A rich history of scholarship has demonstrated the ways in which popular stereotypes of disenfranchised communities, including people living in poverty, affect individual biases and preconceptions. Less attention has been paid to the ways in which such stereotypes help frame policy and practice responses regarding social problems, such as the…

This article examines minority teacher recruitment policies and programs of the past two decades and explores their influence on the racial/ethnic makeup of the teaching force in elementary and secondary public schools. The results show that while important progress has been made toward increasing the overall number and proportion of minority…

This article investigates the role of autoethnographic research as the methodological tool of choice for a Chicana who positions herself along the liminal perspective. I posit that "testimonios", autobiographical educational experiences, must be used as valid ethnographic research to contribute to existing knowledge around issues of educational…

This performance "testimonio" is the result of collaboration between two U.S. Latina graduate students/ university instructors: a Latina of Puerto Rican descent and a white Chicana. It is a dialogue in which the authors "come together to engage our differences, face-to-face, and work to find common ground" (The Latina Feminist Group, 2001, p. 1).…

In 2003, the Japanese Ministry of Education accredited the high school diplomas of most "ethnic high schools," which are schools by and for specific ethnic minority populations, such as Korean, Brazilian, or Chinese students in Japan. Prior to this policy, diplomas from most ethnic high schools were not recognized by the Japanese government as…

Facilitating democratic discussions about race among students in classroom environments continues to be a problem facing educators. When these discussions occur, they are facilitated mostly by faculty of color. However, given the underrepresentation of faculty of color within higher education institutions and that white students respond…

Given persisting patterns of racial, ethnic, and class re-segregation, this study considers opportunities that high school-aged youth have to cross these divides. What critical learning might occur? What can educators learn from student reflections toward providing opportunities, experiences, or structures to challenge the status quo? In…

Empirical evidence shows that intergroup dialogue programs promote changes in ethnic-racial identity and racism awareness among college students. Expanding on this research, this study examines the effects of intergroup dialogues on adolescents' racial consciousness. Self-reports of 147 adolescents (13-19 years old), of various racial and ethnic…

How do students of color and multiracial students learn to make sense of and navigate race within historically white institutions (HWIs)? And, what pedagogies and inter-/intragroup dynamics facilitate increased understanding of issues of race, racial identity development, and racism in the U.S.? This project examines students' of color (SOC) and…

In public high schools across the country young people deal with issues of discrimination and bullying that are often the result of intolerance and misunderstandings across social identities. Progressive educators who advocate for critical multicultural and critical pedagogical approaches have proposed that young people need to have educational…

Brazilian education activist Paulo Freire (1970) argues that to create social change, oppressed people must have critical consciousness about their conditions, and that this consciousness is developed through dialogue. He theorizes that dialogue allows for reflection and unity building, tools needed to transform society. When considering racial…

This article draws upon five different empirical studies to examine how critical dialogue can be fostered across educational settings and with diverse populations: middle-school students discussing immigration picture books, a teacher study group exploring texts on homelessness, a teacher education class studying critical literacy, working class…

This study investigated the relevance of participants' social group differences with regard to the processes and outcomes of community dialogues on affirmative action. We found that participants' professional status was most salient to both the quantity of participants' contributions as well as their persuasiveness within the dialogues, with…

Intergroup dialogue is designed to foster commitment to action. This article analyzes papers written by students in 52 intergroup dialogue courses (N = 739) to test a theoretical model of how intergroup dialogue is expected to encourage frequency of acting to educate others and to collaborate with others. The theoretical model posits that dialogue…

Although the importance of engaged listening in intergroup dialogue (IGD) is recognized, we know relatively little about when or why participants in IGD actually listen or what they gain from listening. Using qualitative analyses of interviews conducted with undergraduates who had recently completed a race/ethnicity or gender focused IGD course,…