22ee Race and Pedagogy Project - Research Archive » Race, Class and Pedagogy

Race, Class and Pedagogy

August 17, 2005

Valencia, Richard R. Chicano School Failure and Success. 2nd Ed. London: Routledge/Falmer, 2002.

August 17th 2005 Posted to Race and the Academic Institution, Pedagogy and Mixed Race, Race, Class and Pedagogy, Latina/o American

This book is a compilation of the most recent research being done on the historical, political and social factors contributing to what Valencia describes as “the persistently, pervasively, and disproportionately, low academic achievement” of Chicano students (4). In his introductory chapter Valencia provides an historical background of Mexican Americans as a conquered people who have always been subject to language suppression and cultural exclusion (7). He then outlines the main factors contributing to Chicano school failure today, which include: (Read the article)

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August 15, 2005

Kao, Grace and Marta Tienda, “Educational Aspirations of Minority Youth,” American Journal of Education, 106.3 (1998): 349-384.

August 15th 2005 Posted to Race, Gender and Sexuality, Race, Class and Pedagogy, Latina/o American, African American

Kao and Tienda use the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1998 (NELS:88) to analyze how educational aspirations are formed and maintained from eighth to twelfth grades. They find that family socioeconomic status (SES) is the single most important factor, not only in establishing high aspirations in the eighth grade but also in maintaining these aspirations throughout high school. Kao and Tienda conclude that “because black and Hispanic students are less likely to maintain their high aspirations throughout high school, owing to their lower family SES background…their early aspirations are less concrete than those of white and especially of Asian students” (349). Kao and Tienda supplement their quantitative analysis with focus-group discussions with students. In these discussions Kao and Tienda discover that Hispanic and black students tend to be less informed about funding options for college and have less concrete occupational goals than their Asian and white counterparts. (Read the article)

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August 10, 2005

Darder, Antonia and Rodolfo D. Torres. After Race: Racism After Multiculturalism. New York: New York UP, 2004.

August 10th 2005 Posted to Race and the Academic Institution, Critical Race Theory and Pedagogy, Race and Globalization, Pedagogy and Mixed Race, Race, Class and Pedagogy, Latina/o American, The Academy

In this book, Darder and Torres critique the concept of “race” in contemporary political and academic rhetoric as a mask for the class oppression that underlies late capitalist American society. “The problem of the twenty-first century is the problem of “race”—an ideology that has served well to successfully obscure and disguise class interests behind the smokescreen of multiculturalism, diversity, difference, and more recently, whiteness,” write Darder and Torres (1). Darder and Torres focus their Marxist analysis on the United States education system, and specifically on the key issues of bilingual education, standardized testing, critical race theory and Latino studies departments. They argue that if any real changes are going to be made in educational policy, the concept of ‘race’ must be dismantled and the underlying class issues revealed and critiqued. (Read the article)

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August 3, 2005

Weis, Lois and Michelle Fine, eds. Beyond Silenced Voices: Class, Race, and Gender in United States Schools. New York: State University of New York Press, 1993.

August 03rd 2005 Posted to Race and the Academic Institution, Race, Gender and Sexuality, The Pleasures of Teaching Race, Race, Class and Pedagogy

Beyond Silenced Voices is a compilation of articles focusing on institutionalized silencing in public schools. Divided into two parts, Weis and Fine’s collection begins with a series of studies that analyze the ways marginalized voices are systematically silenced according to race, gender, and class affiliations. These pieces are each concerned with the ways certain voices are silenced by both implicit and explicit institutional structures imbedded in the public school system, as well as the way in which these silences are sustained and naturalized by the institution. In the second part of the book, writers attempt to listen to these institutionally silenced voices by incorporating individual testimonials into the articles. It is only by hearing and centering these “once marginalized” voices, Fine and Weis argue in their Introduction, that we can move “‘beyond silenced voices’” and “understand and interrupt the perversions and pleasures of power, privilege, and marginalization in public schooling” (2). (Read the article)

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Portes, Alejandro and Dag McLeod, “Educational Progress of Children of Immigrants: The Roles of Class, Ethnicity and School Context,” Sociology of Education, 69.4 (1996): 255-75.

