From Colored People to Students of Color: The Complexity of Colorism in Families and Educational Institutions

2016 ◽  
pp. 51-74
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lavina Sequeira ◽  
Charity M. Dacey

Despite the fact that American education has at its core strived to provide pathways of opportunity to remedy socio-economic inequalities, as educational institutions transitioned into online virtual classrooms due to the COVID-19 pandemic these inequalities have come into sharper focus for us. During the process of engaging in a larger self-study, we became more aware of the stark socio-economic disparities of our students in a virtual space, specifically amongst students of color, and how these disparities affected learning outcomes and their identity. Juxta positioning the situated in-between spaces of in-class and virtual environments our identities as educators were fluid and intersectional, negotiated in response to student interactions thereby enabling changes in our Dialogical Selves. The sample for this study consisted of 2 faculty members and 40 students. Data sources included reflexive journals, recorded class sessions, students' questionnaires, and artifacts such as student feedback collected through “exit tickets” as well as recorded meetings. Some findings include (1) students' identities were negotiated differently in face to face classrooms vs. virtual classrooms, (2) fluidity in intersectional identity due to intersections of I-positions in the dialogical self, and (3) acknowledging and accepting the presence of COVID-19 created a sense of community in the virtual classroom (4) incorporating self-care and caring pedagogical practices provided an empowering space for students and educators.


2021 ◽  
pp. 003465432110608
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Bettini ◽  
Christopher J. Cormier ◽  
Maalavika Ragunathan ◽  
Kristabel Stark

A robust body of U.S.-based research demonstrates the importance of teachers of color to promote positive outcomes among students of color, and recent policies aim to increase the proportion of teachers of color. These policies are unlikely to succeed if they ignore how educational systems currently marginalize teachers of color, particularly early in teachers’ careers, when they are more likely to leave. Thus, we conducted a systematic narrative review of the experiences of novice teachers of color in K–12 schools. We identified 72 relevant studies, from 1996 to the present, and qualitatively analyzed themes within them. We found that novices’ experiences of their socialization into K–12 educational institutions were deeply racialized, through their interactions with every aspect of K–12 educational systems. Novices’ experiences often placed them in a double bind, as they experienced tensions between their personal commitments as people of color and their professional commitments in schools that perpetuated oppressive systems. Welcoming novice teachers of color into K–12 schools thus necessitates broader efforts to dismantle the many ways oppressive systems are embedded within and perpetuated by schools—efforts to which novice teachers of color can contribute, but for which they should not bear sole responsibility.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-141
Author(s):  
Andrea VanDeusen

Educational institutions and teacher education preparation programs tend to reflect White Eurocentric beliefs and values. Additionally, White preservice teachers may have little understanding of their own cultural backgrounds, as they are largely unexamined in a structure of White norms. In this paper, I draw upon elements of critical whiteness studies as a framework to further analyze data from a prior, larger study about an immersion field experience to reveal the ways in which whiteness was largely unacknowledged but always lurking in the background of the experience—in participants’ discourses about their experiences and interactions with students of color in the music classrooms. This deepened understanding of whiteness embedded in the experience was imperative for considering how to better facilitate field experiences for White preservice music teachers and how to better prepare them to work successfully with students of color.


Crisis ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 416-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Shadick ◽  
Faedra Backus Dagirmanjian ◽  
Baptiste Barbot

Abstract. Background: Research on young adults in the general population has identified a relationship between sexual minority identification and risk for suicide. Differential rates of suicidal ideation and attempts have also been found across racial and ethnic groups. Aims: This study examined risk for suicide among university students, based on membership in one or more marginalized groups (sexual minority and racial minority identification). Method: Data were collected from first-year college students (N = 4,345) at an urban university. Structural equation modeling was employed to model a suicidality construct, based on which a "risk for suicide" category system was derived. Chi-square and logistic regression analyses were then conducted to estimate the relationship between the background variables of interest and suicide risk. Results: Students who identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) were associated with higher suicide risk than their heterosexual peers. Students of color were slightly less at risk than their heterosexual peers. However, LGB students of color were associated with elevated suicide risk relative to heterosexual peers. Conclusion: Results indicate that belonging to multiple marginalized groups may increase one's risk for suicide, though these effects are not simply additive. Findings highlight the complexity of the intersection between marginalized identities and suicidality.


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