Critical Race Theory

Let me try to tackle Critical Race Theory (CRT) in a paragraph, which I'm sure will leave many with some or a lot of questions. CRT looks at the world through a race conscious lens. This means that when it comes to identifying and analyzing oppressive structures, whether deliberate or incidental, race is at the forefront of this process. It breaks from traditional Critical Theory and argues that CT has a history of ignoring the importance of race. Pay attention to the word "importance", Why? Because CRT does not reject the theoretical claims of CT, rather, it takes from these and changes the dynamic of Capitalism/Racism and, perhaps, frames it as Racims/Capitalism. What I mean here is that CT looks at oppressive structures as the result of a capitalist ideology. CRT argues that while the capitalist ideology is core, race, historically, has served as a buffer and the strongest reinforcer of capitalist structures. In addition, capitalism has thrived because of racist ideological forces taht dehumanize beyond what traditional ogliarchic (is that a word?) ideology ever has. A personal note, I am not using CRT "instead of" anything else, rather, I use CRT because it centralizes the theme(s) that I am interested in exploring through my dissertation process. From CRT, like other traditions (latina/o critical theory, critical asian studies, critical race feminism, queer theory, etc.), branch off that focus on a particular form of oppression:

Hello everyone,

I don't know how many will be able to read this latest post but, hopefully, some will eventually. I do have ideas as to what my goals for this class are. I also have a schedule to get them done by. My first goal is to present the final draft of my proposal to CHPR (I think) and have final approval. This I hope to get everything in by this week.
Also I hope to begin writing the first chapter of my dissertation. I hope to have the completed draft of my first chapter by the end of October.
Subsequently I hope to have chapter 2 written by the end of November. And yes Chapter 3 before 2009.
As for reading I have selected three books for this quarter. Courageous conversations (including a facilitator's guide), Critical Pedagogy and race, and Everyday anti-racism.

That is about it!

There are several quotes that I would like to point out:

75 "Our appreciation of an educational situation is contingent on the context within which we encountered it and the theoretical frames we brought with us to the observations" I think he intentionally speaks in the first person and is reflecting on his own practice. This is reassuring because when I first read his piece I found his use of third person "they" (teachers) troubling.

75 "To be critical is to assume that humans are active agents whose reflcective self-analysis, whose knowledge of the world leads to action" This line resonates well with the call of self-awareness and self-reflection of previous pieces.

76 "If knowledge is a form of cultural capital, then lack of access to it spells major problems for those on the margins of the culture of power" I completely agree, but here I'm thinking that if critical postmodern action research has the purpose of redefining knowledge, then democratic access to knowledge - to engage in critical discussion, reflection and action - indeed is key. But key to his previous point of (not his own words) self awareness and self-reflection. Now my question to Kincheloe would be, are you then in agreement with Delpit that we need to teach explicitly the culture of power, in this case to teachers (apparently suffering from tragic disenlightenment)

79 "meaning is a contested entity" YES!

82 "Educational action research needs to move beyond exclusive concern with the individual and institutuonal levels of inquiry towards an understanding of the social and cultural structures that help shape the educational lives of individuals and help determine the consequesnces of schooling". Individual "levels of inquiry" versus the "lives of individuals"

I have to end it here. But I need to add a few memos to this blog

Carol I will be there tomorrow. sorry I didn't email

Inspired by Bethany's candid blog I shall share a story as well. About a year ago I engaged my students in conversations about race and racism in schooling as I often do. In doing so, one of the commets I made at the time was that "in a racialized world we breathe in and breathe out racism". I explained how we all act in racist and prejudicious ways, not missing a beat one students aked: "So Mr. are you saying you are a racist". I responded "yes", "but I am also aware that I act in racist and prejudicious ways and awareness is key to resisting". (this some might have heard this story before but it ends differently this time)

One students returned home and explained the lesson to the mother. Although, by his own account, he tried to be excited and describe how valuable the conversation had been, "it really made me think"; the mother acted with great apprehension and I was then called down to "clarify" the lesson to the school department. Despite my union rep's insistence that I "keep my mouth shut" because it gets me in trouble when I'm upset, I didn't. When I explained the lesson and the context in which I was making this statement everyone understood well the nature, and perhaps need for this kind of discussion.

