Abstract
In this article, the authors critically synthesize how Critical Race Theory (CRT) as an emerging field of inquiry has been used as a tool of critique and analysis in K-12 education research. The authors point out that CRT has been used as a framework for examining: persistent racial inequities in education, qualitative research methods, pedagogy and practice, the schooling experiences of marginalized students of color, and the efficacy of race-conscious education policy. The authors explore how these studies have changed the nature of education research and stress the need for further research that critically interrogates race and racism in education.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Asante M. (1991). The Afrocentric idea in education. Journal of Negro Education, 60(2), 170–80
Banks J. A. (1971). Relevant social studies for Black pupils. In J. A. Banks, & W. W. Joyce (Eds.), Teaching social studies to culturally different children (pp. 202–209). Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley
Banks, J. A., & McGee Banks, C. A. (Eds.) (1995). Handbook of research on multicultural education. New York: Macmillan Publishers
Bartee, R., Beckham, J., Gill, C., Graves, C., Jackson, K., Land, R., (2000). Race, discipline, and educational leadership: African American student perspectives on the Decatur, IL incident. Journal of Special Education Leadership, 13, 19–29
Bell D. A. (1979). Bakke, minority admissions, and the usual price of racial remedies. California law review, 76, 3–19
Bell D. A. (1980a). Race, racism and the American law (2nd edn.). Boston: Little, Brown
Bell D. A. (1980b). Brown v. Board of Education and the interest-convergence dilemma. Harvard educational law review, 33, 1–34
Bell D. A. (1985). The civil rights chronicles. Harvard Law Review, 99, 4–83
Bell, D. A. (1987). Neither separate schools nor mixed schools: The chronicle of the sacrificed Black schoolchildren. In D. Bell (Ed.), And we are not saved: The elusive quest for racial justice (pp. 102–122). New York: Basic Books
Bell D. A. (1988). White superiority in America: Its legal legacy, its economic costs. Villanova Law Review, 33, 767–779
Berry T. R., Mizelle N. (2006). From oppression to grace: Women of color and their dilemmas within the academy. Herndon, VA: Stylus Publishing
Bonilla-Silva E. (1997). Rethinking racism: toward a structural interpretation. American Sociological Review, 62, 465–480
Bonilla-Silva E. 2001. White supremacy & racism in the post-civil rights era. Boulder, CO: Lynne Reinner Publishers
Bonilla-Silva E. (2003). Racism without Racists. London: Rowman and Littlefield
Bonilla-Silva, E., Forman, T. A., Lewis, A. E., & Embrick, D. G. (2003). “It wasn’t me!” How will race and racism work in 21st century America? Research in Political Sociology, 12, 111–134
Bowles S., Gintis H. (1976). Schooling in capitalist America. New York: Basic Books
Brayboy B. (2005). Toward a tribal critical race theory in education. Urban Review, 37(5), 425–446
Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954)
California Law Review (1997). Latcrit: Latinos and the Law, 85(5), 1087–1647
Carbado, D. W. (2002). Eracing education. Equity & Excellence in Education, 35(2), 181–194
Carbado D. W., Gulati M. (2003). The law and economics of critical race theory. Yale Law Review, 112, 1757–1828
Chang, R. (1993). Toward an Asian American legal scholarship: Critical race theory, post-structuralism, and narrative space. California Law Review, 81, 1243
Chang, R. (1998). Who’s afraid of Tiger Woods? Chicano-Latino Law Review, 19, 223
Chon M. (1995). On the need for Asian American narratives in law: Ethnic specimens, native informants, storytelling and silences. Asian Pacific American Law Journal, 3(1), 4–32
Collins P. H. (1991). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness and the politics of empowerment. New York: Routledge
Crenshaw K. W. (1988). Race, reform, and retrenchment: transformation and legitimation in antidiscrimination law. Harvard Law Review, 101, 1331–1387
Crenshaw K. W. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color, Stanford Law Review, 49, 1241–1299. Woman of color at the center: Selection from the third national conference on women of color and the law
Crenshaw, K. W. (2002). The first decade: critical reflections, or a foot in the closing door. In: F. Valdez, J. McCristal Culp & A. Harris (Eds.), Crossroads, directions and new critical race theory (pp. 9–31). Philadelphia: Temple University
Crenshaw, K. W., Gotanda, N., Peller, G., & Thomas, K. (Eds.) (1995). Critical Race Theory: The key writings that formed the movement. New York: The New Press
Dance L. J. (2002). Tough fronts: The impact of street culture on schooling (critical social thought). New York: Routledge Falmer
Darder A. 1991. Culture and power in the classroom: A Critical foundation for bicultural education. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey
Darder, A. (1993). How does the culture of the teacher shape the classroom experience of Latino students? The unexamined question in critical pedagogy. In S. Rothstein (Ed.) Handbook of schooling in urban America. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press
DeCuir J. T., Dixson A. D. (2004). “So when it comes out, they aren’t that surprised that it is there”: Using critical race theory as a tool of analysis of race and racism in education. Educational Researcher, 33, 26–31
Delgado R. (1984). The imperial scholar: Reflections on a review of civil rights literature. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 132, 561–578
