CRT, Feminist Theory, & Intersectionality
Published on Oct 28, 2017
Deck created for Dr. Melguizo's class in the Urban Education Policy PhD program at USC Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. On critical race theory, feminist theory, and intersectionality.
MORE DECKS TO EXPLORE
PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Critical Race Theory,
Feminist Theory &
Intersectionality
Photo by Daniela Cuevas
Introduction, Discussion, & Application
November 2017/Dr.Melguizo 651/USC PhD Urban Ed Policy Program
Photo by Al_HikesAZ
Agenda
- Get personal
- Define theories
- Meet the authors
- Fill in the gaps
- Apply
- Conclude
Photo by Frank Wuestefeld
"Radical feminism challenges conventional definitions of politics to include the personal as political" (Stromquist, 1995).
References Millet (1972) and MacKinnon (1989) here
"Critical race theorists view [experiential knowledge] as a strength and draw explicitly on the lived experiences of people of color..." (Solorzano & Yosso, 2002)
Critical Race Theory Readings
- Ladson-Billings & Tate (1995)
- Solorzano & Yosso (2002)
- Suarez-Orozco et al. (2015)
- Solorzano (2005)
Critical Race Theory
- CRT
- Comes from legal scholarship (Bell, 1980)
- Race as a tool to understand educational inequities (Ladson -Billings & Tate, 1995)
Dr. Ladson-Billings
On Critical Race Theory
Untitled Slide
Dr. Daniel Solorzano
UCLA
Director of All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity
https://ucaccord.gseis.ucla.edu/about
https://ucaccord.gseis.ucla.edu/about/executive-board-1/daniel-g.-solorzano
UCLA
Director of All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity
https://ucaccord.gseis.ucla.edu/about
https://ucaccord.gseis.ucla.edu/about/executive-board-1/daniel-g.-solorzano
Untitled Slide
Dr. Tara Yosso was just hired at Riverside as part of a cluster hire, see here: http://newsroom.education.ucr.edu/2017/10/16/ucrs-graduate-school-of-educat...
Previously at Univ of Santa Barbara
Univ of Michigan
PhD from UCLA
Previously at Univ of Santa Barbara
Univ of Michigan
PhD from UCLA
Solorzano & Yosso (2002)
- POC marginalized in U.S. education
- Most research decenters & dismisses COC
- Majoritarian storytelling problematic
- Whose stories are privileged in educational contexts?
- Define critical race methodology
POC = People of Color
COC = Communities of Color
SOC = Students of Color
Critical race methodology: theoretically grounded approach to research that:
1. foregrounds race and racism in all aspects of the research process
2. challenges traditional research paradigms, texts, and theories used to explain the experiences of SOC,
3. liberatory/transformative solution to racial, gender, and class subordination,
4. views racialized, gendered, and classed experiences of SOC as sources of strength
5. better understands experiences of SOC through interdisciplinary lens, drawing on ethnic studies, women's studies, sociology, history, humanities, and law
COC = Communities of Color
SOC = Students of Color
Critical race methodology: theoretically grounded approach to research that:
1. foregrounds race and racism in all aspects of the research process
2. challenges traditional research paradigms, texts, and theories used to explain the experiences of SOC,
3. liberatory/transformative solution to racial, gender, and class subordination,
4. views racialized, gendered, and classed experiences of SOC as sources of strength
5. better understands experiences of SOC through interdisciplinary lens, drawing on ethnic studies, women's studies, sociology, history, humanities, and law
Photo by DaveBleasdale
Tenets of Critical Race Theory
- Intercentricity of race and racism w/ other forms of subordination
- Challenge to dominant ideology
- Commitment to social justice
- Centrality of experiential knowledge
- Transdisciplinary perspective
1. Layers of subordination must be recognized
2. Dominant ideology = meritocracy, objectivity, colorblindness, race neutrality, and equal opportunity; "Critical race scholars argue that these traditional claims act as a camouflage for the self-interest, power, and privilege of dominant groups in U.S. society". Rejects notions of neutral or objective researcher
3. Social justice research agenda that eliminates oppression and empowers minority groups
4. POC experiential knowledge is legitimate, appropriate and critical; it is a strength. Lived experiences of POC through storytelling, family histories, biographies, scenarios, parables, cuentos, testimonios, chronicles, and narratives. Exposes deficit-informed research and methods that silence and distort experiences POC.
