Building Racial Competency in White Educators through the Transformative Act of Writing


Book Description

This book argues that the transformative act of writing can be used to strengthen the racial competency of White educators in profound ways, leading them to a more comprehensive consciousness regarding the way their racial identity impacts them personally and professionally. Through detailing the experiences of two White educators who engaged in a practice of deeply reflective personal narrative writing about their racial identity, this book presents written data from the participants and discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the participants’ written work. It also provides a strong, evidence-informed case for using reflective writing as a tool for strengthening the racial competency of White educators in order to positively impact their students, their classrooms, and their greater school communities. Lastly, the book offers writing exercises that can be applied to contexts within and outside the field of education so that readers can start the important work of further developing their racial competency. It will appeal to researchers, teacher educators, faculty, and scholars with interest in whiteness studies and advancing anti-racist pedagogies, as well as literacy education and diversity and equity in education.




Building Racial Competency in White Educators through the Transformative Act of Writing


Book Description

This book argues that the transformative act of writing can be used to strengthen the racial competency of White educators in profound ways, leading them to a more comprehensive consciousness regarding the way their racial identity impacts them personally and professionally. Through detailing the experiences of two White educators who engaged in a practice of deeply reflective personal narrative writing about their racial identity, this book presents written data from the participants and discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the participants’ written work. It also provides a strong, evidence-informed case for using reflective writing as a tool for strengthening the racial competency of White educators in order to positively impact their students, their classrooms, and their greater school communities. Lastly, the book offers writing exercises that can be applied to contexts within and outside the field of education so that readers can start the important work of further developing their racial competency. It will appeal to researchers, teacher educators, faculty, and scholars with interest in whiteness studies and advancing antiracist pedagogies, as well as literacy education and diversity and equity in education.




Critical Pedagogy, Race, and Media


Book Description

Critical Pedagogy, Race, and Media investigates how popular media offers the potential to radicalise what and how we teach for inclusivity. Bringing together established scholars in the areas of race and pedagogy, this collection offers a unique approach to critical pedagogy by analysing current and historical iterations of race onscreen. The book forms theoretical and methodological bridges between the disciplinary fields of pedagogy, equality studies, and screen studies to explore how we might engage in and critique screen culture for teaching about race. It employs Critical Race Theory and paradigmatic frameworks to address some of the social crises in Higher Education classrooms, forging new understandings of how notions of race are buttressed by popular media. The chapters draw on popular media as a tool to explore the social, economic, and cultural dimensions of racial injustice and are grouped by Black studies, migration studies, Indigenous studies, Latinx studies, and Asian studies. Each chapter addresses diversity and the necessity for teaching to include visual media which is reflective of a myriad of students’ experiences. Offering opportunities for using popular media to teach for inclusion in Higher Education, this critical and timely book will be highly relevant for academics, scholars, and students across interdisciplinary fields such as pedagogy, human geography, sociology, cultural studies, media studies, and equality studies.




Reckoning With the Whiteness of English Education


Book Description

Learn how to disrupt the reproduction of white supremacy in curriculum and instruction. This volume directly confronts persistent iterations of whiteness in English education through advancing antiracist dispositions and practices. Readers will find a variety of practical implementations of teaching and learning in English Language Arts, English literacy, and English as a Second Language. Chapter authors are educators who describe various teaching projects located in K–12 and teacher education contexts. Each chapter includes a dialogic reaction by an acclaimed and experienced scholar to further extend thought around complex themes. Reckoning With the Whiteness of English Education encourages a more pedagogical view of how to engage teacher and student thought, feeling, and action in ways that combat white supremacy in English education across schools and society. Book Features: Illustrates how and why whiteness enables racism and argues that racism harms both students of color and white students.Describes teaching projects from K–12 and teacher education classrooms that include dialogical exchanges with racially and intellectually diverse scholars.Addresses a range of topics, including using children’s books and young adult literature, teaching emergent multilingual students, developing curriculum, and preparing teachers.Provokes readers to imagine nuanced teaching and learning that invites students into antiracist values and dispositions that resist white supremacy. Contributors: Cecilia J. Aragón, Pauli Badenhorst, Carlin Borsheim-Black, Cynthia Brock, Laurie Dymes, Chelsea Escalante, Jill Ewing Flynn, Adison Godfrey, Justin Grinage, Heidi J. Jones, Kelsey R. Jones-Greer, Timothy J. Lensmire , Erin T. Miller, Abigail Rombalski, Spencer Salas, Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides, Anna Schick, Jenna Min Shim, Jeanine Staples, Erin B. Stutelberg, Samuel Jaye Tanner, Elise Toedt, Paul F. Walsh




