Browsing by Subject "critical race theory"
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Item Actions Speak Louder than Words: A Case Study of a School District's Commitment to Equity(2014-07-31) Warren, Rachelle LeAnnWhat happens when a school district commits to equity? The focus on the school district is driven by the use of a framework that defined the school district as an institutional actor in reform efforts. Accordingly, the school district plays a critical role in all reform efforts, especially when making value judgments. In order to understand the potential of a school district as an institutional actor, the research was conducted as a qualitative case study. This singular focus on an individual district enabled tools such as semi-structured interviews and document analysis to convey the intimate journey of a school district making a value commitment to equity. The review of literature began with the topics of neo-institutionalism, the central office and district leadership. Next, a description of Critical Race Theory was included to critically review the district?s role as an institutional actor. Following a recap of equity and social justice literature, current research regarding the use of professional development, especially professional development related to social justice, completed the literature review. A large suburban school district in Central Texas served as the research site. Several experienced leaders, representing central office, school board, and principal components of the organized collective, were individually interviewed. Documents created or influenced by this group of leaders during the 2010-2011, 2011-2012, and 2012-2013 school years were also reviewed. Restricting the case study to this time period allowed leaders to narrowly focus on a time of shared experience. Findings suggested that while various members of the organized collective may collaborate to support a district value that aligned well with their personal values, this did not guarantee emergence of the school district as an institutional actor. A CRT analysis revealed a district primed by interest convergence yet hampered by the slow pace of liberalism and the continuing impact of institutional racism. This study affirmed the value of using a CRT approach when designing and implementing reform aimed at increasing student achievement. It is recommended that this case study become one of many seeking to understand the importance of the school district as an institutional actor.Item Race, Gender, and Media Practices: A Critical Framing Analysis of the Media?s Coverage of USDA Worker Shirley Sherrod(2013-05-03) McGovney-Ingram, RebeccaOn July 19, 2010, conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart posted a story on his website claiming USDA worker Shirley Sherrod was racist in her work with farmers. The edited video included with the story as proof, showed Sherrod speaking at an NAACP banquet. Sherrod was subsequently vilified in the media and fired from her job, only to be exonerated and rehired later that week. Although the media claims their routine writing and reporting practices (such as newsworthiness, source selection, objectivity, and perpetual news cycle) make the industry better, researchers have shown that these practices lead to the use of shortcuts and stereotypes. This is especially detrimental to Black women because of the double-dose of stereotyping they are subject to when they are portrayed in the media. The purpose of this study was to understand how media practices influenced the framing of race and gender in the media coverage of Sherrod. In order to integrate key elements of critical theory (i.e. activism, intersectionality, speaking position, subjectivity) I chose a mixed-methods approach for my framing analysis. This included open-ended reading of the news stories, constant comparative analysis of possible frames, quantitative coding sheet, analysis of statistics in SPSS, and inclusion of qualitative examples. I analyzed a total of 93 news articles from 12 news sources for this study. Most of the news stories came from newer, online publications (n=67, 72.0%) and over half came from new sources with a liberal philosophy (n=47, 50.5%). I found three frames that were used to describe Sherrod in terms of race and gender: victim, good woman, and above her place. I also found that these frames were closely aligned with news values that help determine a story?s newsworthiness. I found seven sources were used repetitively and selectively associated with the frames. I also found differences in frames by news source type and philosophy. Finally, I found that the frames followed an identifiable news cycle. The results of this study show that the media do indeed utilize negative stereotypes of Black women in their products and that media?s use of routine writing and reporting practices exacerbate this problem.Item 'Racing racial profiling research': complicating the 'trust of rights and powers' through an analysis of racial profiling narratives(2009-05-15) Glover, Karen SuzanneRacial profiling, in the context of the current study, concerns the association of racial and/or ethnic status with criminality and manifests in the traffic stop. The body of knowledge now available on racial profiling has documented well the incidence of numerical disparity of traffic stops between racial groups, with motorists of color subject to intrusion by the state at greater rates than White motorists (Withrow 2005). Criminologists then turned to ?perception?-based research to examine what makes an individual ?perceive? he has been racially profiled. I argue that the second wave of research is dominated by a narrow survey approach, concentrates on the microlevel police-citizen encounter, and lacks a theoretical grounding, particularly in race theory. The ?perception? orientation, I argue, discursively diminishes the experiences of communities of color in their experiences with the state. The current study re-examines the two main components of the ?perception? based research -- personal and vicarious experience with the police ? to extend our understanding of the meanings behind personal and vicarious encounters with law enforcement. The current qualitative study, based on more than two dozen in-depth interviews, informs our understanding of racial profiling on a number of levels. Citizenship emerges as a dominant narrative from my respondents, thus extending the effects of the racialized traffic stop effects beyond the particularistic police-minority relationship and into larger legal and political realms not anticipated in the current literature. I find that the ?shadow citizenship? identity imposed by the state through racializing and criminalizing processes like racial profiling is regularly rejected by people of color through various forms of resistance to racial oppression. A third important finding concerns the complication of ?vicarious experiences.? My respondents indicate that they do not summarily adopt views about the police but contextualize their own experiences within understandings of collective memory. Finally, because I engage racial profiling through the theoretical perspectives of Collins, DuBois, Feagin, and Foucault, among others, and frame my overall research approach using critical race theory, the salience of race in racial profiling processes is undeniably evident, contrary to the racial vacuum dominating the current literature.