5. Places race and racism in historical and contemporary
All together these point to a methodology that challenges and offers an alternative to normative social science research that masks racism (and wrongly claims neutrality)
Storytelling privileges white middle-class narrative both explicitly and implicitly; "culture cited as leading cause of low SES and educational failure of SOC" (p. 31)
2. Dominant ideology = meritocracy, objectivity, colorblindness, race neutrality, and equal opportunity; "Critical race scholars argue that these traditional claims act as a camouflage for the self-interest, power, and privilege of dominant groups in U.S. society". Rejects notions of neutral or objective researcher
3. Social justice research agenda that eliminates oppression and empowers minority groups
4. POC experiential knowledge is legitimate, appropriate and critical; it is a strength. Lived experiences of POC through storytelling, family histories, biographies, scenarios, parables, cuentos, testimonios, chronicles, and narratives. Exposes deficit-informed research and methods that silence and distort experiences POC.
5. Places race and racism in historical and contemporary
All together these point to a methodology that challenges and offers an alternative to normative social science research that masks racism (and wrongly claims neutrality)
Storytelling privileges white middle-class narrative both explicitly and implicitly; "culture cited as leading cause of low SES and educational failure of SOC" (p. 31)
Photo by marcella bona
Counter-Storytelling
An approach of critical race methodology: Resisting, analyzing, challenging, exposing
Solorzano & Yosso (2002) define counter-story as method of telling the stories of people whose experiences are not often told; rooted in African American, Chicana/o and Native American communities.
3 general forms:
1. Personal stories or narratives
2. Other people's stories or narratives
3. Composite stories or narratives, draw on "data" to examine racialized, sexualized, and classed experiences of POC
How to create counter-stories, one example drawing on theoretical sensitivity (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) and cultural intuition (Delgado, 1998)
1. Find sources of data, such as primary sources including focus groups and interviews using critical lenses of race, gender, and class
2. Search for secondary data analysis in social science, humanity, and legal literature
3. Add own personal and professional experiences related to concepts and ideas
These led to composite characters to tell a story, using dialogue to interact with one another
Differs from fictional storytelling, in that composite characters are grounded in real-life experiences and actual empirical data
Critical race methodology:
-uses multiple methods
-unconventional and creative
3 general forms:
1. Personal stories or narratives
2. Other people's stories or narratives
3. Composite stories or narratives, draw on "data" to examine racialized, sexualized, and classed experiences of POC
How to create counter-stories, one example drawing on theoretical sensitivity (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) and cultural intuition (Delgado, 1998)
1. Find sources of data, such as primary sources including focus groups and interviews using critical lenses of race, gender, and class
2. Search for secondary data analysis in social science, humanity, and legal literature
3. Add own personal and professional experiences related to concepts and ideas
These led to composite characters to tell a story, using dialogue to interact with one another
Differs from fictional storytelling, in that composite characters are grounded in real-life experiences and actual empirical data
Critical race methodology:
-uses multiple methods
-unconventional and creative
Photo by Robyn Budlender
Untitled Slide
Untitled Slide
Sue et al. 2007
Paper online here: http://psycnet.apa.org.libproxy1.usc.edu/record/2007-07130-001
Microagressions defined as: "brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative... slights or insults" (Sue et. al., 2007)
Paper online here: http://psycnet.apa.org.libproxy1.usc.edu/record/2007-07130-001
Microagressions defined as: "brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative... slights or insults" (Sue et. al., 2007)
Untitled Slide
9 types of racial microaggessions identified
Suarez-Orozco et al. (2015)
- Microagressions (MAs) lead to anxiety, depression, and anger
- Distract "Did that really just happen?"
- Disrupt: "Do I have to prove myself as a member of my group yet again?"
- Cumulative effects of "othering"
Why do microagressions matter?
