Purpose: Research has documented how white teachers often fall short of their anti-racist intentions. However, much of this research is done with preservice teachers or teachers across disciplines. The authors investigate stories in which white English teachers who teach substantial proportions of black students and who self-reported anti-racist…

Improving educational outcomes for Black student populations requires that teachers have a deep awareness of racialized experiences of the students they serve. This study examined the experiences of White urban elementary school teachers and Black students' experiences with classroom dialogue about racism and Black violence across the United…

In this collection of autoethnographies, four researchers explored our deeply personal experiences and encounters with racialized oppression in the form of spirit-murder. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Critical Whiteness Studies, this dissertation explores how two white educators have committed spirit-murder against Black students and how…

In this collection of autoethnographies, four researchers explored our deeply personal experiences and encounters with racialized oppression in the form of spirit-murder. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Critical Whiteness Studies, this dissertation explores how two white educators have committed spirit-murder against Black students and how…

The purpose of this study was to investigate five White teachers and their teacher preparation programs' effectiveness in preparing them to educate African Americans in the United States. Using critical race theory, Black psychology, and critical Whiteness studies, I found four main themes: (a) the "White Filter," (b) Absence of African…

The problem addressed in this study was that White teachers often hold views of Black students that could negatively impact these students' educational experience and academic outcomes. The purpose of this qualitative, narrative inquiry study was to explore White teachers' attitudes toward Black students, their preferred teaching styles, and…

Amidst institutional reckonings with anti-blackness, minority-serving institutions (MSIs) are thought to be an intervention. But, how do Black students perceive being served at Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs)? Analyzing focus groups (n= 33), we find Black students perceived anti-blackness at an HSI from: overrepresentation of white personnel…

Academicians, administrators, and policymakers in New Orleans have pointed toward a disproportionate academic and life-cycle outcome where Black American males are particularly disadvantaged as compared to White students. An often-cited cause of these disproportionate outcomes for Black male students is inequality and mistreatment in schools.…

Writer's workshop is a popular curriculum opportunity in most US schools. This case study of two Black boys engaging in a Kindergarten writer's workshop richly contextualizes their writing identities and practices. A critical childhood studies framework was used to show how Black boys and their White teachers improvised writing-related…

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to understand how Black undergraduate music education students make meaning of their lived experiences in predominantly White schools of music (PWSOM). The study was guided by the overall research questions: (1) What makes the lived experience of Black undergraduate music education…

Black children can no longer afford for school and district leaders to overlook and excuse the ignorance and/or blatant racism of its teachers and administrative colleagues. To meet the challenge of racial inequities in the classroom and beyond, White educators must be prophetic in their practice, and that requires that they be political.

Studies persistently show disparities in exclusionary discipline across racial/ethnic groups in U.S. schools. Using administrative data from kindergarteners through fifth graders in Indiana, we examine the effects of student-teacher race/ethnicity matching on disciplinary outcomes. We find that Black students exhibit lower rates of suspension and…

The purpose of this study was to examine the importance of the student-faculty mentoring relationship from the perspectives of a Black male doctoral student in music education and his White mentor/professor. A specific focus of this study was the development of trust. Previous studies with doctoral students have identified trust as a key component…

Psychologists have found that many Black persons in the United States have significant levels of mistrust of White persons. This serves as a protective factor in response to pervasive structural and systemic racism. Yet interracial trusting relationships exist. In this phenomenological study, 10 Black counseling doctoral students described their…

In 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the national enrollment rate for pre-k children ages 3 to 4 was 40% (a drop from 54% in 2019; National Center for Education Statistics, 2022). This is partly due to fewer children in the 0-5 age group (23.4 million of 72.8 million children in the United States in 2020; U.S. Census Bureau, 2020).…