CRiT walking race, place, and space in the academy

Abstract

This article is a commentary on several issues relevant to critical race theory (CRT), education, and race-related discourse. In this article, we hope to contribute to the dialogue on race and education, and raise a few thought-provoking questions regarding ways of seeing and thinking about CRT as both a theoretical and practical tool when focused on issues of race, structural racism, and education. IntroductionThis article is a social commentary on several issues relevant to critical race theory (CRT), education, and race-related discourse. Public and private discourses on race and racism in American society are moving targets. Just when you or we (individually and/or collaboratively) think, 'Aha, now I understand the complexities of race in America' it slickly slides to the liberal left, or safely scurries to the conservative right (yes, we mean mainstream political left and right). It might drop down to gut bucket nonsense (e.g., what we see on most television newstalk shows), or float up into the whimsical idealism of colorblindness only to gently drift back down to earth landing on the left or right side of the politically correct political spectrum. Alas, it is always on the move, the slippery bastard.In this article, we hope to contribute to the dialogue on race and education, and raise a few thought-provoking questions regarding ways of seeing and thinking about CRT as both a theoretical and practical tool when focused on issues of race, structural racism, and education. We understand that as scholars, educators, and public intellectuals what we say, what we do, and how we do it has political implications. As socially conscious citizens, critical race theorists, social constructivists, CRiT 1 walkers, and progressive black scholars, we work within settings that offer both opportunities to serve as change agents and restrictions that compel adherence to a system that does not always work for people who look like us. We seek to exercise our voices to complement, critique, compare and contrast, and converse on the conditions that shape our experiences.

“Are You Gonna Take My Job Away?”: Latina Bilingual Education Teachers’ Relationships With White Colleagues in a White Racial Frame

“…The persistent casual deployment of microaggressions is understood as “an additional, unspoken aspect of daily life” (Rollock, 2012, p. 519), and a cycle of contending and resisting take place daily. Continuous “Othering” and questioning of social belongingness (Kohli & Solórzano, 2012; Sue, 2010) and ongoing second-guessing their intellectual capabilities and legitimacy (Giles & Hughes, 2009; Smith, Allen, & Danley, 2007), however, physically and emotionally drain people of color. The cumulative effect of daily microaggressions is major part of the hostile professional environment they face.…”

Translanguaging as a Gateway to Black Immigrant Collegians’ Leadership Literacies

“…Despite participants' realization that their academic and leadership literacies needed to be fluid in order to better navigate college, they also discussed the individual ways intellectual silencing, a function of structural placism, played a part in their educational exclusion. To elaborate, participants described classrooms as spaces of angst where their intellectual contributions were frequently questioned, which confirms Giles and Hughes' (2009) and Hughes and Giles' (2010) postulations that PWIs academic spaces were not only historically created to privilege White students, but also exist as places where intellectualism by people of color is challenged. In this study, structural placism encompassed academic and organizational spaces where culturally limiting responses by White peers contributed to participants enacting translanguaging (O.…”

“…Subsequently, we interrogate the dichotomies (Czarniawska, 2004) of participants' narratives to deconstruct then apply analytical strategies to capture emergent themes that provided subjective meanings to the stories shared (Huber & Whelan, 1999). Subsequently, the narratives provided unpack what it means to navigate structural placism (Giles & Hughes, 2009) while using translanguaging (O. García, 2009) to negotiate an HSI campus as firstand second-generation African immigrant male student leaders.…”

Early Childhood Education (ECE) in South Africa: Black Student Teachers’ Views on Push and Pull Forces in their Training

“…We hypothesized that the reason why so few Black students choose ECE for their teaching preparation may be due to institutional factors such as high programme costs and a culturally distant or irrelevant curriculum. We wanted to find out from the students how they experienced the institution and the ECE programme by using the Force Field Model as our point of departure because it also offers the opportunity for the voice of participants to ‘uncover, challenge and expose’ (Giles and Hughes, 2009: 689) practices which are perceived as excluding.…”