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Standardizing Indigenous erasure: A TribalCrit and QuantCrit analysis of K–12 U.S. civics and government standards
Abstract
This article details a national study of U.S. K–12 civics and government state-mandated standards, drawing specific attention to how Indigenous nationhood and sovereignty are represented. Utilizing QuantCrit methodologies informed by Tribal Critical Race Theory, this study makes visible colonial logics embedded within state civics and government standards that normalize the erasure of Indigenous nationhood, or that subtly and discursively erase Indigenous nationhood in other ways. Additional attention is also given to states that explicitly affirm contemporary Indigenous nationhood and sovereignty within the standards. By examining the ways state standards erase and/or affirm Indigenous nationhood and sovereignty, our hope is to support Indigenous and allied educators in their collective efforts to transform standards in their respective states to more responsibly reflect and support Indigenous nationhood and sovereignty.
... This tenet may be applied by deracializing statistics and speaking to systemic issues to avoid attributing observed differences as though they are caused by a socially constructed demographic characteristic (e.g., Anglum, 2023;Sabzalian et al., 2021;Van Dusen et al., 2021). For example, Van Dusen et al. (2021) use the QuantCrit framework to study inequities in content knowledge in an introductory chemistry course given assessment data collected using the Chemical Concept Inventory across 12 institutions. ...
... Guided by the fifth tenet of QuantCrit, quantitative researchers can make a "commitment to use quantitative data as an anti-oppressive praxis, to support social justice and challenge dominant narratives that usually treat race as a marginal or specialist concern" (Crawford, 2019, p. 428). Sabzalian et al. (2021) present an application of using QuantCrit for efforts of social justice. Sabzalian et al. applied TribalCrit (Brayboy, 2005, as cited in Sabzalian et al., 2021) and Quant-Crit (Gillborn et al., 2018) throughout their research to examine the way that K-12 standards in civics and government curriculum throughout the U.S. acknowledge or erase Indigenous nations and their culture. ...
... Sabzalian et al. (2021) present an application of using QuantCrit for efforts of social justice. Sabzalian et al. applied TribalCrit (Brayboy, 2005, as cited in Sabzalian et al., 2021) and Quant-Crit (Gillborn et al., 2018) throughout their research to examine the way that K-12 standards in civics and government curriculum throughout the U.S. acknowledge or erase Indigenous nations and their culture. Sabzalian et al. explicitly state that the study is intended to centralize race and racism and contribute to efforts of social justice: ...
... Furthermore, scholars who engage in critical quantitative inquiry aim to problematize social constructions and group categorizations, shed light on inequities, and highlight communities' strengths and assets to disrupt inequities and advance social justice (e.g., Gillborn et al., 2018). Researchers have also adapted conceptual and theoretical frameworks traditionally used for critical and qualitative research to better understand the assets and experiences of specific groups or the effects of particular types of categorization, including TribalCrit (Sabzalian et al., 2021), LatCrit (Covarrubias & Lara, 2014), DisCrit (Cruz et al., 2021), and queer theory (Curley, 2019b). ...
... We independently identified studies that fit the criteria and met to discuss studies that one of us identified as not meeting the criteria. We excluded studies that did not explicitly name a specific critical and quantitative approach (e.g., Garces, 2012;Young & Young, 2018) and those that employed qualitative or mixed methods (e.g., Covarrubias et al., 2018;Russell et al., 2022;Sabzalian et al., 2021). ...
... Furthermore, our review explicitly excluded research that applies critical and quantitative frameworks but employs mixed methods (e.g., Garcia et al., 2022;Sabzalian et al., 2021). This decision allowed us to focus on the effects and side effects of quantitative research. ...
Quantitative education research is often perceived to be “objective” or “neutral.” However, quantitative research has been and continues to be used to perpetuate inequities; these inequities arise as both intended effects and unintended side effects of traditional quantitative research. In this review of the literature, we synthesize how quantitative researchers have attempted to use critical paradigms to address questions of equity in education research published over the past 15 years. We identify and describe three main tensions that critical and quantitative researchers navigated: (a) creating and analyzing social group categories, (b) trying to describe commonalities within group experiences without erasing heterogeneity of experience within the group, and (c) determining what is a “significant” result when conducting critical and quantitative research.
... A number of studies have examined how race is included or excluded in social studies standards. For example, researchers have analyzed the content of national and state social studies standards (e.g., Engebretson, 2014;Grant et al., 2002;Harris & Girard, 2020;Shreiner, 2020) with several examining the ways in which race, racism, and BIPOC communities are portrayed in the standards (e.g., Anderson, 2012Anderson, , 2013Anderson & Metzger, 2011;Bryant-Pavely & Chandler, 2016;Busey & Walker, 2017;Conner, 2021;Jones, 2022;Journell, 2008Journell, , 2009aJournell, , 2009bSabzalian et al., 2021;Shear et al., 2015;Sleeter, 2002;Vasquez-Heilig et al., 2012;Warner, 2015). Using a critical race theory framework, Vasquez-Heilig et al. (2012) analyzed Texas U.S. history standards and found that, although the standards appeared to include content pertaining to race and racism, in-depth analysis revealed that such content was limited, deceiving, and presented as peripheral to mainstream U.S. historical narratives. ...
... This erasure and Eurocentric depiction of Indigenous peoples in standards disrupted student learning opportunities of Indigenous experiences, cultures, and the contemporary issues Indigenous peoples face (Shear et al., 2015). Furthermore, relying on TribalCrit, Sabzalian et al. (2021) examined the ways in which civics and government standards either incorporate or ignore Indigenous sovereignty. When Native peoples and their nations are not mentioned in standards, it leads to their further racialization and erases their status as political and sovereign entities. ...
... For the 12 participants who were identified as lacking a commitment to including race and racism in the standards (all of whom identified as white), in some cases it was because they did not mention having goals of increasing representations of diverse perspectives or social justice in the standards. Instead, they focused on broad goals, including six who focused exclusively on incorporating inquiry into the standards and/or aligning with the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards, a national framework intended to inform state standards that evade mention of race and racism (see Au, 2013;Busey & Walker, 2017;King & Chandler, 2016;Sabzalian et al., 2021). Five participants expressed a perception of topics related to race or racism being controversial or too "liberal" for their politically conservative state. ...
In this qualitative study, researchers used critical race theory to examine the experiences of social studies standards committee members in 18 states and the District of Columbia. They found that while many participants articulated goals of increasing the teaching of race and racism in their state’s social studies standards, at least in part, numerous silent covenants and structural barriers existed to maintain the status quo through race-evasive standards. A smaller group of participants generally avoided advocating for race and racism topics altogether due to their perceived controversial or political status, while others did not mention race or racism as a priority. Recommendations are made for both the policy and practice related to state standards creation, and questions are raised about the ability of social studies standards to foster a racially just social studies curriculum.
... We engaged AI to produce lessons on two historical topics, the Civil Rights movement and Indian Removal, where both standards and texts have often reinforced problematic White or settler-colonial narratives and power structures (Sabzalian et al., 2021;Shear et. al, 2015;Woodson, 2016). ...
... Our second topic relied on Sabzalian et al.'s (2021) commentary on standards and curricula about Indigenous peoples. They found these documents often deny sovereignty and nationhood, while creating the perception that Indigenous nations are a thing of the past rather than current, living nations (see also Shear et al., 2015). ...
... For the lesson on MLK, the strongest initial lesson required us to provide detailed prompts, and even then, the lesson plan could not fully meet the criteria derived from Woodson (2016). For the Indian Removal Act lesson, we assessed via Sabzalian et al. (2021), generating a lesson that acknowledged longstanding and ongoing Indigenous nationhood proved di cult, regardless of the AI we used. In contrast, using Bing we easily obtained a lesson on climate change that fully met the criteria we created via Damico and Baildon (2022). ...
Due to the introduction and rapid ubiquity of artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-integrated programs that can be used by students and teachers, educational scholarship evaluating the capabilities of AI is needed. This study evaluates the abilities of three prominent AI programs —ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Bing, and Google’s Bard — to create high school lesson plans on the subjects of Martin Luther King, Jr., the Indian Removal Act, and climate change. The authors judge the quality of the lessons’ content based on scholarship in the education field and document the process of prompting the AI to produce lessons more in line with these criteria.
Article available open-access:
Clark, C. H., & van Kessel, C. (2024). “I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords”: Using artificial intelligence as a lesson planning resource for social studies. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 24(2). https://citejournal.org/volume-24/issue-2-24/social-studies/i-for-one-welcome-our-new-computer-overlords-using-artificial-intelligence-as-a-lesson-planning-resource-for-social-studies
... Across subject areas, research on state standards has primarily focused on what content and skills are included or excluded in the standards (e.g., An , 2022Anderson 2012;Bryant-Pavely and Chandler 2016;Busey and Walker 2017;Engebretson 2014;Jones 2022;Journell 2009;McDonnell and Weatherford 2013;Sabzalian et al. 2021;Shreiner 2020;Summers et al. 2019;Vasquez Heilig et al. 2012). The studies focused on the content of social studies standards have generally found that people of color and women have been underrepresented and misrepresented in history standards and that standards often downplay the existence of systemic racism, sexism, and Indigenous erasure (e.g., An , 2022Bryant-Pavely and Chandler 2016;Busey and Walker 2017;Engebretson 2014;Jones 2022;Journell 2009;Sabzalian et al. 2021;Shear et al. 2015;Shreiner 2020;Vasquez Heilig et al. 2012). ...