Family Engagement in Black Students’ Academic Success


Book Description

This timely volume presents powerful stories told by Black families and students who have successfully negotiated a racially fraught, affluent, and diverse suburban school district in America, to illustrate how they have strategically contested sanctioned racist practices and forged a path for students to achieve a high-quality education. Drawing on rich qualitative data collected through interviews and interactions with parents and kin, students, community activists, and educators, Family Engagement in Black Students’ Academic Success chronicles how pride in Black American family history and values, students’ personal capabilities, and their often collective, proactive challenges to systemic and personal racism shape students’ academic engagement. Familial and collective cultural wealth of the Black community emerges as a central driver in students’ successful achievement. Finally, the text puts forward key recommendations to demonstrate how incorporating the knowledge and voices of Black families in school decision making, remaining critically conscious of race and racial history in everyday actions and longer term policy, and pursuing collective strategies for social justice in education, will help eliminate current opportunity gaps, and will counteract the master narrative of underachievement ever-present in America. This volume will be of interest to students, scholars, and academics with an interest in matters of social justice, equity, and equality of opportunity in education for Black Americans. In addition, the text offers key insights for school authorities in building effective working relationships with Black American families to support the high achievement of Black students in K-12 education.




Higher Education and Capacity Building in Africa


Book Description

Higher education has recently been recognized as a key driver for societal growth in the Global South and capacity building of African universities is now widely included in donor policies. The question is; how do capacity building projects affect African universities, researchers and students? Universities and their scientific knowledges are often seen to have universal qualities; therefore, capacity building may appear straight forward. Higher Education and Capacity Building in Africa contests such universalistic notions. Inspired by ideas about the ‘geography of scientific knowledge’ it explores what role specific places and relationships have in knowledge production, and analyses how cultural experiences are included and excluded in teaching and research. Thus, the different chapters show how what constitutes legitimate scientific knowledge is negotiated and contested. In doing so, the chapters draw on discussions about the hegemony of Western thought in education and knowledge production. The authors’ own experiences with higher education capacity building and knowledge production are discussed and used to contribute to the reflexive turn and rise of auto-ethnography. This book is a valuable resource for researchers and postgraduate students in education, development studies, African studies and human geography, as well as anthropology and history.




Transforming Leadership Pathways for Humanities Professionals in Higher Education


Book Description

Transforming Leadership Pathways for Humanities Professionals in Higher Education includes thirteen essays from a variety of contributors investigating how humanities professionals grapple with the opportunities and challenges of leadership positions. Written by insiders sharing their lived experience, this collection provides an authentic look at the multiple roles humanities specialists play, as well as offers strategies for professional growth, sustenance, and satisfaction. The collection also considers the relationship between disciplinary areas of study, academic training, and the valuable skill sets and habits of mind that serve higher education leaders. While Transforming Leadership Pathways emphasizes that a leadership route in higher education can be a welcome and positive professional move for many humanities scholars, the volume also acknowledges the issues that arise when faculty take on administrative positions while otherwise marginalized on campus because of faculty status, rank, or personal identity. This collection demystifies the path into higher education administration and argues that humanities scholars are uniquely qualified for such roles. Empathetic, deeply analytical, attuned to historical context, and trained in communication, teachers and scholars who hail from humanities disciplines often find themselves well-suited to the demands of complex academic leadership in today’s colleges and universities.




Culturally Responsive Teaching


Book Description

The achievement of students of color continues to be disproportionately low at all levels of education. More than ever, Geneva Gay's foundational book on culturally responsive teaching is essential reading in addressing the needs of today's diverse student population. Combining insights from multicultural education theory and research with real-life classroom stories, Gay demonstrates that all students will perform better on multiple measures of achievement when teaching is filtered through their own cultural experiences. This bestselling text has been extensively revised to include expanded coverage of student ethnic groups: African and Latino Americans as well as Asian and Native Americans as well as new material on culturally diverse communication, addressing common myths about language diversity and the effects of "English Plus" instruction.




Transformative Ethnic Studies in Schools


Book Description

"Drawing on Christine Sleeter's review of research on the academic and social impact of ethnic studies commissioned by the National Education Association, this book will examine the value and forms of teaching and researching ethnic studies. The book employs a diverse conceptual framework, including critical pedagogy, anti-racism, Afrocentrism, Indigeneity, youth participatory action research, and critical multicultural education. The book provides cases of classroom teachers to 'illustrate what such conceptual framework look like when enacted in the classroom, as well as tensions that spring from them within school bureaucracies driven by neoliberalism.' Sleeter and Zavala will also outline ways to conduct research for 'investigating both learning and broader impacts of ethnic research used for liberatory ends'"--




Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves


Book Description

Anti-bias education begins with you! Become a skilled anti-bias teacher with this practical guidance to confronting and eliminating barriers.