Critical Educator – serie

Deficit thinking is a pseudoscience founded on racial and class bias. It "blames the victim" for school failure instead of examining how schools are structured to prevent poor students and students of color from learning. Dismantling Contemporary Deficit Thinking provides comprehensive critiques and anti-deficit thinking alternatives to this oppressive theory by framing the linkages between prevailing theoretical perspectives and contemporary practices within the complex historical development of deficit thinking.Dismantling Contemporary Deficit Thinking examines the ongoing social construction of deficit thinking in three aspects of current discourse – the genetic pathology model, the culture of poverty model, and the "at-risk" model in which poor students, students of color, and their families are pathologized and marginalized. Richard R. Valencia challenges these three contemporary components of the deficit thinking theory by providing incisive critiques and discussing competing explanations for the pervasive school failure of many students in the nation’s public schools. Valencia also discusses a number of proactive, anti-deficit thinking suggestions from the fields of teacher education, educational leadership, and educational ethnography that are intended to provide a more equitable and democratic schooling for all students.

Deficit thinking is a pseudoscience founded on racial and class bias. It "blames the victim" for school failure instead of examining how schools are structured to prevent poor students and students of color from learning. Dismantling Contemporary Deficit Thinking provides comprehensive critiques and anti-deficit thinking alternatives to this oppressive theory by framing the linkages between prevailing theoretical perspectives and contemporary practices within the complex historical development of deficit thinking.Dismantling Contemporary Deficit Thinking examines the ongoing social construction of deficit thinking in three aspects of current discourse – the genetic pathology model, the culture of poverty model, and the "at-risk" model in which poor students, students of color, and their families are pathologized and marginalized. Richard R. Valencia challenges these three contemporary components of the deficit thinking theory by providing incisive critiques and discussing competing explanations for the pervasive school failure of many students in the nation’s public schools. Valencia also discusses a number of proactive, anti-deficit thinking suggestions from the fields of teacher education, educational leadership, and educational ethnography that are intended to provide a more equitable and democratic schooling for all students.

America Indian culture and traditions have survived an unusual amount of oppressive federal and state educational policies intended to assimilate Indian people and destroy their cultures and languages. Yet, Indian culture, traditions, and people often continue to be treated as objects in the classroom and in the curriculum. Using a critical race theory framework and a unique "counternarrative" methodology, American Indian Education explores a host of modern educational issues facing American Indian peoples—from the impact of Indian sports mascots on students and communities, to the uses and abuses of law that often never reach a courtroom, and the intergenerational impacts of American Indian education policy on Indian children today. By interweaving empirical research with accessible composite narratives, Matthew Fletcher breaches the gap between solid educational policy and the on-the-ground reality of Indian students, highlighting the challenges faced by American Indian students and paving the way for an honest discussion about solutions.

America Indian culture and traditions have survived an unusual amount of oppressive federal and state educational policies intended to assimilate Indian people and destroy their cultures and languages. Yet, Indian culture, traditions, and people often continue to be treated as objects in the classroom and in the curriculum. Using a critical race theory framework and a unique "counternarrative" methodology, American Indian Education explores a host of modern educational issues facing American Indian peoples—from the impact of Indian sports mascots on students and communities, to the uses and abuses of law that often never reach a courtroom, and the intergenerational impacts of American Indian education policy on Indian children today. By interweaving empirical research with accessible composite narratives, Matthew Fletcher breaches the gap between solid educational policy and the on-the-ground reality of Indian students, highlighting the challenges faced by American Indian students and paving the way for an honest discussion about solutions.

The children of undocumented migrants in the U.S. are trapped at the intersection of two systems in crisis: the public education system and the immigration law system. Based on a long tradition of scholarship in Latino education and on newer critical race theory ideas, Persistent Inequality answers burning questions about how educational policy has to rise to meet the unique challenges of undocumented students’ lives as well as those which face nearly all Latinos in the U.S. educational system. How solid is the Supreme Court precedent, Plyler v. Doe, that allows undocumented children the opportunity to attend public school K-12 free of charge? What would happen if the Supreme Court overruled it? What is the DREAM Act and how would this proposed federal law affect the lives of undocumented students? How have immigration raids affected public school children and school administrators? To shed some light on these vital questions, the authors provide a critical analysis of the various legal and policy aspects of the U.S. educational system, asserting that both the legal and educational systems in this country need to address the living and working conditions of undocumented Latino students and remove the obstacles to educational achievement which these students struggle with daily.

The children of undocumented migrants in the U.S. are trapped at the intersection of two systems in crisis: the public education system and the immigration law system. Based on a long tradition of scholarship in Latino education and on newer critical race theory ideas, Persistent Inequality answers burning questions about how educational policy has to rise to meet the unique challenges of undocumented students’ lives as well as those which face nearly all Latinos in the U.S. educational system. How solid is the Supreme Court precedent, Plyler v. Doe, that allows undocumented children the opportunity to attend public school K-12 free of charge? What would happen if the Supreme Court overruled it? What is the DREAM Act and how would this proposed federal law affect the lives of undocumented students? How have immigration raids affected public school children and school administrators? To shed some light on these vital questions, the authors provide a critical analysis of the various legal and policy aspects of the U.S. educational system, asserting that both the legal and educational systems in this country need to address the living and working conditions of undocumented Latino students and remove the obstacles to educational achievement which these students struggle with daily.

