculum deconstruction or review. They lack a comprehensive understanding of colonial history, truth telling, racism, and the impact of power dynamics, with its institutional privileging of whiteness. It is often only with this foundational knowledge that staff are positioned to undertake curriculum analysis and ensure that their teaching environments are culturally safe. While this paper is case specific, the original project and the reconsideration of behaviours and actions are relevant to all educational institutions facing similar stumbling blocks when it comes to informing educators in the knowledge and capabilities required to include Indigenous perspectives in curricula and to create safe teaching environments.

Digesting ourselves and others through a critical pedagogy of food and race

ABSTRACT In recent years, there have been numerous calls for Geographers working in higher education to put into practice anti-racist pedagogies. Less well-developed is scholarship on the approaches which expand students’ understanding of race and the socio-spatial and material processes of their own racialization. Within the context of food geographies, visceral pedagogies have been useful for advancing student knowledge on the multi-scalar, dynamic and complex systems of power that influence what we eat. Bringing together insight from critical pedagogy, food geographies, and corporeal feminist understandings of race, in this paper I point to the effectiveness of experimental and embodied pedagogies which expand students’ emotional and cognitive learning about the relationship between race and everyday food practices. Drawing from narrative and interview data with primarily white undergraduate students in Colorado, USA, I argue that embodied, critical pedagogies contribute to anti-racist goals by destabilizing whiteness, linking students’ theoretical understandings of race to everyday practice, and building empathy for/with others. Furthermore, I point to the effectiveness of a variety of student reflection formats, from narrative writing, to sharing a meal, to empathetic listening, to argue for greater attention to not only what we teach in anti-racist pedagogy, but how we teach.

Racism in the Academe: An Ethnographic Research among Aeta (indigenous) students of a state university in the Philippines

Abstract: Access to mainstream education by the indigenous peoples can result in their social and economic empowerment. However, indigenous students' assimilation into mainstream education has been a recent phenomenon in the Philippines. Discrimination persists as one of the disturbing experiences of the indigenous students inside the school. It is one of the leading causes of school dropouts among indigenous students and a barrier to pursuing higher education. Objective: To understand the meaning of this problem and explore the experiences and coping mechanisms of the Aeta (indigenous) students at a Philippine state university towards racism in education. Methods: A qualitative ethnographic study was conducted between August and December 2018 and included two indigenous students enrolled at a state university in Pampanga, Philippines. Ethnographic interviews, informal conversations, and participant observation were conducted to gather data, which was then thematically evaluated. Results: After synthesizing the data, three categories developed: 'Ethnicity, Race, and Racism,' ‘Coping with racism, and ‘Meanings of racism.' The first category explored racism as a phenomenon linked to perceived ethnic and racial differences that cause harm to indigenous students on a physical and emotional level. The second category covered indigenous people's active and passive forms of resistance as they dealt with racism in education. The third category presented that racism is associated with a 'social problem’ as it distresses their ethnic community and interferes with their opportunity to obtain a quality education and a 'motivation' for they believe achieving the same societal status as their non-indigenous counterparts through literacy could bring empowerment to their ethnic group; thus eliminate subordination and inferiority. Conclusion: Racism in education remains a significant challenge for the Aeta students and therefore calls for the reform efforts of local agencies and other stakeholders.

Critical race pedagogy at a crossroads: accusations of reverse discrimination against international non-White faculty in the Trump era and beyond

ABSTRACT The authors aim to illustrate the vernacular notion of reverse discrimination in higher education in the Trump era and beyond. While mapping out how a Whiteness affect morphs from White fragility to victimhood, the study uses Critical Race Theory to examine the discourse of reverse discrimination in a predominately White institution. The authors interrogate accusations of reverse discrimination against international non-White faculty, examining them as attempts to sustain White supremacy. Deploying an autoethnographic approach to critically untangling our racially charged experiences, the study engages in dialogue with critical race educators in support of a liberatory potential in education.

