The purpose of this study was to analyze my own leadership experiences as a White cisgender female elementary school principal and how my white privilege contributed to maintaining white supremacy and systemic racism. The purpose was also to explore the impact of the evolution of my white racial frame and intentionally break my silence about white…

"An Afrocentric Critique of Race Dialogues: The Application of Theory and Practice in Africology" is a critical examination of race dialogues based on the Afrocentric paradigm's constructs of African agency, Afrocentric consciousness-raising and liberatory action. This dissertation critiques race dialogues based on Africology's mission,…

I examine the formation of power as it relates to canonicity through online delivery systems, Amazon and Goodreads, and the academic sector in the contemporary period. The digital age has radically changed literature by providing for a textuality of literature that is multi-channeled, and this project responds by engaging new critical lenses for…

This dissertation examines representations of black lives in adolescent speculative fiction and explores what the genre offers to anti-racist teacher education. Situating my study at the intersections of literacy education and children's literature studies, I interrogate assumptions surrounding genre conventions adopted in multicultural education.…

Basal readers have long been problematized for a lack of diversity among the characters and experiences represented in the text selections. Building on this, and informed by critical theory, critical race theory, and Bourdieuian perspectives, this dissertation examines racist discourses in a set of third grade basal readers. In order to explore…

This study examined the impact of the Serviceman's Readjustment Act of 1944 (the GI Bill) on African Americans' quest for higher education. The central question guiding this study follows: Why has higher education been so elusive for African Americans? With reference to this question, the following sub-questions were addressed: (1) How can the…

Since the Civil Rights Movement, American higher education institutions have experienced a demographic shift toward greater racial diversity in their campus enrollment (Jones, 1987; Rendon & Hope, 1996; Sedlecek, 1987). Today's college students include students who are of nontraditional age, from different countries and possess diverse sexual…