... Across subject areas, research on state standards has primarily focused on what content and skills are included or excluded in the standards (e.g., An , 2022Anderson 2012;Bryant-Pavely and Chandler 2016;Busey and Walker 2017;Engebretson 2014;Jones 2022;Journell 2009;McDonnell and Weatherford 2013;Sabzalian et al. 2021;Shreiner 2020;Summers et al. 2019;Vasquez Heilig et al. 2012). The studies focused on the content of social studies standards have generally found that people of color and women have been underrepresented and misrepresented in history standards and that standards often downplay the existence of systemic racism, sexism, and Indigenous erasure (e.g., An , 2022Bryant-Pavely and Chandler 2016;Busey and Walker 2017;Engebretson 2014;Jones 2022;Journell 2009;Sabzalian et al. 2021;Shear et al. 2015;Shreiner 2020;Vasquez Heilig et al. 2012). ...
Purpose: This study examined the policy processes that occurred during the creation of social studies state standards across 18 states and the District of Columbia. Research Methods/Approach: Using a critical education policy studies approach, researchers analyzed policy documents, media reports, and interviews with state standards panel participants about state social studies standards development processes. Findings: (1) States had varying levels of internal and external transparency. Many involved partisan control over the standards’ development, with state education agency (SEA) specialists having a clearer understanding of the process than educators. (2) Although all states had standards development committees composed of stakeholders, usually including educators, they varied in the processes used to develop standards. Language across states about timelines and committee compositions varied and was often vague or imprecise. (3) Educators generally had far less power and influence on the final standards compared with SEA specialists and politicians in the process. (4) Although the inclusion of politicians and special interest groups in the standards development process does have an important democratic role, they could also be disruptive to the work of educators on committees and sometimes had a direct effect on what content was eventually included or excluded. Implications: If state educational standards are to have a positive influence on classrooms, teachers should have trust that they are high quality and that fellow educators had a major role in their creation. Yet the actual role of educators in these processes is questioned, especially if they have their work undone by politicians or special interest groups.
... Teachers in first-world settler colonies like North America and New Zealand face similar inequities to Australia (Aitken & Radford, 2018;Fraser & O'Neill, 2021;Sabzalian et al., 2021). In Canada, despite notable social justice progress offered by the National Truth and Reconciliation Act (Government of Canada, 2022), there remain substantial educational disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, as Indigenous learners experience "poor school performance, low literacy rates, high dropout rates, and lag behind other groups in academic achievements nationally" (Milne, 2017, pp. ...
... Regrettably, some educational institutions in the United States are still not effectively addressing the educational needs of Native American students, even though, compared to other ethnic groups, these students are frequently subjected to bullying, racism, and a sense of alienation (Coon, 2022). Such schools often subscribe to a "one size fits all" pedagogical approach, where state and federal standardised requirements govern the curriculum, often neglecting Indigenous content and precluding the potential for Indigenous achievement (Sabzalian et al., 2021). In addition, efforts to address educational disparities face resistance from state legislatures, even though public education programmes receive funding to address historical inequities (Anthony- Stevens et al., 2020). ...
... Telling lies about the past is not a new phenomenon. Social studies has a long history of crafting historical narratives that are incomplete; intentionally omitting racialized and settler violence and oppression; centralizing white people and whiteness; and minimizing the presence, contribution, and humanity of people of color King, 2020;King & Chandler, 2016;Rodríguez & Swalwell, 2022;Sabzalian et al., 2021;Shear et al., 2015). Within social studies, the ideology of whiteness has largely been ignored by white people while simultaneously being quite present for people of color and Indigenous peoples. ...
... xvii). Similarly, Indigenous peoples and Native Nations are erased completely or narrativized as "friends" (e.g., Thanksgiving) or "enemies" (e.g., Westward Expansion) in U.S. history and civics curriculum (Sabzalian et al., 2021;Shear et al., 2015). ...
U.S. libraries and classrooms are under siege by private and governmental entities working to simultaneously ban/remove justice-focused literature and inundate these spaces with reactionary/ultra-conservative materials. It is within this educational crisis that we conducted a critical content analysis of the award-winning, best-selling historical fiction series, Rush Revere: Time Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans by Rush Limbaugh. The analysis worked to answer two central research questions: How does the Rush Revere series promote white lies about U.S. history? and What curricular violence is enacted through the Rush Revere series? Findings illuminate how each book individually centralizes an aspect of white supremacy-exceptional-ism, capitalism, militarism, patriotism, paternalism-that collectively then creates the infrastructure to indoctrinate young readers into white supremacist ideology.
... Remote environments are often impoverished and associated with a low quality of life. Teachers in North America and New Zealand face similar inequalities in Australia (Aitken & Radford, 2018;Fraser & O'Neil, 2021;Sabzalian et al, 2021). In Canada, despite significant progress in social justice through the National Truth and Reconciliation Act (Government of Canada, 2022), gaps also exist in education for native and rural students. ...
Remote environments are far from urban areas, which have many essential services. The absence of important goods and services in remote areas is described as equivalent to the typically poor working and living conditions. Isolation implies that teachers have limited interaction with other teachers who can share resources and teaching practices to improve their performance. This research aims to fill the gap in understanding teachers' adaptability by exploring cultural intelligence as a moderator of the factors influencing their performance in remote areas. The research employed a quantitative approach using path analysis. Participants in the study are high school teachers in West Seram. Data were collected through observation, questionnaires, and interviews. There were indications of positive teacher responses, with an average score of 4.42. The results show that self-efficacy and work discipline positively affect cultural intelligence but do not significantly affect overall teacher performance. Cultural intelligence considerably impacts teachers' self-efficacy in remote areas, making it valuable to study and continue developing their abilities and integrating with the surrounding environment.
... This approach encourages using quantitative methodologies that describe disparities and actively interrogate and challenge the structural inequities they reflect. By identifying the critical ways QuantCrit studies have engaged with social justice issues, the present review aims to contribute to a growing body of research that recognizes and utilizes the power of quantitative data to advocate for equitable and socially responsive educational practices (Sabzalian et al., 2021;Strunk and Hoover, 2019). Ultimately, the Social Justice Framework enhances the scope and impact of scoping review methods by underscoring the ethical imperative of QuantCrit to produce research that promotes equity and dismantles systemic biases in education. ...
Purpose
This scoping review aims to investigate the current utilization of a QuantCrit approach within educational research.
Design/methodology/approach
The research follows the methodological framework proposed by Arksey and O’Malley (2005), employing comprehensive search criteria across various databases to select 24 relevant studies for analysis.
Findings
The analysis of the selected studies underscores the focus of QuantCrit in education, primarily addressing educational inequities related to race, gender and socioeconomic status across K-16 education levels. The methodologies used in the studies ranged from basic descriptive statistics to more advanced techniques like multilevel models and correlational analyses. The significant influence of Gillborn et al. ’s (2018) tenets of QuantCrit is evident, although some studies incorporated these tenets without direct citation. Limitations identified include the hindrance in data disaggregation across racial groups due to limited sample sizes, the correlational nature of the studies and the complexity of variables.
Research limitations/implications
The findings highlight the need for more comprehensive investigations in the application of QuantCrit within educational research. Future research should address the limitations identified, focusing on increasing sample sizes, incorporating diverse methodologies and exploring variables more deeply.
Practical implications
The review suggests that future educational research should pay more attention to the intricate application of QuantCrit principles, particularly in addressing educational disparities related to race, gender and socioeconomic status across different education levels.
Originality/value
This scoping review provides valuable insights into the multifaceted application of the QuantCrit approach in educational research and points to the need for comprehensive and nuanced investigations in this domain. The value of the paper lies in its contribution to understanding the role of QuantCrit in addressing educational inequalities and providing a roadmap for future research in this area.
... These categories are not limited to race. For example, researchers have centered tribal (Sabzalian et al., 2021), queer (Garvey et al., 2019), and trans (Curley, 2019) theory when trying to better understand variation. Common across these different approaches is the call for all researchers to make more thoughtful decisions about the questions being asked and how their data are analyzed. ...
We introduce latent class analysis, a mixture modeling method that can explicitly model unobserved heterogeneity in a population. We provide examples of how this method could be applied to STEM education research as a means to analyze quantitative data while pursuing research goals aligned with equity, inclusion, access, and justice agendas.
... In addition, the marginalization of ecocentrism in schooling reflects a significant absence of Indigenous peoples, Indigenous histories, and Indigenous lifeways in US pre-K-12 education. This situation has produced a citizenry which has no or minimal knowledge of Native Peoples or ethical commitments to their sovereignty, and even their right to exist as peoples (lees and Bang 2023;Sabzalian, Shear, and Snyder 2021;Shear et al. 2015). Scholars and practitioners have advocated for the inclusion of Indigenous pedagogies and ways of knowing (i.e. ...