They have been linked to anxiety, depression, and anger
Photo by Leonrw
MAs in Educational Settings
- Covert and overt
- Instructors ill-prepared for conversations on race
- Difficult for all faculty (White and of Color)
Research on MAs has mostly been qualitative, retrospective, small samples, and about 4-year college students
This study focus
This study focus
Photo by Justin Veenema
2015 Study
- Real-time covert MAs in community college classrooms
- Theoretical basis: CRT & intersectionality framework
- RQ's: To what extent do MAs emerge across campuses and classroom types? What types of MAs are delivered in diverse CC classrooms? Who are the perpetrators and who are the victims?
CC=community college
Photo by Kingsway School
Methods
- 3 CC's in NYC metro area
- Part of larger RICC study
- Full-time instructors and adjuncts
- Classroom Interpersonal Microagressions Protocol used
- 60 classrooms observed
- Used trained observers instead of self-reports
RICC = Research on Immigrants in Community College Study, a multiphase embedded mixed-methods study
Data collection methods: observations, focus groups, campus ethnographies, semistructured interviews
Coding references Miles & Huberman (1994)
Team developed codes based on categories emerging from data
Used trained observers instead of self-reports
Data collection methods: observations, focus groups, campus ethnographies, semistructured interviews
Coding references Miles & Huberman (1994)
Team developed codes based on categories emerging from data
Used trained observers instead of self-reports
Photo by evmaiden
Findings of Suarez-Orozco (2015)
- 28% of classrooms had at least 1 MA
- 4 categories: intelligence-related, cultural/racial, gendered, intersectional
- Instructors were mostly perpetrators
- MAs occurred most often in remedial classrooms with White instructors, but all types of instructor were found to initiate MAs
A diverse range of instructors across gender, age, and race/ethnicity spectrum perpetuated MAs
Each MA is a "toxic raindrop" that negatively accumulates
Each MA is a "toxic raindrop" that negatively accumulates
Photo by Pete Nowicki
Microagressions: Toxic raindrops
Attacking the intelligence and competence of students
conclusions of Suarez-Orozco et al (2015)
Low expectations at community colleges of students of color confirmed by previous research
Implications for applications of MA research to classroom climate research
Future studies should include member checks to triangulate experiences
"As educators, we must reflect upon our statements, create classroom climates that do not foster MAs, and develop strategies for addressing MAs when they occur in the classroom" (p. 158).
Low expectations at community colleges of students of color confirmed by previous research
Implications for applications of MA research to classroom climate research
Future studies should include member checks to triangulate experiences
"As educators, we must reflect upon our statements, create classroom climates that do not foster MAs, and develop strategies for addressing MAs when they occur in the classroom" (p. 158).
Photo by mag3737
Untitled Slide
Use Census Bureau data & other sources to look at Latina/o undergrads in US
Untitled Slide
Notice that Latinas/os and African Americans graduate with fewer doctorates than Native Americans, Whites, and Asian Americans
Untitled Slide
Path
While enrollment has been increasing, there is still underrepresentation throughout pipeline, or at all levels of educational attainment
Draw on CRT to discover why disparities exist
While enrollment has been increasing, there is still underrepresentation throughout pipeline, or at all levels of educational attainment
Draw on CRT to discover why disparities exist
Disparities in Latinx Ed Attainment
- Use of standardized admissions exams
- Successful student retention programs not replicated
- Need to adopt explicit race-conscious practices; colorblind and meritocratic policies not working
- Racialized structures, policies, and practices that guide higher education
Photo by Franck_Michel
Feminist Theory Readings
- Stromquist (1989)
- Sue (1997)
- Unterhalter & North (2011)
- Stromquist (1989)
Untitled Slide
Untitled Slide
Untitled Slide
"Feminist theories of education examine oppression in educational institutions in terms of gender, clearly linked to other oppressions of class, race, sexuality, and more" (Jackson, 1997).