August 03rd 2005 Posted to Race and Globalization, Pedagogy and Mixed Race, Race, Class and Pedagogy, Latina/o American, Asian American

This article addresses two major factors that contribute to the success or failure of students from immigrant families: socioeconomic status and the social influence exerted by ethnic communities on students. As Portes and McLeod write in their abstract,

“Recent immigration to the United States has spawned a rapidly growing second generation, most of whom are of school age. This article reports the findings of a study of 5,255 second-generation high school students in Florida and California, who were children of Cuban and Vietnamese immigrants (representative of relatively advantaged groups) and of Haitian and Mexican immigrants (representative of relatively disadvantaged groups). The study found that parents’ socioeconomic status (SES), length of U.S. residence, and hours spent on homework significantly affected the students’ academic performance, but did not eliminate the effects of ethnic community. Attendance at higher-SES schools increased the average academic performance and the positive effect of parents’ SES, whereas attendance at inner-city schools flattened the negative effect of ethnic disadvantage. However, school context had no appreciable effect on children from advantaged ethnic backgrounds” (255). (Read the article)

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August 1, 2005

Flores-González, Nilda. School Kids/Street Kids: Identity Development in Latino Students. New York: Teachers College Press, 2002.

August 01st 2005 Posted to Pedagogy and Mixed Race, Race, Class and Pedagogy, Latina/o American

According to the National Center for Educational Statistics (2000), 28% of all 16-24 year old Hispanics are high school drop-outs, as compared to 7.3% of whites, 12.6% of blacks and 4.3% of Asians (Flores-González 2). In School Kids/Street Kids Flores-González addresses the high drop-out rate of Latino high school students by conducting a study of thirty three Puerto Rican students at Hernández High School in Chicago, a school whose student body is comprised mostly of low income Hispanic students. Flores-González divides the students in her study up into what she calls “school kids,” or students who adopt an identity based on participation and achievement and “street kids,” or students who form an identity in opposition to school and authority. According to Flores-González, there are several specific steps schools can take to reinforce “school kid” identity formation among Latino students, thus lowering drop-out rates. (Read the article)

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July 25, 2005

Pérez Sonia and Denise De La Rosa Salazar. “Economic, Labor Force and Social Implications of Latino Educational and Population Trends,” Latinos and Education: A Critical Reader, Eds. Antonia Darder, Rodolfo D. Torres and Henry Gutíerrez. New York: Routledge, 1997, 47-79.

July 25th 2005 Posted to Race, Literacy and Pedagogy, Race and Globalization, Race, Class and Pedagogy, Latina/o American

Pérez and Salazar’s analysis of socio-economic and educational trends in Latino populations uses a variety of data from studies conducted throughout the 1980s and 1990s to understand why the rapid increase in the Latino population has not been accompanied by a proportionate increase in educational attainment. Their analysis not only highlights the historic and self-perpetuating connection between the low socioeconomic status of Latino populations and low levels of educational attainment; it also points to specific problems contributing to these problems and suggests possible changes in educational policy. (Read the article)

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Lynn, Marvin. “Toward a Critical Race Pedagogy.” Urban Education v.33 n.5 (January 1999): 606-626.

July 25th 2005 Posted to Critical Race Theory and Pedagogy, Race, Class and Pedagogy

This article explores links between African American emancipatory pedagogy and Critical Race Theory (CRT) in order to outline a critical race pedagogy. Lynn begins by summarizing scholarship that focuses on educational institutions that have systematically failed to address the needs of African American students. Lynn then offers a summary of CRT, describing it as “an emergent ethical and moralistic discourse on race and racism in the law.” CRT is subsequently used as a framework for interpreting ethnographic interviews conducted by the author with a select group of (K through 12) African American teachers. Based on the data gained through the interviews (data read in light of CRT), Lynn outlines the tenets of a critical race pedagogy. (Read the article)

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