"Blending critical race theory, contemporary pragmatism, and the new materialism, this book raises questions about methodology, power, and change. Educational policy analysis needs this book, as do curriculum studies, teacher education, and antiracist work for its focus on how policy is lived by those on the receiving end of structural oppression."Patti Lather, Department of Education Studies, Ohio State university"This provocative analysis offered by Rosiek and Kinslow offers an opportunity for researchers, policy makers, and school leaders and educators to think about the lived experience of Black students in desegregating and resegregating schools. The authors precisely detail the path leading to social and education policies that generated more suffering for Black students and also served to maintain white racial advantage in urban schools and communities."Michael J. Dumas, graduate School of Education and African American Studies Department, University of California, Berkeley "Calling for an ontological reorientation to combat the force of whiteness, Rosiek and Kinslow present agonizing interviews with students subjected to resegregation and institutional racism. They call for readers to inhabit a ‘respectful solidarity’ with the students who analyze their experience with sharp insight, outrage, despair, and resolve."Stacy Alaimo, Professor of English, University of Texas at ArlingtonResegregation as Curriculum offers a compelling look at the formation and implementation of school resegregation as contemporary education policy, as well as its impact on the meaning of schooling for students subject to such policies. Working from a ten-year study of a school district undergoing a process of resegregation, Rosiek and Kinslow examine the ways this "new racial segregation" is rationalized and the psychological and sociological effects it has on the children of all races in that community. Drawing on critical race theory, agential realism, and contemporary pragmatist semiotics, the authors expose how these events functioned as a hidden curriculum that has profound repercussions on the students' identity formation, self-worth, conceptions of citizenship, and social hope. This important account of racial stratification of educational opportunity expands our understanding of the negative consequences of racial segregation in schools and serves as a critical resource for academics, educators, and experts who are concerned about the effects of resegregation nationwide.Resegregation as Curriculum was the recipient of the O.L. Davis Book of the year award from the American Association for Teaching and Curriculum (2016).

"Blending critical race theory, contemporary pragmatism, and the new materialism, this book raises questions about methodology, power, and change. Educational policy analysis needs this book, as do curriculum studies, teacher education, and antiracist work for its focus on how policy is lived by those on the receiving end of structural oppression."Patti Lather, Department of Education Studies, Ohio State university"This provocative analysis offered by Rosiek and Kinslow offers an opportunity for researchers, policy makers, and school leaders and educators to think about the lived experience of Black students in desegregating and resegregating schools. The authors precisely detail the path leading to social and education policies that generated more suffering for Black students and also served to maintain white racial advantage in urban schools and communities."Michael J. Dumas, graduate School of Education and African American Studies Department, University of California, Berkeley "Calling for an ontological reorientation to combat the force of whiteness, Rosiek and Kinslow present agonizing interviews with students subjected to resegregation and institutional racism. They call for readers to inhabit a ‘respectful solidarity’ with the students who analyze their experience with sharp insight, outrage, despair, and resolve."Stacy Alaimo, Professor of English, University of Texas at ArlingtonResegregation as Curriculum offers a compelling look at the formation and implementation of school resegregation as contemporary education policy, as well as its impact on the meaning of schooling for students subject to such policies. Working from a ten-year study of a school district undergoing a process of resegregation, Rosiek and Kinslow examine the ways this "new racial segregation" is rationalized and the psychological and sociological effects it has on the children of all races in that community. Drawing on critical race theory, agential realism, and contemporary pragmatist semiotics, the authors expose how these events functioned as a hidden curriculum that has profound repercussions on the students' identity formation, self-worth, conceptions of citizenship, and social hope. This important account of racial stratification of educational opportunity expands our understanding of the negative consequences of racial segregation in schools and serves as a critical resource for academics, educators, and experts who are concerned about the effects of resegregation nationwide.Resegregation as Curriculum was the recipient of the O.L. Davis Book of the year award from the American Association for Teaching and Curriculum (2016).

WINNER 2017 O.L. Davis, Jr. AATC Outstanding Book in Education AwardWINNER 2017 American Educational Studies Association Critics Choice AwardThrough rich ethnographic detail, Urban Educational Identity captures the complexities of urban education by documenting the everyday practices of teaching and learning at a high-achieving, high-poverty school. Drawing on over two years of intensive fieldwork and analysis, author Sara M. Childers shows how students, teachers, and parents work both within and against traditional deficit discourses to demonstrate the challenges and paradoxes of urban schooling. It offers an up-close description of how macro-government policies are interpreted, applied, and even subverted for better or worse by students as active agents in their own education. The book moves on to develop and analyze the concept of "urban cachet," tracing how conceptions of race and class were deeply entwined with the very practices for success that propelled students towards graduation and college entrance. A poignant, insightful, and practical analysis, Urban Educational Identity is a timely exploration of how race and class continue to matter in schools.