Well yippee right? Not quite. My student - a black male that always "got in trouble" except during my class where he participated actively and was one of the leading voices in class discussions - was forbidden from being in my class. I tried on several occasions to talk with the mother (who refused to be present at any meeting). My attempts where useless. Immediately afterwards anger, resent, and many other emotions built themselves up in me and ultimately were released upon the student. His attempts to come into my class and chill were met with "you are not allowed to be in my class, you know this". After a while I began talking to him but never in an engaging way. He was expelled from the school this year. Although my awareness of this was little I do wonder, what if I had fought harder? Channeled my energy and build up of emotions in "proactive rather than reactive" ways, a common phrase I use with students.

I wish I had the level of optimism that Lee Ann Bell et al have. My frustration comes out of the fact that I can articulate controversial ideas for my students to think through and come out with a better sense of their/our situatedness, but at least in this case I was unable to provide my student with the necessary "skills" for them to do the same with others. How true is this quote "Language plays such an important role in perpetuating oppression that miscommunication and misunderstanding can easily arise" (468)

Points I enjoyed reading

Democratic goals vs. Social control goals
Cooperative vs Competitive
Schooling as Institutionalized oppression (not his words)
Star trek like writing "takes us where nobody's gone before"
Amibiguity is what it's all about - Neutrality is dead
Reform over and over and over again is dead
Teachers as political beings
Teachers as knowledgeable beings NOT experts
His criticism of the right
Students as knowledgeable beings NOT deficient
His acknowledgement of the power dinamic in the classroom
Teachers as reasearchers - evolving practices
His piece on the unfortune of positivism and his outline on it.

Things I didn't like

His definition of agency
His canonization like process of authors
His disregard of authors (Vygotsky, Bourdieu, Delpit)
His disregard of ethic and moral develpment through critical pedagogy
His positivist assumption that History and Science can be taught the same way (ok it's a leap)
His, simingly, equation poor = lower level (ignorance); thus contradiciont (p.28, first full paragraph) "I start where they are"

Question:

If studies show (recent AERA article read in 631) that problem-solving curriculum does not improve achievement? Is this the way to go.
Yes, perhaps it does depend on what I am measuring and why. Or does it? How can I teach in this way if I know they will encounter SAT, MCAT, GRE, etc, etc, etc and their skill at passing these will determine alot of their future! On top of this, can I really expect my students to succeed once in college if, for a fact, most science courses remain lecture driven.

In other words, getting back to an earlier blog discussion with Jay, can I seriously promote a socialist anti-capitalist, critical society when I know I live off a very different one, and succeed (even intellectually - dialectical exchange with professors cost money) Yes Freire did it and so did Ghandi, they endured many things. For what? 750000 copies of his book (of which perhaps only half read, and of those only half got it!) Sorry I sound so frustrated, in reality I just like to include an oppositional voice. IN any case last thing I didn't like about Kinchloe. He didn't seem very hopeful.

I think it is very important to talk about the ways in which Freire uses "oppressed" and "oppressor" and the dynamic relations between the two. His critique of "ignorance" is not one sided. Freire is not talking about educating the oppressor or "teaching the culture of power", Freire's intent is to develop dialogic education. For this he places as much responsability on the oppressed as he does on the oppressor. In my words, we all need to become reflective and critical beings whether (in Jay's words) we own the means of production or work for them. IN Freire's words "It is only the oppressed who, by freeing themselves, can free their oppressors" Where's "power" now Foucault?

Finally someone I can hope with!

When I first read Freire a few years back I wasn't too impressed. I thought his language was condescending and disrespectful of "the oppressed". Please don't ask me what I was thinking just know I've changed position... I am proud to announce that I am free"er" of my oppressor.

This time around I immediately thought of Maya societies and their encounter with spaniards. Yes indeed beyond a critical pedagogue, Freire is also a post-colonialist (according to D. Macedo). Maya were introduced to "religion" very quickly and despite what some believe to be a renunciation of their beliefs as reflected by the adoption to a new form of "worship", others (of which I include myself) see Maya cultures as an adapting and synthesizing of new practices into their vision of diety.
In todays Yucatan, Peten, and Quiche, Mayan culture is not defined by one "dominant" society but by a mosaic of villages that despite their variations in language and culture, are very much rooted in ancient Maya tradition. In spite of it all, they (we) remain "evolving here".

The above sound like a great survival story. But in reality it is the story of humanity. We are not void of knowledge "empty" heads that need to be filled. Interpollated beings that can only name our situation without an ability to determine our existence and resist. We all carry and exchange knowledge through communication with each other "The pursuit of full humanity [] cannot be carried out in isolation or individualism, but only in fellowship and solidarity". We all have and need to admit to having humanity "...a concept of women and men as conscious beings, and consciousness as consciousness intent upon the world".


"Liberation is a praxis: the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it".