Social studies scholars have argued that environmental issues are social
issues, not merely the domain of natural science education. This study
conducts a scholarly review of social studies advocacy for Environmental
and Sustainability Education (ESE). My analysis focuses on exploring how
social studies scholars rationalize the inclusion of ESE in social studies
classrooms. Starting with a broad search, I identified 31 articles where
the authors explicitly stated their values or assumptions connecting social
studies with ESE. I then discussed three themes: civic responsibility, lit-
eracy development, and reconstructing relationships (ecocentrism), as
these themes reflect both mainstream and marginal trends in US school-
ing. In justifying the legitimacy of teacher implementation, I argue that
literacy development and civic responsibility are likely more accessible
for teachers, as these themes align more closely with the professional
norms of social studies educators. Conversely, the ecocentrism approach
may face significant barriers and challenges, making it difficult to inte-
grate into the school curriculum, given its aim to deconstruct the long
existing anthropocentric paradigm in social studies. However, ecocentrism
could be incorporated into special programs, such as after-school clubs
and field trips.
... The relationship between Native nations and the United States is that of separate sovereignties working across borders (i.e., in government-to-government relationships), which is frequently misunderstood by non-Native people in the United States given its absence from most state civics educational standards (Sabzalian et al., 2021). Given that tribal schools function on unique, multi national partnerships and their founding purpose was to encourage self-determination and equity, the instructional practices of teachers in these schools warrant special attention to culturally responsive, sustaining, and revitalizing pedagogies. ...
There is a proliferation of research on the importance of teachers engaging in culturally responsive practices (CRPs) when working with students from minoritized and marginalized backgrounds, yet recent literature rarely centers the needs of Native American tribal school students and their teachers. As such, we conducted a mixed method study to gather information on how the Double Check teacher coaching and professional development program might be adapted to meet the needs of teachers working with Indigenous students. The current study used mixed methods to highlight the perspectives of Native American middle school students and their teachers on CRPs. Students ( n = 5) and teachers ( n = 18) at a Northern Plains tribal school participated in focus groups about their perspectives on CRPs. Teachers ( n = 19) also completed a survey. Teachers reported comfort with CRPs and that their school offered helpful professional development. However, in contrast, students reported that although they liked most of their teachers, their teachers did not use many CRPs; students also reported wishing that teachers would learn more about their language and culture. Additional findings and implications for teacher professional development are discussed.
... Human exceptionalism and white privilege work to obscure this long-standing reproduction, consistently rendering the most recent collective traumas as both indiscriminate of race and historically unprecedented (Yusoff, 2018). This act in itself continues to proliferate colonial violence, as Western narratives erase BIPOC histories of genocide and systemic racism (Sabzalian et al., 2021). Thus, while this paper specifically examines pandemic disruptions, we understand these as one point of social-ecological rupture emerging from a long-standing condition of crisis. ...
Social–ecological disruptions, such as changing climate, extreme weather‐related events and the COVID‐19 pandemic, can have cascading and long‐term consequences for people, ecosystems and multispecies relationships. As the early COVID‐19 pandemic disrupted people's lives through isolation and restricted human contact, more‐than‐human relationships played a heightened role in individuals' day‐to‐day lives with potential long‐term impacts on multispecies justice.
We analysed 72 interviews conducted during the early (May–June 2020) COVID‐19 lockdown in the United States to investigate how social–ecological disruptions and spatial re‐orderings, exemplified by the pandemic, reassemble more‐than‐human relationships. We consider new relational values through a transformative multispecies justice framing, which contends that times of uncertainty can inspire meaningful connections with the more‐than‐human world, facilitating care and reciprocal relationships during times of disruption.
Among interviewee accounts, we find that disorderings of daily life during the pandemic interweave with past and ongoing experiences of inequity to form mosaics of disruption. These mosaics of disruption created circumstances in which interviewees formed new connections with the more‐than‐human world.
The more‐than‐human connections of interviewees sat along a spectrum and did not universally represent the same strength of relational values. The more‐than‐human connections were defined by individual's positionality and restricted geographies of the circumstances. However, the newly formed relationships seemed to be ephemeral, indicating that they would not necessarily endure outside of an early‐pandemic context.
Thus, while individuals reported rearranged relationships out of pandemic precarity, their transitory qualities do not directly promise long‐term transformational multispecies connections. Our findings suggest that moments of disruption alone do not necessarily produce durable change and there is a need to go beyond merely recognizing relationality.
Policy implications: Transformative multispecies justice requires long‐term, routine commitment to deepening relationships with the more‐than‐human world. While future social–ecological and spatial disturbances can be a window of opportunity to initiate multispecies relationships, future initiatives and policies must actively support and foster these relationships and strong relational values beyond the disturbances—recognizing the long‐term, non‐linear processes of transformation needed to address our future challenges.
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... The core components of cultural competence include developing an awareness of culture (one's own and others) and the use of knowledge and skills (such as perspective taking and ethnocultural empathy) for effective and respectful cross-cultural interactions (Tehee et al., 2020). Moreover, there is a critical need for accurate and culturally sustaining representations of Indigenous cultures in K-12 classrooms (e.g., Sabzalian et al., 2021). Thus, as a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers, educators, and designers, we collaboratively designed culturally centered curricular units, particularly focused on representing Indigenous perspectives in the classroom, throughout a multi-year research partnership. ...
... Undoing acts of historical erasure is a form of civic engagement in which, especially White young people and adults, rarely participate. Instead, civics and social studies curricula (e.g., Sabzalian, Shear, & Snyder, 2021), as well as public spaces, too often perpetuate the historical erasure of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in accounts of community and national development. How, then, might interactions and digitally mediated learning activities, that are intergenerational, interracial, and interinstitutional (e.g., public schools, public library, liberal arts college, and city government), restore/re-story the heterogeneity and pain of how places came to be? ...
... Rather than violently and explicitly eradicating the physical bodies of Indigenous peoples through historic genocidal practices (Norgaard 2019), there exists an erasure of the histories and geographies that provide the foundation for Indigenous cultural identities and sense of self (Alfred and Corntassel 2005). This erasure can be seen in the lack of public education about Native Americans' sovereignty within the United States (Sabzalian, Shear, and Snyder 2021), gate-keeping blood quantum regulations (Small-Rodriguez 2020), and in news media coverage and narratives (Plummer 2018). ...
The news media is an important force shaping societal views of the socio‐politics of climate change. International scholarship finds it not uncommon for Indigenous cultures, communities, and perspectives to be underrepresented and misrepresented in Western media, especially on climate change issues. Research also indicates that accurate Indigenous representation occurs when Indigenous peoples are the authors of news articles themselves. We developed a Holistic Media Coding Protocol informed by Indigenous and Western perspectives to guide our content analysis of media coverage of climate change, environmental issues, and Indigenous peoples. We examined news articles from two Indigenous news publications, Indian Country Today and Navajo Times , and two Western news publications, The New York Times and The Salt Lake Tribune . Our findings indicate that creating and utilizing a theory‐informed Holistic Media Coding Protocol challenges the recurrent Western gaze on Indigenous peoples. This Holistic Media Coding Protocol contributes to our understandings of the media, settler colonialism, and climate change from Indigenous and Western perspectives. Overall, this research responds to a critical call for sociologists to engage more deeply with settler colonialism, Indigenous issues, and intersectional environmental justice.
... The absence of indigenous narratives and the focus on Eurocentric dominant narratives are forms of institutional racism. Some U.S. states (e.g., Oklahoma, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming) have passed legislation to address this form of institutionalized racism by adopting K-12 civics, government, and history state-mandated standards regarding Indigenous peoples (Sabzalian et al., 2021;Shear et al., 2015). Further, the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS, 2018) put forth a position statement recognizing that "Indigenous Peoples have the right to dignity in education, and to see and experience their cultures, traditions, histories, and ongoing sovereignty movements affirmed in social studies curriculum and classrooms" (p. ...
This community-based participatory research case study demonstrates how Dakota Wicoḣaƞ utilized Indigenous and feminist epistemologies to create, implement, and evaluate a cultural intervention, the Mni Sota Makoce: Dakota Homelands Curriculum, to increase Native 6th- and 10th-grade social studies students’ peoplehood sense of belonging (Tachine et al., 2017). Findings demonstrate Native students liked the curriculum and reported an increase in support and a decrease in invalidation of their sense of belonging. While the curriculum provided a source of racial-ethnic socialization, some European American students criticized the curriculum, which likely negatively impacted 6th-grade students' psychological sense of school membership (Goodenow, 1993). Results indicate Indigenous culture, epistemologies, and pedagogies should be infused throughout all curricula, teachers need to be prepared to effectively deal with racist and discriminatory behavior, and Indian education is important to Native students’ belonging. Implications and recommendations for funders, schools, researchers, teacher education programs, and Native communities are discussed.
... The absence of indigenous narratives and the focus on Eurocentric dominant narratives are forms of institutional racism. Some U.S. states (e.g., Oklahoma, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming) have passed legislation to address this form of institutionalized racism by adopting K-12 civics, government, and history state-mandated standards regarding Indigenous peoples (Sabzalian et al., 2021;Shear et al., 2015). Further, the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS, 2018) put forth a position statement recognizing that "Indigenous Peoples have the right to dignity in education, and to see and experience their cultures, traditions, histories, and ongoing sovereignty movements affirmed in social studies curriculum and classrooms" (p. ...
