In this article, we draw upon Charles Mills' powerful scholarly insights on the racial contract and epistemologies of ignorance and argue for keeping his spirit and theorizing alive through a relentless focus on the endemic reality of racism/white supremacy in our society and institutions -- particularly in the institution in which he and we work,…

The following article positions the work of Charles Mills (1951-2021) as seminal to the development of critical race theory (CRT) in education. His groundbreaking contribution, The Racial Contract, has served as the foundation for understanding the myriad ways that white supremacy is central in the social contract championed by scholars of the…

In this article, I explore the deep roots and long history of the attacks on Critical Race Theory in education, while at the same time savoring the equally long and eminently venerable and presently visible traditions forged by "the insights of generations of anonymous 'race men' [and 'race women] who, under the most difficult…

This paper builds on the emerging, but significant scholarship of Critical Race Feminism (CRF) in education. It adds to the literature in this area by applying the theoretical and methodological underpinnings to the British education context where such applications are vanishingly small in favour of broader critical race applications. Supported by…

This article builds on Charles W. Mills' foundational concept of white racial ignorance to expand his work by exploring the inner dynamics and practices of teacher education (its rationales, student teaching, practicums, pedagogies, curriculum) and explaining how the emotionalities of whiteness play a significant role in the ways that whiteness…

Best known for arguing that individual development is part of social and historical development Vygotsky's entry into education may be captured by his concept of the "zone of proximal development" (ZPD). ZPD has not yet been synthesized with a critical study of whiteness. When ZPD is used to explain racial disparities in the service of…

This paper investigates the impact of mostly implicit convictions about 'white supremacy' and racist ideas in traditional and recent theories of "Bildung" which is a central educational concept in Germany. Concepts of "Bildung" describe processes of individual self-formation. It will be argued that the notion of…

Students of Turkish descent suffer various forms of discrimination in education in Flanders (the northern part of Belgium). Nevertheless, few studies have documented how these discrimination experiences are situated within structures of ethnic inequality in education. Adopting a critical race theory approach, experiences of Turkish Belgian…

This paper examines how Black community-based youth workers navigate anti-Black racism in their educational programming with Black youth in a majority white college town widely recognized as 'nice,' 'liberal,' and 'progressive' with stark racial disparities between its Black and white residents. With racial liberalism and BlackCrit as theoretical…

Although campus racial climate on colleges and universities has been scrutinized in research on higher education, scholarship focused on Black male collegians' interactions with campus police remains limited. Considering how the logics of white supremacy and anti-Black racism have characterized policing across the nation, we assert that a critical…

This ethnographic case study examines how a racial equity-focused effort was contested and undermined by analyzing classroom observations and interviews with three teachers who worked in a credit-recovery program. Drawing on Critical Race Theory's (CRT) whiteness as property and restrictive equality analytical lenses, this article illustrates that…

Educational research has established a link between zero tolerance disciplinary policies and increases in racial disproportionality in suspensions and expulsions of students of color. This article reports on a critical ethnography of Rivertown, a school district with urban characteristics, where we have been working with parents of color whose…

Quantitative research enjoys heightened esteem among policy-makers, 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…

This article theorizes the concept of racial microaffirmations and illustrates different microaffirmation types. We report findings from a study that employed narrative interviews to solicit stories from racially minoritized students at a predominantly white university. Participants included 16 graduate students and 18 undergraduate students who…

Evidence suggests that Black and minority ethnic (BME) students and staff continue to be disadvantaged in higher education institutions (HEIs) in the UK. Policy making has been introduced to specifically address such inequalities. This article draws on critical policy analysis and 45 interviews to explore the impact of the recently introduced Race…