In 2010, Arizona passed legislation that attacked ethnic studies in k-12 (kindergarten to 12th grade). Specifically, Mexican American/Raza Studies (MARS) was targeted by the state Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), and, in effect, would be eliminated by the Prohibited Courses; Discipline; Schools Law (Prohibited Courses Law). This study utilizes document and content analysis to examine both a letter written by the SPI calling for the elimination of MARS, and the text of the Prohibited Courses Law. Framing the work within critical race theory, these two documents work together to normalize and make property of whiteness in Arizona's public schools, and re-create a hegemonic status quo. In addition, this study analyzes how MARS acts as a site of counter-hegemonic activity by scrutinizing customary discourses as presented in schools and curricula.

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This qualitative self-study of the mentoring experiences of three junior faculty members and their mentor addressed the question: How did we negotiate the dynamics of powerlessness and power in our mentor-junior faculty relationships? Using portraiture as the methodology, we created dialogic word “portraits” to illustrate our mentoring processes, based on retrospective reviews of our emails, discussion transcriptions, and free-writes. The portraits were examined for patterns relating to power, powerlessness, and the process of negotiation that involved race, gender, mentor credibility, novice authority, frustration, disagreements, and ultimately, collaboration. While the larger study also addressed the relationships within the institution, this article focuses on the mentoring relationships that supported the junior faculty members’ efforts to write for publication, including this article. The study that is reported in this article is part of a larger investigation that focused on power and powerlessness, as experienced by junior faculty, both in the institution and with the mentor, and the ways these concerns were negotiated, as we found these concepts evidenced repeatedly in the portraits that captured our interactions. The data were used to answer the following question: How did we negotiate the dynamics of powerlessness and power in our mentor-junior faculty relationships?

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