Delgado R. (1987). The ethereal scholar: Does critical legal studies have what minorities want? Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, 22, 301–322
Delgado R. (1988a). Critical legal studies and the realities of race—does the fundamental contradiction have a corollary? Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, 23, 407–413
Delgado R. (1988b). Derrick Bell and the ideology of racial reform: Will we ever be saved? Yale Law Review, 97, 923–947
Delgado R. (1989). Storytelling for oppositionists and others: A plea for narrative. Michigan Law Review, 87, 2411–2441
Delgado R. (1990). When a story is just a story: Does voice really matter? Virginia Law Review, 76, 95–111
Delgado R. (1992). The imperial scholar revisited: How to marginalize outsider writing, Ten years later. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 140, 1349–1372
Delgado, R. (Ed.). (1995a). Critical Race Theory: The cutting edge. Philadelphia: Temple University Press
Delgado R. (1995b). The Rodrigo chronicles: Conversations about America and race. New York: New York University Press
Delgado R. (2003a). Crossroads and blind alleys: A critical examination of recent writing about race. Texas Law Review, 82, 121–152
Delgado, R. (2003b). Justice at war: Civil liberties and civil rights during times of crisis. New York: University Press
Delgado R., Stefancic J. (1997). Critical white studies: Looking beyond the mirror. Philadelphia: Temple University Press
Delgado R., Stefancic J. (Eds.). (2000). Critical race theory: The cutting edge, 2nd edition. Philadelphia: Temple University Press
Delgado Bernal D. (2002). Critical Race Theory, Latcrit Theory, and critical raced-gendered epistemologies: Recognizing students of color as holders and creators of knowledge. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 105–126
Delgado Bernal D., Villalpando O. (2002). An apartheid of knowledge in academia: The struggle over the “legitimate” knowledge of faculty of color. Equity & Excellence in Education. 35(2), 169–180
Dixson, A., & Rousseau, C. (2005). And we are still not saved: Critical race theory and education ten years later [Special Issue]. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 8(1)
Doane, A. W., Jr., & Eduardo B. -S. (2003). White out: The continuing significance of Racism. New York, London: Routledge
Duncan G. A. (2002a). Critical race theory and method: Rendering race in urban ethnographic research. Qualitative Inquiry, 8, 85–104
Duncan G. A. (2002b). Beyond love: A critical race ethnography of the schooling of adolescent black males. Equity & Excellence in Education, 35(2), 131–143
Ellsworth E. 1989. “Why doesn’t this feel empowering? Working through the repressive myths of critical pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review. 59(August), 297–324
Feagin J. R. 2000. Racist America: Roots, current realities & future reparations. New York: Routledge
Feagin J., Vera, H. (1995). White racism: The basics. New York: Routledge
Fernandez L. (2002). Telling stories about school: Using critical race and Latino critical theories to document Latina/Latino education and resistance. Qualitative Inquiry, 1(8), 45–65
Foster M. (1998). Black teachers on teaching. New York: The New Press
Giroux H. (1983). Theories of reproduction and resistance in the new sociology of education: A critical analysis. Harvard Educational Review, 53(3), 257–293
Gordon B. M. (1995). Knowledge construction, competing critical theories, and education. In: J. A. Banks, C. A. M. Banks (Eds.) Handbook of research on multicultural education (pp. 184–199). New York: Macmillan Publishers
Haney Lopez I. F. (1996). White by law: The legal construction of race. New York: NYU Press
Harris, A. P. (1994). The jurisprudence of reconstruction. California Law Review, 82(4), 741–785
Harris C. I. (1993). Whiteness as property. Harvard Law Review, 106, 1707–1791
Hayman, R. L., Jr. (1995). The color of tradition: Critical Race Theory and postmodern constitutional traditionalism, 30 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. 57
Holzer, H., & Ludwig, J. (2003). Measuring discrimination in education: Are methodologies from labor and markets useful? Teachers College Record, 105(6), 1147–1178.
Iseke-Barnes J. M. (2000). Ethnomathematics and language in decolonizing mathematics. Race, Gender & Class in Education, 7(3), 133–149
Jay M. (2003). Critical race theory, multicultural education, and the hidden curriculum of hegemony. Multicultural Perspectives, 5(4), 3–10
Johnson K. A. (2000). Uplifting the women and race: The lives, educational philosophies and social activism of Anna Julia Cooper and Nannie Helen Burroughs. New York: Garland Publishing
Johnson R. B., Onwuegbuzie A. J. (2004). Mixed methods research: a paradigm whose time has come. Educational Researcher, 33(7), 14–26
Jonathan K. (2005). The shame of the nation: The restoration of apartheid schooling in America. New York: Crown Publishers.
Ladson-Billings G. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children. San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers
Ladson-Billings G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant teaching. American Educational Research Journal 32(3), 465–491
Ladson-Billings, G. (1998). Preparing teachers for diverse student populations: A critical race theory perspective. In: A. Iran Nejad & P. D. Pearson (Eds.). Review of Research in Education, Vol. 24, (pp. 211–247). Washington, D.C. American Educational Research Association.
