Browsing by Subject "Critical Race Theory"
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Item A Community’s Response to an Equity-Centered, Comprehensive, School Redistricting Proposal(2022) Weller, Mary; Hood College Graduate School; Organizational LeadershipIn 1954, the U. S. Supreme Court outlawed racial segregation in America’s schools. Yet, racial and socio-economic segregation continue in schools and invariably lead to differential academic outcomes for students correlated to both factors. Despite evidence that disruption of segregation benefits all students both academically and non-academically, attempts to alter the status quo frequently garner active and energetic resistance from socially dominant groups including white, middle-class parents. This qualitative, critical case study examined and contributed to the research on equity-focused, educational leadership by investigating the case of a large, diverse public school system in the mid-Atlantic, the pseudonymous Bowmantown Public Schools, when a comprehensive redistricting of attendance areas was introduced. The redistricting proposal was designed to improve facility utilization and increase diversity in schools. The study probed the following research questions: (1) How did the community respond to a school system proposal to enhance educational equity through comprehensive redistricting of school attendance areas? (2) Who were the community members that publicly voiced their views on the proposed redistricting plan? (3) What were the explicit and implicit narratives publicly voiced by community members during the proposal period? and, (4) How were the concepts of race, opportunity, and merit perceived by the community during the redistricting process? Critical Race Theory served as the theoretical framework for the study. Methodology included qualitative content analysis of over 2,500 testimonies filed by community members in an approximate 6-week period in 2019. Data sources also included school system records, school system data sets, and a reflexive researcher journal. Findings indicated that though the redistricting proposal did not explicitly cite race as a rationale for the student reassignments, colorblind racism played a central role in people’s responses. Arguments against the proposal included infringement on property rights and civil liberties. A counter narrative elevated interest convergence as a path forward. Findings suggest that despite evidence showing racially heterogenous learning environments offer benefits to all students, normalization of racial isolation in neighborhoods and schools artificially amplifies opposition to policies that might disrupt this racialized status quo. Leaders’ attention to both counternarratives and unheard perspectives may hold the key to breaking the juggernaut of white privilege that has shaped educational experiences and structures in American public education.Item Depictions versus Reality: Countering the television mediated narratives of Black teachers in Baltimore.(2020-01-20) Smith, Sedrick Levern; Moffitt, Kimberly; Language, Literacy & Culture; Language Literacy and CultureThis dissertations explores the stories of twenty (20) Black public-school teachers (K-12) from the Baltimore City public school system and their perceptions of the mediated images of their teaching experiences found in local television news segments. Media platforms such as the local television news help to shape public perceptions of and discourses about teachers (Goldstein, 2011). These interactions and framings may also play a role in shaping public policy related to teachers and public-school education (Garcia, 2015). This research project sought to counter the framings put forth about public-school teachers in the media by gathering the real-life experiences of actual teachers from a cross-section of schools in the district. This multi-method qualitative case study relies on a critical race theory (CRT) framework to highlight the experiences of Black teachers in the school system in an attempt to counter the mainstream narratives of public-school teacher experiences that too often rely on white teacher voices. Data was collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with each teacher participant, all of which were informed by critical ethnography (Carspecken & Carspecken, 1996; Madison, 2005). Data analysis consisted of an open coding of interview transcripts (Creswell, 2013) with a thematic analysis conducted across interviews (Roulston, 2010). A qualitative descriptive research methodology (Sandelowski, 2000) was used to provide straight descriptions of the phenomena captured in the interviews in order to allow for the study participants to speak for themselves. This research project revealed that narratives of Baltimore city public school teachers put forth by WBFF Fox 45's?Project Baltimore? series of teachers working in inherently violent schools, lacking resources/materials/conditions to teach successfully and teachers lacking integrity in student academic outcomes often does not align with the narratives put forth by Black teachers in Baltimore about their own