This community-based participatory research case study demonstrates how Dakota Wicoḣaƞ utilized Indigenous and feminist epistemologies to create, implement, and evaluate a cultural intervention, the Mni Sota Makoce: Dakota Homelands Curriculum, to increase Native 6th- and 10th-grade social studies students’ peoplehood sense of belonging (Tachine et al., 2017). Findings demonstrate Native students liked the curriculum and reported an increase in support and a decrease in invalidation of their sense of belonging. While the curriculum provided a source of racial-ethnic socialization, some European American students criticized the curriculum, which likely negatively impacted 6th-grade students psychological sense of school membership (Goodenow, 1993). Results indicate Indigenous culture, epistemologies, and pedagogies should be infused throughout all curricula, teachers need to be prepared to effectively deal with racist and discriminatory behavior, and Indian education is important to Native students’ belonging. Implications and recommendations for funders, schools, researchers, teacher education programs, and Native communities are discussed.
... Another area of robust civic education research explores what types of citizenship are embedded in social studies standards (Busey & Walker, 2017;Sabzalian et al., 2021;Shear et al., 2015), and how standards frame social studies curricular topics, such as technology (Krutka et al., 2022) immigration (Hilburn et al., 2016;Journell, 2009), and the emotion of fear (B. L. ...
Emotion plays an important role in how young people acquire the
skills, knowledge, and dispositions of engaged citizenship, including
being able to empathize, listen to multiple perspectives, and build
relationships of solidarity with others. This study investigated how
social emotional learning (SEL) standards in 17 U.S. states guided the
preparation of youth for affective citizenship. The concept of affective
citizenship was used to analyze how SEL standards encourage youth to
feel about their fellow citizens, how public behaviors or attitudes are
managed, and how emotions can fuel civic engagement to address
problems of social injustice. Findings indicated that SEL standards
conceptualize emotions as individualized experience, teach students
to resolve conflicts through civility and cooperation, and favor individual
responses to injustice. Implications are discussed for how to
leverage SEL standards alongside social studies content standards to
promote justice-oriented affective citizenship in the current sociopolitical
climate.
... CRT underscores a commitment to social justice and actionoriented research (Sabzalian et al., 2021), which is also relevant to our use of CBPR (Israel et al., 2010). CBPR equitably involves research partners and participants to enhance knowledge of a phenomenon to drive action (Israel et al., 2010). ...
Cet article vise à comprendre les obstacles à l’obtention de soins de santé mentale pour les jeunes Noirs en fournissant les points de vue des jeunes, des fournisseurs de soins et des fournisseurs de services. Compte tenu de l’importance de la prestation de services, l’analyse est axée sur l’accès au système de soins de santé mentale à l’échelle organisationnelle et sur le plan des praticiens. La présente étude a exploré les obstacles à l’obtention de soins de santé mentale pour les enfants et les jeunes noirs au Canada, et les facteurs y facilitant l’accès. Les résultats de cet article s’appuient sur une étude plus vaste qui visait à explorer les obstacles à l’obtention de soins de santé mentale pour les enfants et les jeunes noirs au Canada, et les facteurs y facilitant l’accès. Une analyse thématique réflexive a été utilisée pour identifier les thèmes, qui ont été analysés à partir de la théorie critique de la race. Les participants ont souligné de nombreux défis liés à l’accès aux soins, dont bon nombre ont été attribués au racisme envers les Noirs. Sur le plan des praticiens, la stigmatisation et le racisme de la part des fournisseurs, le manque de sensibilisation culturelle et l’incapacité des travailleurs non noirs à aider les jeunes Noirs étaient des thèmes majeurs. Sur le plan organisationnel, trois thèmes centraux sont ressortis : L’absence d’engagement de la part des organisations à tenir compte de la culture, le manque de professionnels noirs et le manque d’organismes spécifiquement destinés aux jeunes Noirs. Pour accroître l’accès aux soins, les organisations doivent s’attaquer au racisme envers les Noirs en prenant des engagements concrets dans les efforts antiracistes, en augmentant le nombre de programmes adaptés à la culture et en abordant le racisme envers les Noirs pour les employés noirs. Les praticiens doivent adopter une approche de soins flexible et individualisée, qui rejette les hypothèses et les stéréotypes et permet aux clients de mener les discussions avec leurs expériences. Cette étude est l’une des premières à se pencher sur le racisme envers les Noirs et l’accès aux soins de santé mentale pour les jeunes Noirs au Canada.
... Research on state social studies standards in the past three decades has focused heavily on the content of those standards, with studies examining how state standards align with national standards (e.g., Rapoport, 2020); how they compare to each other (e.g., Harris & Girard, 2020); and how they treat or omit particular topics or racial, ethnic, or Indigenous groups (e.g., An, 2016;Busey & Walker, 2017;Sabzalian et al., 2021;Seeger et al., 2023;Shear et al., 2015). Research on the development, including the writing process, of state standards inside or outside of social studies is rare (Wixson et al., 2003). ...
This qualitative study involved interviews with 31 social studies educators (teachers, district leaders, teacher educators, and state social studies specialists) who took part in standards development committees across 18 states and Washington, DC. Researchers found that some participants were able to form communities of practice and believed they had agency to enact goals, such as incorporating inquiry and increasing diversity into the standards. However, teacher participants, in particular, reported that their sense of agency diminished as standards moved through the process. Many participants did not believe that the final standards represented their community of practice’s shared goals, but instead the goals of others outside their community, such as politicians or special interest groups. We conclude with several recommendations for the improvement of state standards creation and review processes.
Purpose
This article uses Tribal Critical Race Theory (TribalCrit) and human rights education (HRE) to frame social studies instruction about the Ghost Dance movement of the late 1800s. This religious ritual served as a source of spiritual communion for Native Americans across the Western United States during an especially brutal era of colonization, most tragically exemplified by the Wounded Knee Massacre. The critical approaches offered are meant to challenge dominant narratives that often neglect or minimize colonialism and White supremacy.
Design/methodology/approach
TribalCrit is useful in framing acts of racism and genocide faced by Indigenous people in American history and can help teachers approach issues of social justice in a way that identifies oppression, while also promoting empathy and advocacy (Brayboy, 2005; Sabzalian et al. , 2021). Furthermore, human rights concepts can support a critical interrogation of colonialism by providing a framework that guides analysis of multidimensional oppression (Bajaj, 2011).
Findings
The pedagogical approaches included in this article link the historical context of these events to tenets of TribalCrit and HRE. These strategies are explicitly connected to the National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies and the C3 Framework. A lesson plan and enrichment sources, linked to the C3 Inquiry Design Model, are provided.
Originality/value
The Ghost Dance is a powerful illustration of spiritual resistance to colonial policies and ideologies in the United States, such as the Dawes Act and Christian nationalism. An examination of this important religious movement through the critical lenses offered here may build empathy, support justice-oriented citizenship and decolonize curriculum.
This chapter introduces the theoretical and methodological foundations for this book, beginning with the overarching social-political problem of how to address educational inequity in the context of an enormous and persistent nationwide gap between the racial diversity of the student body and their home communities with the racial homogeneity of the teacher corps. We argue that the overwhelming Whiteness of education in the United States, including prospective and in-service teacher populations, coupled with the paucity of teachers of color, requires us to restructure teacher education to prepare White teachers for the practice of anti-racist education. We conclude the chapter with a brief description of our research project and an overview of the book.
This chapter introduces the theoretical framework for the book, beginning with the basic tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and its application in teacher education, arguing that CRT should play a vital role in preparing White teachers capable of recognizing the institutional Whiteness of the US educational system. We suggest that teacher education programs need a praxis model of critical reflection and generative change for transformative learning to assist White teachers in challenging racist policies and practices within education, and more importantly, to aid in implementing anti-racist teaching for educational equity. We further suggest that transformative praxis needs to emphasize changing both habits of mind (thinking about race and racism) as well as patterns of acting (inside and outside the classroom). To link these elements together we propose the metaphor of travel, in which CRT provides the roadmap to social justice and educational equity through anti-racist teaching, culturally relevant and sustaining community-based teacher education provides the vehicle, and critical reflection and generative change for transformative action provides the engine. The chapter concludes with a brief explanation of the research context, including descriptions of the three research sites, their teacher education programs, the prospective teachers who participated in our study, and data collection and analysis.
Background/Research Design
This ethnographic study explores how secondary students engaged with the history of Japanese American incarceration while participating in an archaeological dig at one of the prison camps used by the U.S. government during World War II, the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California.
Purpose/Research Question
Using two tenets from Asian(Crit), (re)constructive history, and story, theory, and praxis as a theoretical frame, this study explores the question: How does participation in an archeological dig at Manzanar prison camp reveal and shape how students perceive the history of Japanese American incarceration?
Conclusions
Four findings emerged from this study. First, students’ dominant understanding justified incarceration as a wartime necessity. Second, students were exposed to narratives at Manzanar that emphasized racism, countering classroom curriculum. The third finding explores how the family history of one Japanese American student informed her conceptualization of the U.S. history curriculum as purposefully whitewashed. Finally, once they had returned to school, students of color doubted whether their work at Manzanar or their sharing of counterstories would impact their white classmates.
