The purpose of this article is to explore the concept of empowerment, reframing it in critical terms and in a precise and useful way. I approach this exploration through two participatory action research studies. "Why are our teachers racist?" took place over an 18-month period from 2012 to 2014 at a mid-sized high school in a rural…

This article explores how and why a group of Latino/a high school students identify and explain racism differently over the course of an 18-month participatory action research (PAR) project. To do this we examine what recent scholarship has termed racial microaggressions in what is thought of as the Post-Racial America public school system.…

The work of E. Boyer (1995) and his "Basic School" research were used as a model for building community on one southeastern Idaho junior high school. Boyer's research concludes that the most successful ingredient for a successful school is "connections," and that those connections are predicated on a school becoming a community…

As part of a study of racial relations between Mexican Americans and Anglo Americans in rural Idaho, over 60 teachers, school administrators, and students were interviewed in educational institutions in five southwestern Idaho communities. One high school was the focus of field research, which also included attending school activities and school…