Critical Race Theory: A Tool to Promote an Anti-Racist Pedagogy

There has been much controversy surrounding critical race theory (CRT) and the discussion of race and racism in education. The national emergence of racial injustices such as state-sanctioned violence, police killings of people of color, schools’ pipeline to prison, and COVID-19 racial disparities, in addition to racial justice movements such as #BlackLivesMatter, #SayHerName, and #BlackAndMissing has ignited the need for the social work profession to bring awareness to the pervasiveness of race and to fully acknowledge the role of white supremacy on education, social systems, institutions, legal systems, and culture. This article highlights the need for social work education to develop anti-racist education and practice and increase awareness of white supremacy in the United States. In addition, this article suggests the value of infusing CRT as an anti-racist pedagogy and tool to teach race, actively oppose racism, and organize social change.

Abolishing, Renarrativizing, and Revaluing: Dismantling Antiblack Racism in Education

In this article, we argue for the value of theorizing antiblackness to educational justice efforts, particularly those aimed at ensuring Black students succeed and thrive in schools. We first define antiblackness and describe how a frame of antiblackness can help to illuminate ongoing dehumanization and violence done to Black people in schools and society. We explain how antiblackness manifests in education before describing the potential of three strategies for dismantling antiblackness: abolishing, renarrativizing, and revaluing. Ultimately, we argue that antiblackness theorizing does critical work that, in combination with other traditions in antiracist scholarship and activism, can contribute to Black liberation and racial justice through education.

Decolonization the what, whyand how: A treatieson Indigenous nursing knowledge.

Decolonization the what, whyand how: A treatieson Indigenous nursing knowledge.

Centering Anti-Racism in Social Work Education: Integration of Critical Race Theory Across an MSW Curriculum

Ranging from a multicultural approach to models of cultural sensitivity and cultural competency, social work education has historically avoided challenging the power of racism in shaping inequity in the United States. We argue that integrating critical race theory (CRT) in social work education decenters whiteness, counters color-evasive racism in education, and centers anti-racist ideas and practices. CRT provides social work educators with a framework that explicitly addresses race and racism while challenging social work students to self-reflect critically on their own experiences with privilege and oppression. Further, it enables social work students and practitioners to analyze race and other systems of oppression structurally. This manuscript offers an overview of how CRT is integrated across an MSW curriculum to better prepare social work students to engage in anti-racist social work practice. We describe specific examples of how CRT is infused into the curriculum in theory and practice courses. We conclude with an acknowledgment that CRT is not without limitations and call for more empirical research that assesses the effectiveness of CRT’s application to social work praxis.

The Development and Evaluation of the Antiracist School Counseling Inventory

This article presents the development of the Antiracist School Counseling Inventory (ASCI), an instrument designed to support school counselors engaging in antiracist counseling practice. We administered the ASCI to a sample of 457 practicing school counselors. Results of an exploratory factor analysis yielded a 19-item exploratory model encompassing four factors: (a) Awareness of Institutional and Educational Racism, (b) Promoting Inclusion and Equity, (c) Challenging Racism and (d) Responsive Leadership and Advocacy. The ASCI demonstrated promising evidence of convergent validity and internal consistency reliability. We discuss the development of the ASCI and implications for school counselors and future research.

Employing an Abolitionist, Critical Race Pedagogy in CS: Centering the Voices, Experiences and Technological Innovations of Black Youth

This paper proposes a pedagogical extension of culturally responsive praxis called abolitionist, critical race pedagogy in CS. To showcase the power and potentiality of this pedagogy, this paper examines the experiences of 2 cohorts of Black high school students (n = 30) who participated in a critical race technology course that was taught during the dual pandemic of COVID-19 and anti-Black racism. The goal of this summer course was to employ an abolitionist, critical race pedagogy in CS to foster Black students’ ability to critically examine the ubiquity of anti-Black racism within the socio-technical architectures (e.g. code, data, algorithms and interfaces) of popular technologies, and to leverage critical race computational thinking to design race-conscious and justice-oriented technology products.

On collegial deliberation as a tool to counteract racism in education

ABSTRACT This paper analyses and discusses the possibilities and challenges of collegial mutual deliberation among teachers as a way of counteracting racism. It takes its starting point in research on teacher collaboration that emphasises the importance of creating conditions locally for critical discussions, building on knowledge from different perspectives and going beyond simple solutions. With a focus on the practical, the idea of deliberative communication serves as a theoretical lens to analyse discussions among eight teachers on their responses to racism. The study provides theoretical and empirical knowledge about the potential contribution of collegial deliberation to developing a communicative teacher community that counteracts racism.

