ERIC Number: EJ1130471
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 16
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1071-4413
EISSN: N/A
The Dialectic of Racial Justice: Maxine Greene's Contributions to Morally Engaged and Racially Just Education Spaces
Ross, Sabrina
Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, v39 n1 p90-105 2017
More than 50 years after the "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka" decision, the democratic promises inherent in "Brown" have yet to be fulfilled (Franklin 2005) and educational quality, or lack thereof, continues to be intimately linked with social constructions of race (Baszile 2008; Ladson-Billings 2012). Disproportionately high rates of placement in special education, suspension, expulsion, and disproportionately low rates of high school graduation (Blanchett 2009; Finkel 2010) continue to be a reality for racialized others in U.S. schools. This article presents "The Dialectic of Freedom" (Greene 1988) as a curricular intervention in teacher education and highlights the pedagogical significance of this work in encouraging moral engagement and teacher dispositions that support racial justice. The curricular significance of "The Dialectic of Freedom" (hereafter referred to as "Dialectic") for racial justice in education will be elaborated through three main arguments: (1) for pre-service and in-service teachers, a lack of criticality about race and other social issues and a lack of exposure to racialized others limits moral engagement for racial justice; (2) "Dialectic" provides pre-service and in-service educators with a philosophical justification for engagement in moral action and a methodological model of conscious engagement with racialized others; and (3) pre-service and in-service teachers who apply Greene's model of conscious engagement with racialized others through literature can achieve deeper understandings of intersecting issues of race, gender, and oppression that make them more sensitive to the plights of racialized others and more amenable to work for racial justice in schools and communities. To illuminate the pedagogical potential "Dialectic" holds for pre-service and in-service educators, geographic metaphors are used to organize and frame the main arguments of this article.
Descriptors: Race, Justice, Moral Values, Educational Quality, Equal Education, Racial Differences, Intervention, Teacher Education, Teaching Methods, Personality Traits, Freedom, Social Problems, Educational Philosophy, Novels, Power Structure, Gender Differences, Desegregation Litigation, School Desegregation
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: Brown v Board of Education
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A