Photo by Eva the Weaver
"Feminist analyses of the state indicate that, regardless of variations, conventional political theories either are gender blind or posit that the main conflicts to be resolved in the political arena are those pertaining to social class..." (Stromquist, 1995)
Feminist Theory
- Confronts and challenges categories of "scientific" or "universal truth"
- Questions who determines what knowledge is, and how that relates to power structures
- Critiques patriarchy which places women's relationship to knowledge within patriarchal context
- Breaks down hierarchical structures
- Shared commitment to women's liberation
Photo by Martin Beek
Sexism as a unique form of oppression (hooks, 1989).
Strands of feminist theory: Socialist, radical, liberal, Black and postmodernist (Jackson, 1997)
Sexism as a unique form of oppression (hooks, 1989)
Socialist, radical, liberal, Black and postmodernist theories differ (Jackson, 1997)
Socialist, radical, liberal, Black and postmodernist theories differ (Jackson, 1997)
Feminist Theory Questions
- What power and authority do teachers have?
- What questions can we ask of differences?
- What claims about truth and knowledge are we making, and how do those relate to personal experience?
Photo by Andrew Imanaka
Untitled Slide
Photo by Jilligan86
"Intersectionality is an analytic sensibility, a way of thinking about identity and its relationship to power" (Crenshaw, 2015).
“Intersectionality is a paradigm for theory and research offering new ways of understanding the complex causality that characterizes social phenomena” (Cole 2009).
Syed 2010 refers to it as a framework, not a theory
Untitled Slide
"Intersectionality...is most often credited to Crenshaw (1991, 1993) and Collins (2000) in Black Feminist Thought. Since its inception in the early 1990s, intersectionality has been theorized in legal studies, ethnic studies, women’s studies, and feminist literature, as well as in literature in sociology, psychology, education, and political science" (Brunn-Bevel, Davis, & Olive, 2015).
From the Introduction to the book "Intersectionality in Education Research" published in 2015 by Sylus Press
Photo by edkohler
Untitled Slide
Cole, E. R. (2009). Intersectionality and research in psychology. American Psychologist, 64(3), 170–180. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014564
Untitled Slide
Cole, E. R. (2009). Intersectionality and research in psychology. American Psychologist, 64(3), 170–180. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014564
Untitled Slide
Pritchard, E. (2013). For colored kids who committed suicide, our outrage isn’t enough: Queer youth of color, bullying, and the discursive limits of identity and safety. Harvard Educational Review, 83(2), 320–346.
Untitled Slide
Pritchard, E. (2013). For colored kids who committed suicide, our outrage isn’t enough: Queer youth of color, bullying, and the discursive limits of identity and safety. Harvard Educational Review, 83(2), 320–346.
Untitled Slide
Pennell, S. M. (2016). Queer cultural capital: implications for education. Race Ethnicity and Education, 19(2), 324–338. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2015.1013462
Untitled Slide
Pennell, S. M. (2016). Queer cultural capital: implications for education. Race Ethnicity and Education, 19(2), 324–338. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2015.1013462
Theoretical & Conceptual Frameworks
Photo by QualityFrog
Untitled Slide
Nunez, A.-M. (2014). Employing multilevel intersectionality in educational research: Latino identities, contexts, and college access. Educational Researcher, 43(2), 85–92. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X14522320
Untitled Slide
Nunez, A.-M. (2014). Employing multilevel intersectionality in educational research: Latino identities, contexts, and college access. Educational Researcher, 43(2), 85–92. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X14522320
Untitled Slide
Olive, J. L. (2015). Queering the intersectional lens: A conceptual model for the use of queer theory in intersectional research. In J. L. Davis, D.J., Brunn-Bevel, R.J., Olive (Ed.), Intersectionality in Educational Research (pp. 19–30). Stylus Publishing.
Untitled Slide
Olive, J. L. (2015). Queering the intersectional lens: A conceptual model for the use of queer theory in intersectional research. In J. L. Davis, D.J., Brunn-Bevel, R.J., Olive (Ed.), Intersectionality in Educational Research (pp. 19–30). Stylus Publishing.
Application of CRT, Feminist theory, or Intersectionality
Photo by Carlos Sánchez Pimienta
Thanks
Photo by Onasill ~ Bill Badzo