The History of Education in Nursing: The Time Is Now.

The History of Education in Nursing: The Time Is Now.

Factors Predicting Satisfaction With a Microaggression Workshop for School Personnel

Racial microaggressions, or subtle race-based insults are associated with negative consequences for receivers. Institutional racism in education directly influences the dissemination of these transgressions in schools, as school personnel may engage in microaggressive behavior toward each other and their students. Given recent calls to address racism, schools and districts may seek to implement trainings to improve school personnel’s understanding of these transgressions and their consequences. As part of the current study, we explored factors that might contribute to school personnel’s satisfaction with a microaggression training. Participants completed survey items to assess their colorblind racial attitudes, satisfaction with the workshop, and their perceptions surrounding the need for such trainings. We found that colorblind attitudes and perceptions of necessity predicted satisfaction. Implications and future directions for research are discussed. Impact Statement Calls to address racial injustice in response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor during the summer of 2021 have produced an increase in requests for antiracism workshops and trainings across several organizations and professions. In K–12 schools, these trainings may be beneficial in helping school personnel learn about and address racial microaggressions (race-based insults), which may hinder students’ success. Although it is imperative that these conversations take place, it is equally important that we are able to understand how school personnel engage in these trainings to increase the likelihood that their behavior will change because of participation. The goal of this study was to understand factors that contribute to school personnel’s satisfaction with a microaggression training.

An Ethics of Refusal: The Insistence of Possibles as a Speculative Pragmatic Challenge to Systemic Racism in Education

AbstractTo address an ethics of refusal in higher education is to wager in the name of future possibles not already governed by the extractive politics of colonial progress and oppressive regimes of knowing and doing. In this essay, Petra Mikulan shows American pragmatism to have always been, in a certain sense, post‐Anthropocene in its condition of emergence, bound up with settler colonialism and its extractive geopolitics. However, pragmatism in its speculative trust can also help engage education in thinking of a future that does not belong to a presupposed humanity and its “nature” by dramatizing a certain insistence of educational institutions on maintaining comfort and trust in the “common good.” What is at stake in education facing planetary ecological devastation and intensified racial and social injustices, Mikulan contends, is an ethics of refusal of institutionalized learning, knowing, and doing tout court, particularly if these educational regimes continue to insist on governing what are deemed the only possible (and thus impossible) enactments of education.

Sounding Together: Collaborative Perspectives on U.S. Music in the 21st Century, edited by Charles Hiroshi Garrett and Carol J. Oja

<i>Sounding Together: Collaborative Perspectives on U.S. Music in the 21st Century</i>, edited by Charles Hiroshi Garrett and Carol J. Oja

Critical What What? A Theoretical Systematic Review of 15 Years of Critical Race Theory Research in Social Studies Education, 2004–2019

Since its introduction as an analytic and theoretical tool for the examination of racism in education, CRT scholarship has proliferated as the most visible critical theory of race in educational research. Whereas CRT’s popularity can be viewed as a welcome sign, scholars continually caution against its misappropriation and overuse, which dilute its criticality. We draw from the cautionary ethos of this canon of literature as the impetus for examining CRT’s terrain in social studies education research. Starting from Ladson-Billings’s watershed edited CRT text on race and social studies in 2003, this study provides a comprehensive theoretical review of scholarly literature in the social studies education field pertinent to the nexus of CRT, racialized citizenship, and race(ism). To guide our review, we asked how social studies education scholars have defined and used CRT as an analytic and theoretical framework in social studies education research from 2004 to 2019, as well as how scholars have positioned CRT within social studies education research to foreground the relationship between citizenship and race. Overall, findings from our theoretical review illustrated that contrary to the proliferation of CRT in educational research, CRT was slow to catch on as a theoretical and analytic framework in social studies education, as only seven of the articles in our analysis were published between 2004 and 2010. However, CRT emerged as a viable framework for the examination of race, racism, and racialized citizenship between 2011 and 2019, with a majority of these studies emphasizing (a) the centrality of race as a core tenet of CRT, (b) idealist interrogations of race, (c) the perspectives of teachers of color and White teachers in learning how to teach about race, and (d) the role of race and racism in curricular analyses that serve as counternarrative to the master script of the nation’s linear social progress in social studies education.