This study explores the impact of reading "Huckleberry Finn" through the lens of critical race theory for both teacher and students in a racially diverse urban high school environment. The teacher/researcher used narrative inquiry and creative non-fiction to examine student language usage, white privilege (including her own), and student…

The goal of this article is to examine the racially hostile environment of U.S. public schooling towards Black males. Drawing on the work of Foucault ("Discipline and punish. The birth of the prison," Penguin Books, London, 1977; "Michel Foucault: beyond structuralism and hermeneutics," The Harvester Press, Brighton, 1982)…

Using Holland et al.'s ("Identity and agency in cultural worlds," Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1998) theory of identity and their concept of figured worlds, this article provides an overview of how twenty-five undergraduates of color came to produce a Multiracial identity. Using Critical Race Theory methodology with…

In this article, I attempt to elucidate some key intersections between critical race theory (CRT) in synthesis with English language learning as a way to examine linguistic and racial identity in English language teaching. I ask: How does critical race theory apply to English language learners when language rather than race is fore-grounded? What…

This critical race theory (CRT)-framed qualitative study (n = 9) examined racism within a context of urban teacher leadership development. A series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with three White principals, who each identified one White and one African American teacher as "most promising" leadership potential. These…

This article examines the ways that the charter school movement is experienced and negotiated by educators who entered the profession through Teach For America (TFA). TFA's impact has been significant in the larger educational trend towards market-based reforms and, in particular, the charter school movement. Analyzed through a critical…

The purpose of this research was to examine question asking practices in a youth participatory action research (yPAR) after school program housed at an elementary school. The research question was: In which ways did the adult question asking practices in a yPAR setting challenge and/or reproduce conventional models of power in educational…

Educational leaders attempting to enact equity-focused change in their schools are frequently met with fierce opposition by politically powerful parents whose children are well served by the status quo. The purpose of this conceptual article is to: (a) explore the utility of "Critical Race Theory" as a framework for helping K-12 school…

This paper argues that antiracist solidarity in education remains urgent, but that in framing solidarity projects critical educators have not been sufficiently attentive to the shape and extent of racism as a global ordering of social life. We describe the paternalism that has determined historical efforts at solidarity between African Americans…

Since a major purpose of critical pedagogy is to change society by changing schools, critical pedagogy must gain an increased presence within K-12 schools. For this to happen, however, critical educators must begin to more fully recognize and appreciate the structural obstacles that schools present to critical educational change. This paper…

In this article a graduate level diversity course, "Diversity & Equity in Higher Education" that is based on Johnson's (2005) "Privilege, Power, and Difference," and Critical Race Theory (CRT) (Tate in "Rev Res Educ" 22:195-247, 1997) is described. Johnson's concepts, such as paths of least resistance,…

This ethnographic research was conducted over a three-year period, and documents the efforts of a committed group of parents and community members who through community-based research sought to address the disproportionate underachievement of African American students within their city's public school system. Specifically, the parents and…

Despite the laudable intent of various educational initiatives in raising the achievement level of all children, limited progress has been made. In an effort to diminish the achievement gap of students of color, some researchers have examined the cultural relevancy of the curriculum in promoting student achievement. The purpose of this mixed…

In recent years, much research has documented the benefits of parent involvement and offered strategies on how educators can encourage parents' trade; participation in their children's education. While the literature has brought much needed attention to school-family relationships, little is known about parents who are activists for educational…

Reviewing the literature on critical pedagogy (CP) and democratic education (DE) reveals that very little has been written comparing the two (Knight and Pearl in Urban Rev 32(2):197-226, 2000). After reading the Urban Review article by Knight and Pearl (2000)--the only publication explicitly comparing the two approaches to education--I was…