This chapter examines the incorporation of marginalized Americans in high school American history state standards and selected curriculum guides in three southern states: Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Using critical race theory (CRT) as a lens, this study examines marginalized narratives and historic events within the standards and curriculum guides, specifically seeking to understand two big ideas: How are the narratives and experiences of marginalized Americans represented in high school American history standards and curriculum guides? and Which marginalized Americans, and events involving them, appear in the standards and curriculum guides? The findings suggest that even into the second decade of the 21st century, content coverage in these three states' high school American history curricula continues to trend toward over-representation of conditions of oppression and resistance to it rather than examples of ingenuity, creativity, and cultural contributions.
This paper considers the way a world history teacher structured his world history class around his perception of student needs. Part of a larger project, this single case study highlights the teacher’s efforts to make his curriculum relevant to his students largely from minoritized backgrounds. The researchers analyze the ways in which the world history teacher struggled to prioritize his students’ lived experiences.
Despite the recent anti-CRT (Critical Race Theory) movement within U.S. education, teachings of Native histories and perspectives have never been accurately taught, or even taught. From their perspectives as teacher educators in predominantly white institutions (PWI), the authors share counterstories from their existing IRB-approved research projects to explore the impacts of CRT bans on teacher education and how the bans continue to perpetuate systemic erasure of Native perspectives. They review how legislators in the Western U.S. passed anti-CRT laws as well as its impact on teacher education. Using the TribalCrit framework with an emphasis on the first tenet, “colonization [being] endemic to society” (Brayboy, 2005, p. 430), the authors discuss how Native invisibilization and erasure are perpetuated in predominantly white classrooms by silencing Native perspectives in policy making and curriculum implementation, banning Natives in public education, and explicit refusal of white teachers to learn culturally sustaining pedagogies (Paris & Alim, 2017). While erasure and colonization may no longer be explicit U.S. federal policy aims in the education of Native youth, the subjugation of Native rights, cultures, knowledges, and histories remains a contemporary feature of state-sanctioned public education. Telling these stories of structural violence toward Native peoples reflected in the ignorance enforced by mainstream teachers and educational policymakers makes salient the overwhelming need to teach Native history and content at all levels of public education.
One of the most commonly expressed values of schools around the United States is preparing youth for citizenship (Hahn, 2001; 2021). Preparation of citizens is a complicated task, made all the more so when considering the history of colonialism and erasure of marginalized groups. Sabzaliean, Shear, and Snyder’s (2021) examination of state civics and government standards suggest that perspectives on concepts of Indigenous nationhood and sovereignty are neglected and erased across the United States. To better understand Indigenous perspectives of citizenship, this study explores the lived experiences of a Umoⁿhoⁿ teacher as she teachers civic engagement through science, tribal government, and language and cultural courses. The research questions for this study are:
RQ1: What does Renee consider to be the ideal citizen?
RQ2: Why did Renee commit to developing students’ civic engagement?
RQ3: What pedagogical practices does she employ to promote civic engagement in students?
https://aera24-aera.ipostersessions.com/default.aspx?s=75-6A-5F-BA-58-E3-2B-75-5B-37-8B-1D-71-87-57-05&guestview=true
The Social Studies Curriculum (5th Ed.) published in 2024 by State University of New York Press. The Social Studies Curriculum (5th Edition) updates the definitive overview of the issues teachers face when creating learning experiences for students in social studies. The book connects diverse elements of the social studies curriculum – social issues, history, cultural studies – offering a unique and critical perspective that separates it from other texts. The social studies curriculum is contested terrain both epistemologically and politically and this completely updated book includes new chapters on politics of social studies curriculum, historical perspective, critical historical inquiry, Black education and critical race theory, whiteness and anti-racism, decolonial literacy and decolonizing the curriculum, gender and sexuality, Islamophobia, critical media literacy, evil in social studies, economics education, anarchism, children’s rights and Earth democracy, and citizenship education. Readers are encouraged to reconsider their assumptions and understandings of purposes, nature, and possibilities of the social studies curriculum.
As Indigenous-led education mandates proliferate globally, understanding how educators teach Indigenous perspectives and sovereignty remains urgent. Learning and integrating such knowledge proves difficult for non-Native teachers, given their lengthy participation in settler colonial schooling and society. What does learning to implement Native sovereignty curriculum entail? Codesigned with eight Native education leaders, this qualitative study examines five non-Native K–12 teachers’ learning processes with Washington’s Since Time Immemorial curriculum across three schools, using interviews, observations, and other data. Findings indicate six themes of learning supporting meaningful implementation, one potential catalyst for overall growth, and two distinct learning trajectories that suggest outward, rather than inbound, directionality. Implications for teacher education and educational leadership clarify needed steps for teacher learning and curriculum implementation.
The omission of Native Peoples’ existence, experiences, and perspectives is systematic and widespread across numerous societal domains, referred to as Native omission . In mainstream media, for example, less than 0.5% of representations are of contemporary Native Peoples. We theorize that Native omission is a tool furthering settler colonial goals to oppress and eventually erase Native Peoples. To make this case, we will review both experimental and national survey studies that unpack how Native omission shapes psychological processes among non‐Native and Native individuals and contribute to discrimination, oppression, and disparities facing Native Peoples. We then discuss ways in which Native Peoples are actively resisting Native omission. Finally, we provide a series of policy recommendations to address Native omission and promote Native equity. By making visible the pernicious consequences of omission for Native Peoples, we chart a path for creating a more equitable future.
Classrooms are brimming with learners who demonstrate their talents by responding to interactions in a global world. These learners are astute at acknowledging global context and building an awareness of the cultural, ethnic, racial, linguistic, and socioeconomic diversity that exists within themselves and others. They are nuanced in recognizing the multifaceted aspects of identity and constantly make connections to their home and community. Yet, the curriculum they experience in schools does not openly value or solicit this type of knowledge. This chapter presents a continuum for educators to reflect on their curriculum through a critically conscious lens. Instructional constructs are provided to guide educators in acknowledging and integrating global and cultural competencies into classroom learning experiences. This chapter presents reflection questions and curriculum connections that teachers can use to nurture and sustain Cultural and Global Competence in all learners.
Context
This study examines how urban American Indian high school students negotiate their civic identities within the settler colonial structures of urban American public schools.
Research Question
How do urban American Indian students negotiate civic identities in spaces where civic concepts are taught, such as American history classes in an urban public high school and a Native Youth Council (Native YC)?
Research Design
This critical participatory ethnographic study examines the negotiation of civic identity by 11 urban Indigenous students in social studies classes, a Native YC, and a school in Washington State, where the STI curriculum is taught. Safety zone theory and tribal critical race theory were used to understand students’ experiences and their stories from observations, participant interviews, and focus groups, which were employed as data.
Conclusions/Recommendations
The study found that the social studies classes and Native YC were zones of sovereignty (ZoS), forwarding survivance and self-determination for Native students. Students learned about the Indigenous civic constructs of sovereignty, self-determination, dual citizenship, tribal self-government, and federal Indian policy inside and outside of school, all of which supported Native students in civic identity development. Recommendations on teaching Indigenous civic constructs to all students as part of teaching for critical democracy in public schools as a component of social studies classes and extracurricular activities are discussed.
This article asserts that despite the salience of race in U.S. society, as a topic of scholarly inquiry, it remains untheorized. The article argues for a critical race theoretical perspective in education analogous to that of critical race theory in legal scholarship by developing three propositions: (1) race continues to be significant in the United States; (2) U.S. society is based on property rights rather than human rights; and (3) the intersection of race and property creates an analytical tool for understanding inequity. The article concludes with a look at the limitations of the current multicultural paradigm.
Black teachers have understood for centuries that whiteness is a requirement for full citizenship in the United States (Ladson-Billings, 1998). For this reason, Black teachers have historically taught Black students using emancipatory methods that centered their students’ race and aided their students in navigating a landscape wrought with
overt individual, institutional, and structural racism (Scheurich & Young, 1997). This is also true of contemporary Black teachers, who understand that white supremacy is just as present as it ever has been. Using data from a larger study, this paper focuses on a Black civics teacher who used a critical race approach to structure the American Government course she taught primarily to Black students. Findings indicate that she
rejected the notion of colorblindness in the law, worked to prepare her students for the racism they would experience, and incorporated students’ counterstories into her classes.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements. Foreword—Lifting the Veil: On Decentering Whiteness in Social Studies Curriculum, Teaching, and Research, Amanda E. Vickery and Kristen E. Duncan. Introduction—Taking Responsibility, Doing the Work: An Introduction to Marking the “Invisible”, Andrea M. Hawkman and Sarah B. Shear.
SECTION I: THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO ARTICULATING WHITENESS. AsianCrit as a Theoretical Lens to Trouble and Transform White Supremacy, Sohyun An. Extensions of Intersectionality Theory From Critical Race Analyses: A Framework of Coalitions for Interrogating Race and Racism in Social Studies Education, Christian D. Chan, Jehan A. Hill, and Sarah N. Baquet. “But I Just Never Knew!”: Theorizing and Challenging the Ideologies of Whiteness in Social Studies, Danielle S. Walker and Peter M. Newlove.