experiences. These teachers contend that much of the necessary context needed to inform public perception of teacher experiences is missing from the local news framings and that they have many positive teaching experiences daily that are purposefully not included in media broadcasting. This dissertations argues that Black teacher voices must be included in any public discussion of public-school experiences. The study highlights the need to use media platforms to uphold CRT's?voice of color thesis? (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017), which seeks to put forth the experiences of people of color, often unheard by white people. This study offers implications for Black public-school teachers, strategies to shape public perception of public-school teacher experiences and implications for public school education policy as well as suggested future research related to the topic.Item Exploring the Grief and Bereavement of African American Adult Women Washingtonians Who Experienced the Loss of Their Mothers to Death During Adolescence.(2024-03-20) Essence M. Jones; Tamelyn Tucker-Worgs, Ph.D., Chair; Atiya R. Smith, Ph.D., Committee Member; Beverly H. Stanford, Ph.D., Committee Member; Hood College Education; Organizational LeadershipExploring the Grief and Bereavement of African American Adult Women Washingtonians Who Experienced the Loss of Their Mothers to Death During Adolescence. Essence M. Jones Committee Chair: Tamelyn Tucker-Worgs, Ph.D. ABSTRACT Because African Americans suffer disproportionately high mortality rates, Black women are more likely to lose their mothers to death during adolescence relative to the general population and other racial/ethnic groups. This may lead to significant and lifelong detriments. Informed by critical race theory and intersectionality, the purpose of this qualitative phenomenological (Moustakas, 1994) study was to explore the lived experiences (Giorgi & Giorgi, 2003) of adult African American women in the Washington, DC area (including Washington, DC; Maryland; and Virginia, also called the DMV), who lost their mothers to death during adolescence. Participants from the DMV who had been impacted by the “War on Drugs” era, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and the COVID-19 pandemic were sampled purposively using a criterion process. Data were collected using qualitative semi-structured interviews, where participants rated their stages of grief using the Five Stages of Grief and Four Stages of Grief scales. Data analysis followed the eidetic reduction process to draw the following conclusions regarding these women’s lived experiences: 1) the immediate experience of losing a mother was overwhelming and confusing; 2) participants' processes of grieving shaped them in highly individualized ways; 3) most participants developed a mixture of positive and negative navigation systems; and 4) faith was helpful for some but not all participants. Those experiencing grief and bereavement need to know that they are not alone, thus, they can benefit by connecting with others and sharing their experiences of loss with those who have lived through the same, as occurred in this study and should occur in future studies.Item Uncomfortable Truths and Hushed Silence: A Re-Examination of Interpretation and its Social Justice Role within Historic Preservation(2015) Hall, Gloria D.; MA in Historic PreservationIf interpretation is to make connections between places, time, and people then historic preservation interpreters must comprehensively tell the story of places, events, objects, and ordinary and significant people associated with noble and not so noble sides of history. Historic cultural resources associated with uncomfortable truths are susceptible to “obliteration” and subject to the same issues of change as other resources. The passing of time and use, environmental conditions, climate change, social attitudes, new scholarship, and information that reveals hidden truths and secrets create the need to re-interpret. One of the most divisive if not the most divisive event in American history, chattel slavery, has to be re-presented with “contextualized” narrative that recognizes “particular” details of both the celebrated hero and enslaved people. This evaluation of how the lives of enslaved Africans and African Americans are being re-interpreted at eight colonial to antebellum period plantations - five National Park Service units and three private entities - models how perceived changes in the public memory of slavery is currently being presented. The result of the critical analysis of conservation treatments, narrative language, “bound and unbound,” and use of cultural arts and technology indicate to present relevant 21st Century presentations reflective of multiple social significances requires an interpretive-centered field of historic preservation. Using a theory-to-practice approach, guidelines for comprehensive presentations at plantations move interpretation to the center of historic preservation, incorporating the principle of change into the language of the instruments and practices of the field, making it replicable for other topics.