SECTION II: WHITENESS AND THE OFFICIAL KNOWLEDGE OF SOCIAL STUDIES. The Silences We Speak: Deliberative Pedagogies and the Whiteness of Civic Education, Melissa Leigh Gibson. Hope in the Dismal Science: A Race-Centered Redirection of Economics Curriculum, Neil Shanks and Delandrea Hall. Interrogating Whiteness: A Critical Content Analysis of Notable Picture Books Recommended by the National Council for the Social Studies, Jacob P. Gates, Paul H. Ricks, and René M. Rodríguez-Astacio. Where Is Race? A Critical Whiteness Studies Analysis of NCSS Position Statements, Sara B. Demoiny. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”: Recognizing and Disrupting Hegemonic Practices in the edTPA, Ritu Radhakrishnan. “This Isn’t a Sentence in a History Book”: Students’ of Color Resistance to Official Knowledges of Whiteness, Ryan Oto. The White Conundrum: White Social Studies Teachers, Fear, and the Racial Contract, Michael L. Boucher, Jr.
SECTION III: WHITENESS IN MEDIA, TEXTS, AND SPACES. Surpassing the Single Story: Widening the Representation of BIWOC in an Online History Museum, Lauren Colley and John P. Broome. Unveiling Race/ism and White(ness) Supremacy Through Historiartography, Bretton A. Varga and Vonzell Agosto. White(ness) Narratives on Miscegenation: Loving v. Virginia as a Medium for Examining Racism in the South, Lisa Brown Buchanan and Cara F. Ward. Framework for Decentering Whiteness in Social Studies Field Trips: Evaluating Museums and Public Sites and Challenging the Whiteness Curriculum, Karen L. B. Burgard. Pictures Speak Louder: Portraying Early Prominent Middle Eastern Religious Women as “White” and “Passive” in Textbook Imagery, Erica M. Southworth.
SECTION IV: WHITENESS IN K–12 CLASSROOMS. Navigating Difficult Knowledge But Still Evading Race: The Overwhelming Effects of Whiteness in Doubly Constrained Civil Rights Teaching, Jennifer Gallagher. “Isn’t That Enough?”: Troubling White Student Performances of Allyship, Ryan Oto. “It Is Hard to Admit Your Own Group Did Wrong”: How Whiteness Becomes Centered in the Canadian Social Studies Classroom, Samantha Cutrara. Teaching Latinx-Identifying Students in a Post-Truth America: Reflections from White-Identifying Teachers on Bringing Non-White Identities and Experiences Into the Classroom Through Localized Civics Curriculum, William Toledo. White Supremacy in the Gaps of Practice: A Retroactive Self-Study of My Antiracist Lesson, Brian C. Chervitz.
SECTION V: WHITENESS IN TEACHER EDUCATION. Whitewashing the History of Education: Laying Bare the Pervasive Power and Presence of White Supremacy in a Teacher Education Course, Amy Mungur. “How Is That White Privilege Though?”: Preservice Teachers Dialogue About White Privilege and Whiteness in an Intergroup Dialogue Course, Natasha C. Murray-Everett. What Does Whiteness Have to Do with Teaching History? Toward Racial Historical Consciousness in History Teacher Education, Travis L. Seay. Grammar Matters: Verbal(izing) Whiteness in Social Studies Teacher Education, Erin Adams.
SECTION VI: WHITENESS, POSITIONALITY, AND REFLEXIVITY. Tenets of Social Studies as Tools of Whiteness: Dismantling the Myths, Elizabeth A. Kenyon. Working to Unsettle Settler Colonialism: (While) Tripping Over My Whiteness, Tana A. Mitchell. Learning to Teach Against White Social Studies: Toward a True Criticality, Brian Gibbs. Epilogue—Committing Forward: In Lieu of an Epilogue, Sarah B. Shear & Andrea M. Hawkman. Editor and Author Bio Sketches.
Quantitative research enjoys heightened esteem among policymakers, media, and the general public. Whereas qualitative research is frequently dismissed as subjective and impressionistic, statistics are often assumed to be objective and factual. We argue that these distinctions are wholly false; quantitative data is no less socially
constructed than any other form of research material. The first part of the paper presents a conceptual critique of the field with empirical examples that expose and challenge hidden assumptions that frequently encode racist perspectives beneath the façade of supposed quantitative objectivity. The second part of the paper draws on the tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT) to set out some principles to guide the future use and analysis of quantitative data. These ‘QuantCrit’ ideas concern (1) the centrality of racism as a complex and deeply rooted
aspect of society that is not readily amenable to quantification; (2) numbers are not neutral and should be interrogated for their role in promoting deficit analyses that serve White racial interests; (3) categories are neither ‘natural’ nor given and so the units and forms of analysis must be critically evaluated; (4) voice and insight are vital: data cannot ‘speak for itself’ and critical analyses should be informed by the experiential knowledge of marginalized groups; (5) statistical analyses have no inherent value but can play a role in struggles for social justice.
In this content analysis of state U.S. History and Civics standards, we compared the treatment of immigration across three types of states with differing immigration demographics. Analyzing standards from 18 states from a critical race methodology perspective, our findings indicated three sets of tensions: a unified American story versus local specificity, immigration as a historical versus civic issue, and favorable versus unfavorable tenor of the standards. Through this project, we were able to draw some initial conclusions about the relationship between states’ immigration demographics and social studies standards. Thus, this study builds on the small but growing new gateway state literature and on the content analysis literature related to immigration and the formal social studies curriculum.
Indigenous peoples often embrace different versions of the concept of food sovereignty. Yet some of these concepts are seemingly based on impossible ideals of food self-sufficiency. I will suggest in this essay that for at least some North American Indigenous peoples, food sovereignty movements are not based on such ideals, even though they invoke concepts of cultural revitalization and political sovereignty. Instead, food sovereignty is a strategy of Indigenous resurgence that negotiates structures of settler colonialism that erase the ecological value of certain foods for Indigenous peoples.
In this article, Julian Vasquez Heilig, Keffrelyn Brown, and Anthony Brown offer findings from a close textual analysis of how the Texas social studies standards address race, racism, and communities of color. Using the lens of critical race theory, the authors uncover the sometimes subtle ways that the standards can appear to adequately address race while at the same time marginalizing it-the "illusion of inclusion." Their study offers insight into the mechanisms of marginalization in standards and a model of how to closely analyze such standards, which, the authors argue, is increasingly important as the standards and accountability movements continue to grow in influence.
Our goal in this article is to remind readers what is unsettling about decolonization. Decolonization brings about the repatriation of Indigenous land and life; it is not a metaphor for other things we want to do to improve our societies and schools. The easy adoption of decolonizing discourse by educational advocacy and scholarship, evidenced by the increasing number of calls to “decolonize our schools,” or use “decolonizing methods,” or, “decolonize student thinking”, turns decolonization into a metaphor. As important as their goals may be, social justice, critical methodologies, or approaches that decenter settler perspectives have objectives that may be incommensurable with decolonization. Because settler colonialism is built upon an entangled triad structure of settler-native-slave, the decolonial desires of white, non-white, immigrant, postcolonial, and oppressed people, can similarly be entangled in resettlement, reoccupation, and reinhabitation that actually further settler colonialism. The metaphorization of decolonization makes possible a set of evasions, or “settler moves to innocence”, that problematically attempt to reconcile settler guilt and complicity, and rescue settler futurity. In this article, we analyze multiple settler moves towards innocence in order to forward “an ethic of incommensurability” that recognizes what is distinct and what is sovereign for project(s) of decolonization in relation to human and civil rights based social justice projects. We also point to unsettling themes within transnational/Third World decolonizations, abolition, and critical space-place pedagogies, which challenge the coalescence of social justice endeavors, making room for more meaningful potential alliances.
In this mixed-methods study, we use a postcolonial framework to investigate how state standards represent Indigenous histories and cultures. The research questions that guided this study include: (a) What is the frequency of Indigenous content (histories, cultures, current issues) covered in state-level U.S. history standards for K-12? (b) What is the difference between the frequency of inclusion of pre-1900 Indigenous content and post-1900 Indigenous content in U.S. history standards for K-12? (c) How do the standards depict Indigenous Peoples in U.S. history? U.S. history curriculum standards from all 50 states and the District of Columbia were analyzed using within-case analysis and quantified to represent each state’s depiction of Indigenous content. Findings reveal that standards overwhelmingly present Indigenous Peoples in a pre-1900 context and relegate the importance and presence of Indigenous Peoples to the distant past.
This ground-breaking text explores the intersection between dominant modes of critical educational theory and the socio-political landscape of American Indian education. Grande asserts that, with few exceptions, the matters of Indigenous people and Indian education have been either largely ignored or indiscriminately absorbed within critical theories of education. Furthermore, American Indian scholars and educators have largely resisted engagement with critical educational theory, tending to concentrate instead on the production of historical monographs, ethnographic studies, tribally-centered curricula, and site-based research. Such a focus stems from the fact that most American Indian scholars feel compelled to address the socio-economic urgencies of their own communities, against which engagement in abstract theory appears to be a luxury of the academic elite. While the author acknowledges the dire need for practical-community based research, she maintains that the global encroachment on Indigenous lands, resources, cultures and communities points to the equally urgent need to develop transcendent theories of decolonization and to build broad-based coalitions.
A critical evaluation of U.S. educational policies and practices designed to domesticate Native American peoples and societies; theorized according to the logic of a settler colonial Safety Zone. The oppressive and restrictive Safety Zone has been resisted by Native students, parents, communities, and educators working toward self-determination inside and outside of schools whose voices and experiences lie at the heart of this story.
Chapter titles: (1) Choice and self-determination: Central lessons from American Indian education; (2) The strengths of Indigenous education: Overturning myths about Indian learners; (3) Women's arts and children's songs: Domesticating Indian culture, 1900-1928; (4) How to "remain and Indian"? Power struggles in the safety zone, 1928-1940; (5) Control of culture: Federally produced bilingual materials, 1936-1954; (6) Indigenous bilingual/bicultural education: Challenging the safety zone; (7) "The new American revolution": Indigenous language survival and linguistic human rights; (8) Testing tribal sovereignty: Self-determination and high-stakes tests; Coda: Consummating the democratic ideal
Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition is an interdisciplinary of work of critically engaged political theory that traverses the fields of political science and Indigenous studies. The arguments developed in the book draw critically from both Western and Indigenous traditions of political thought and action to intervene into contemporary debates about settler-colonization and Indigenous self-discrimination in Canada. The book challenges the now commonplace assumption that the colonial relationship between Indigenous peoples and the state can be “reconciled” via such a politics of recognition. It also explores glimpses of an alternative Indigenous politics. Drawing critically from Indigenous and non-Indigenous intellectual and activist traditions, the book explores a resurgent Indigenous politics that is less orientated around attaining an affirmative form of recognition and institutional accommodation by the colonial state and society, and more about critically revaluing, reconstructing and redeploying Indigenous cultural practices in ways that seek to prefigure radical alternative to the social relationships that continue to dispossess Indigenous peoples of their lands and self-determining authority.
Best practices in civic education emphasize deliberative pedagogies as one of the most powerful ways to educate enlightened democratic citizens. Yet deliberative pedagogies are rooted in a white normative ideal of discursive democracy that, in the service of “civility” and “reasoned discourse,” fails to account for the social and political inequalities—the logic of white supremacy—that structures our political context. Drawing on Critical Race Theory and Charles Mills’s notion of the racial contract, I propose a pedagogy of counternarration that privileges voices from the margins, imagines the world as it could be, and talks back to dominant narratives in order to cultivate justice-oriented citizens in the democratic classroom.
Arizona legislators passed two laws in 2004 that require instruction of Native American history in all Arizona K-12 public schools. This study examines the laws' intended purposes, how they are implemented in urban school districts, and what Native American histories Native parents believe should be incorporated in school curricula. Using policy implementation research, I analyze why the Arizona Native American history instruction laws, as conceived by the primary sponsor of the laws, failed to be implemented. Implementers lacked knowledge of the laws' content and pedagogy needed to meet their objectives. Despite this failure, I argue that these laws are possibilities for Native communities to create opportunities for “zones of sovereignty” to leverage Native content instruction within Arizona schools.
Indigenous studies complicates and advances existing notions of citizenship education, in particular, by making visible ongoing legacies of colonialism and foregrounding Indigenous sovereignty. In this article, the author examines how the erasure of Indigenous citizenship, nationhood, and sovereignty permeates multicultural citizenship education. Theories of ignorance are then used to discuss various interests that underlie these erasures. By focusing on Indigenous studies scholarship that complicates structural inclusion as the goal of citizenship education, this article advocates for citizenship education that explicitly counters colonialism and supports Indigenous sovereignty. To support this aim, the author outlines an anticolonial approach to civic education—place, presence, political nationhood, perspectives, power, and partnerships—to challenge and complement existing citizenship education literature and practice.
Critical race theory (CRT) has been used in educational literature to emphasize the influence of racism on educational opportunity and the assets of students of color. Quantitative methods appear antithetical to CRT tenets according to some, but this article endeavors to show why this is not the case, based on both historical and contemporary notions. To build this argument, the author presents results from an empirical study that used data from a survey of undergraduates and measurement theory to quantify students’ community cultural wealth, a CRT framework that describes the cultural assets of communities of color. The author concludes with recommendations for incorporating quantitative methods into future CRT studies.
Assumptions based on deliberative democratic theory have dominated scholarship of democratic citizenship within political science and educational research. However, both fields have produced scholarship that raises questions regarding the efficacy of the deliberative model of democratic education. This article presents a critical synthesis that highlights the major trends of deliberative democratic theory from the field of political science, while making connections to education specific literature. The shift, away from idealistic notions toward a model of deliberative democracy that considers identity, group interests, and power differences within society, supports similar efforts to revisit democratic theory within civic education. The article concludes with recommendations for a revised, more realistic, conceptualization of civic education.
Citizenship education is considered a primary purpose for social studies education. However, in elementary classrooms, it is often limited to the memorization of mainstream civic knowledge and learning about a handful of American heroes. This qualitative study of three Asian American educators uses Asian Critical Race Theory to explore how the teachers drew from their own cultural and linguistic experiences to inform pedagogies of cultural citizenship education that interrogated what it means to be a citizen. By (re)defining the terms Asian American and American (citizen), the teachers enacted cultural citizenship education through the use of counternarratives and children’s literature that disrupted normative conceptualizations of citizen. Their work demonstrates how educators can present more inclusive depictions of civic identity, membership, and agency to young learners.
Critical race theory (CRT) in education centers, examines, and seeks to transform the relationship that undergirds race, racism, and power. CRT scholars have applied a critical race framework to advance research methodologies, namely qualitative interventions. Informed by this work, and 15 years later, this article reconsiders the possibilities of CRT applications to quantitative methodologies through ‘QuantCrit.’ We ask the question: Can quantitative methods, long critiqued for their inability to capture the nuance of everyday experience, support and further a critical race agenda in educational research? We provide an abbreviated sketch of some of the key tenets of CRT and the enduring interdisciplinary contributions in race and quantitative studies. Second, we examine the legacy and genealogy of QuantCrit traditions across the disciplines to uncover a rich lineage of methodological possibilities for disrupting racism in research. We argue that quantitative approaches cannot be adopted for racial justice aims without an ontological reckoning that considers historical, social, political, and economic power relations. Only then can quantitative approach be re-imagined and rectified.
This quantitative study uses survey data to test connections between 735 teachers’ civic education ideology (CivID) and their self-reported instructional practices. Analysis demonstrates teachers’ beliefs in relation to conservative, liberal, and critical civic education ideology as well as preference for instructional strategies, such as teacher–text and collaborative–research. Results indicate that high support for particular civic education ideologies are associated with preferences for particular instructional strategies. Endorsement of conservative civic education ideology was positively linked to teacher–text instruction, whereas liberal ideology held a negative association. Critical civic education ideology had a positive relationship with collaborative–research based instruction. Additional findings indicated differences in instructional preferences and CivID based on teachers’ gender, grade level, community type of school, racial makeup of school, and percent of students receiving free and reduced lunch.
This chapter explores the question of how educators ought to prepare future citizens for an ever-changing, culturally complex, globally connected democratic society. Through an interdisciplinary review of published research and scholarship, we discuss a model for civic communities of practice, its potential implications for focusing research in democratic citizenship education, and its key dilemmas. In addition, we review research regarding gaps in civic knowledge, generational shifts away from traditional political engagement, individualistic notions of democracy, influences of class, race, ethnic, LBGTQ, and global identities, schools as democratic spaces, the existence a middle-class bias in citizenship education, and democratic civic practices. While, we offer no direct answer to the question of educating future citizens, we hope this chapter creates new questions for future research.
This chapter provides a summary of the state of the art of social studies scholarship in the second decade of the 21st century. First, the author situates this present handbook historically, noting ways in which it is similar to and different from previous reviews of research on social studies teaching and learning. Second, and most extensively, this chapter highlight points from each chapter in this volume and offers commentary on ideas emerging from them. Finally, the author reflects on the future of social studies scholarship.
Numerous activists and scholars have appealed for rights, inclusion, and justice in the name of "citizenship." Against Citizenship provocatively shows that there is nothing redeemable about citizenship, nothing worth salvaging or sustaining in the name of "community," practice, or belonging. According to Brandzel, citizenship is a violent dehumanizing mechanism that makes the comparative devaluing of human lives seem commonsensical, logical, and even necessary. Against Citizenship argues that whenever we work on behalf of citizenship, whenever we work towards including more types of peoples under its reign, we inevitably reify the violence of citizenship against nonnormative others. Brandzel's focus on three legal case studies--same-sex marriage law, hate crime legislation, and Native Hawaiian sovereignty and racialization--exposes how citizenship confounds and obscures the mutual processes of settler colonialism, racism, sexism, and heterosexism. In this way, Brandzel argues that citizenship requires anti-intersectionality, that is, strategies that deny the mutuality and contingency of race, class, gender, sexuality and nation--and how, oftentimes, progressive left activists and scholars follow suit. © 2016 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. All rights reserved.
The White Earth Nation of Anishinaabeg Natives ratified a new constitution in 2009, the first indigenous democratic constitution, on a reservation in Minnesota. Many Native constitutions were written by the federal government, and with little knowledge of the people and cultures. The White Earth Nation set out to create a constitution that reflected its own culture. The resulting document provides a clear Native perspective on sovereignty, independent governance, traditional leadership values, and the importance of individual and human rights.
This volume includes the text of the Constitution of the White Earth Nation; an introduction by David E. Wilkins, a legal and political scholar who was a special consultant to the White Earth Constitutional Convention; an essay by Gerald Vizenor, the delegate and principal writer of the Constitution of the White Earth Nation; and articles first published in Anishinaabeg Today by Jill Doerfler, who coordinated and participated in the deliberations and ratification of the Constitution. Together these essays and the text of the Constitution provide direct insight into the process of the delegate deliberations, the writing and ratification of this groundbreaking document, and the current constitutional, legal, and political debates about new constitutions.
Decolonizing Educational Research examines the ways through which coloniality manifests in contexts of knowledge and meaning making, specifically within educational research and formal schooling. Purposefully situated beyond popular deconstructionist theory and anthropocentric perspectives, the book investigates the longstanding traditions of oppression, racism, and white supremacy that are systemically reseated and reinforced by learning and social interaction. Through these meaningful explorations into the unfixed and often interrupted narratives of culture, history, place, and identity, a bold, timely, and hopeful vision emerges to conceive of how research in secondary and higher education institutions might break free of colonial genealogies and their widespread complicities.
Sovereignty Matters investigates the multiple perspectives that exist within indigenous communities regarding the significance of sovereignty as a category of intellectual, political, and cultural work. Much scholarship to date has treated sovereignty in geographical and political matters solely in terms of relationships between indigenous groups and their colonial states or with a bias toward American contexts. This groundbreaking anthology of essays by indigenous peoples from the Americas and the Pacific offers multiple perspectives on the significance of sovereignty. The noted Mohawk scholar Taiaiake Alfred provides a landmark essay on the philosophical foundations of sovereignty and the need for the decolonization of indigenous thinking about governance. Other essays explore the role of sovereignty in fueling cultural memory, theories of history and change, spiritual connections to the land, language revitalization, and repatriation efforts. These topics are examined in varied yet related contexts of indigenous struggles for self-determination, including those of the Chamorro of Guam, the Taíno of Puerto Rico, the Quechua of the Andes, the Mäori of New Zealand (Aotearoa), the Samoan Islanders, and the Kanaka Maoli and the Makah of the United States. Several essays also consider the politics of identity and identification. Sovereignty Matters emphasizes the relatedness of indigenous peoples' experiences of genocide, dispossession, and assimilation as well as the multiplicity of indigenous political and cultural agendas and perspectives regarding sovereignty.
Race-the veritable "R" word. There is great discomfort when the "R" word is used. I have observed the palpable wince when it is said out loud in a room. When it is said in connection to the social studies curriculum, it is so visceral that I can feel it even as I write this. It can make some roll their eyes, while others may squirm in their chairs. Eye contact is lost. And to the acute observer, a subtle glaze of disengagement can be witnessed. A cross of something between, "ooh, this doesn't pertain to me because I'm White and race is about color," or possibly, "I had a workshop on race once, so I already know about race" begins to stealthily advance across the audience. This is not to discount the broader range of perspectives that may exist, but rather to acknowledge that reactions to the word "race" and the social studies curriculum are very tangible.
The White Possessive explores the links between race, sovereignty, and possession through themes of property: owning property, being property, and becoming propertyless. Focusing on the Australian Aboriginal context, Aileen Moreton-Robinson questions current race theory in the first world and its preoccupation with foregrounding slavery and migration. The nation, she argues, is socially and culturally constructed as a white possession. Moreton-Robinson reveals how the core values of Australian national identity continue to have their roots in Britishness and colonization, built on the disavowal of Indigenous sovereignty. Whiteness studies literature is central to Moreton-Robinson’s reasoning, and she shows how blackness works as a white epistemological tool that bolsters the social production of whiteness—displacing Indigenous sovereignties and rendering them invisible in a civil rights discourse, thereby sidestepping thorny issues of settler colonialism. Throughout this critical examination Moreton-Robinson proposes a bold new agenda for critical Indigenous studies, one that involves deeper analysis of how the prerogatives of white possession function within the role of disciplines. © 2015 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
In this deeply engaging account Michelle H. Raheja offers the first book-length study of the Indigenous actors, directors, and spectators who helped shape Hollywood's representation of Indigenous peoples. Since the era of silent films, Hollywood movies and visual culture generally have provided the primary representational field on which Indigenous images have been displayed to non-Native audiences. These films have been highly influential in shaping perceptions of Indigenous peoples as, for example, a dying race or as inherently unable or unwilling to adapt to change. However, films with Indigenous plots and subplots also signify at least some degree of Native presence in a culture that largely defines Native peoples as absent or separate. Native actors, directors, and spectators have had a part in creating these cinematic representations and have thus complicated the dominant, and usually negative, messages about Native peoples that films portray. In Reservation Reelism Raheja examines the history of these Native actors, directors, and spectators, reveals their contributions, and attempts to create positive representations in film that reflect the complex and vibrant experiences of Native peoples and communities.
Over the past forty years, recognition has become the dominant mode of negotiation and decolonization between the nation-state and Indigenous nations in North America. The term “recognition” shapes debates over Indigenous cultural distinctiveness, Indigenous rights to land and self-government, and Indigenous peoples’ right to benefit from the development of their lands and resources. In a work of critically engaged political theory, Glen Sean Coulthard challenges recognition as a method of organizing difference and identity in liberal politics, questioning the assumption that contemporary difference and past histories of destructive colonialism between the state and Indigenous peoples can be reconciled through a process of acknowledgment. Beyond this, Coulthard examines an alternative politics—one that seeks to revalue, reconstruct, and redeploy Indigenous cultural practices based on self-recognition rather than on seeking appreciation from the very agents of colonialism. Coulthard demonstrates how a “place-based” modification of Karl Marx’s theory of “primitive accumulation” throws light on Indigenous–state relations in settler-colonial contexts and how Frantz Fanon’s critique of colonial recognition shows that this relationship reproduces itself over time. This framework strengthens his exploration of the ways that the politics of recognition has come to serve the interests of settler-colonial power. In addressing the core tenets of Indigenous resistance movements, like Red Power and Idle No More, Coulthard offers fresh insights into the politics of active decolonization. © 2014 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
This article looks at the ways in which the topic of race is treated in social studies classrooms and the conceptual application of the field of critical race theory (CRT) to the teaching of American history. The author discusses the field of the social studies in terms of its stated goals and how these goals are not met because of a lack of atten tion that is paid to the pervasive power of race in US history. By discussing the tenets of CRT, the author argues that US history be taught from a race-based perspective, given the influence that race has had on the unfolding of the American nation state. In addition to discussing the fundamental characteristics of CRT, the author then gives ideas and concrete examples of how CRT can be used in the classroom to teach the topic of Native American history.
The inherent power dynamic between academic researchers and those they study is the focus of this article. Author K. Tsianina Lomawaima analyzes the shift in the balance of power between scholars and American Indian tribes that has occurred over the last four decades. She argues that issues such as access to subjects, data ownership, analysis and interpretation, and control over dissemination of findings all reflect what amounts to a struggle for power and tribal sovereignty. Lomawaima maintains that understanding the historical relationship between Native communities and academia, as well as the relatively new research protocols developed by various tribes, is necessary for responsible and respectful scholarship.
This article discusses the role of refusal in the analysis and communication of qualitative data, that is, the role of refusal in the work of making claims. Refusal is not just a no, but a generative stance, situated in a critical understanding of settler colonialism and its regimes of representation. Refusals are needed to counter narratives and images arising (becoming-claims) in social science research that diminish personhood or sovereignty, or rehumiliate when circulated. Refusal, in this article, refers to a stance or an approach to analyzing data within a matrix of commitments, histories, allegiances, and resonances that inform what can be known within settler colonial research frames, and what must be kept out of reach.
This qualitative study focused on how two women African American teachers understand the purpose of teaching social studies and citizenship. The multiple identities as African American women and teachers along with their knowledge of African American history impacted the way notions of citizenship were understood and taught to students. The teachers drew on tenets of Black Feminist thought to make sense of construct of citizenship. Instead of conveying traditional notions of citizenship that include personal responsibility, patriotism, and membership to the nation state, they rejected these constructs of citizenship and understood their role as social studies teachers to instill notions of community membership and agency as aspects of citizenship. African American teacher׳s alternative notions of citizenship may provide a framework by which reconceptualized multiple views of American citizenship may be presented.
In this article, I focus on making settler colonialism explicit in education. I turn to social studies curriculum as a clear example of how settler colonialism is deeply embedded in educational knowledge production in the United States that is rooted in a dialectic of Indigenous presence and absence. I argue that the United States, and the evolution of its schooling system in particular, are drenched in settler colonial identities. Thus, to begin to decolonize we must first learn to account for settler colonialism. To do so necessitates that we grapple with the dialectic of Indigenous presence and absence that is central to settler colonialism in the United States and its social studies curriculum.
After years of colonization, oppression, and resistance, American Indians are making clear what they want from the heretofore compromised technology of writing. Rhetorical sovereignty, a people's control of its meaning, is found in sites legal, aesthetic, and pedagogical, and composition studies can both contribute to and learn from this work.