Ladson-Billings G. (1999). Preparing teachers for diverse student populations: A Critical Race Theory perspective. Review of Research in Education, 24, 211–247
Ladson-Billings G. (2000). Racialized discourses and ethnic epistemologies. In N K. Denzin, & Y.S. Lincoln (Eds.). Handbook of qualitative research. 2nd Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Ladson-Billings G. (2003a). It’s your world. I’m just trying to explain it: Understanding our epistemological and methodological challenges. Qualitative Inquiry, 9, 5–12
Ladson-Billings G. (Ed.). (2003b). Critical Race Theory perspectives on social studies: The profession, policies and curriculum. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing
Ladson-Billings, G. (2005). Beyond the big house: African American educators on teacher education. New York: Teachers College Press.
Ladson-Billings G., Tate W. F. (1995). Toward a critical race theory of education. Teachers College Record, 97(1), 47–68
Lawrence C. R. (1987). The id, the ego, and equal protection: Reckoning with unconscious racism. Stanford Law Review, 39, 317–388
Lawrence, C. (2002). Foreword: Who are we? Why are we here? Doing critical race theory in hard times. In Valdes, Culp, Harris (Eds.). Crossroads, directions & a new Critical Race Theory. Philadelphia: Temple University Press
Lee, C., & Slaughter-Defoe, D. T. (1995). Historical and sociocultural influences on African-American education. In J. M. Banks & C. M. Banks (Eds.), Handbook of research on multicultural education (pp. 348–371). New York: Macmillan publishing
Leonardo, Z. (2004). The color of supremacy. Beyond the discourse of ‘White privilege’. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 36, 138–152
Lewis A. (2003). Race in the Schoolyard: Negotiating the color line in classrooms and communities. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press
Lopez G. R. (2003). The (racially neutral) politics of education: A critical race theory perspective. Educational Administration Quarterly, 39, 68–94
Love B. J. (2004). Brown plus 50 counterstorytelling: A critical race theory analysis of the “majoritarian achievement gap” story. Equity & Excellence in Education 37(3), 227–247
Lynn M. (1999). Toward a critical race pedagogy. Urban Education. 33(5), 606–626
Lynn M. (2002). Critical race theory and the perspectives of black men teachers in the Los Angeles public schools. Equity & Excellence in Education, 35(2), 119–130
Lynn, M. (2004). Inserting the race into critical pedagogy: An analysis of race-based epistemologies. The Journal of Educational Philosophy and Theory, 37(2), 153–165
Lynn M., Adams M. (2002). Critical race theory and education: Recent developments in the field. Equity & Excellence in Education, 35(2), 87–92
Lynn M., Yosso T., Solórzano D., Parker L. (2002). Foreword: guest editor’s introduction. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 3–6
Marx, S. (Ed.). (2003). Special issue of critical white studies in education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 16(1), 1–140
Matsuda M. (1987). Looking to the bottom: Critical legal studies and reparations. Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, 22, 323–399
Matsuda M., Lawrence C., Delgado R., Crenshaw K. (1993). Words that wound: Critical Race Theory, assaultive speech, and the first amendment. Boulder, CO: Westview Press
Mclaren P. (1989). Life in schools: An introduction to critical pedagogy in the foundations of education. New York: Longman
Mitchell, D. (2001). Decision making, student assessment data and equity: the role of causal attributions for student success. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. University of California, Los Angeles
Morris J. (2001). Forgotten voices of Black educators: Critical race perspectives on the implementation of a desegregation plan. Educational policy, 15(4), 575–601
Morris J. (2004). Can anything good come from Nazareth? Race, class, and African American schooling and community in the urban south and Midwest. American Educational Research Journal, 41(1), 69–112
Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (April, 2000). Positivists, post-positivists, post-structuralists, and post-modernists: Why can’t we all just get along? Towards a framework for unifying research paradigms. In The annual meeting of association for the advancement of educational research, Ponte Vedra, FL
Parker, L., Deyhle, D., Villenas, S., Crosland, C., & Nebeker, K. (Eds.). (1998). Special issue: Critical Race Theory in education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 11(1)
Parker L., Deyhle D., Villenas S. (Eds.). (1999). Race is...race isn’t: Critical Race Theory and qualitative studies in education. Boulder, CO: Westview Press
Parker L., Lynn M. (2002). What’s race got to do with it? Critical Race Theory’s conflicts with and connections to qualitative research methodology and epistemology. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 7–22
Parker, L., & Lopez, G. (2003). (Eds.). Interrogating racism in qualitative research methodology. Counterpoints. PRESS
Parker L., Stovall D. O. (2004). Actions following words: Critical race theory connects to critical pedagogy. The Journal of Educational Philosophy and Theory, 36(2), 167–183.
Revilla A. T., Asato J. (2002). The implementation of Proposition 227 in California schools: A critical analysis of the effect of teacher beliefs and classroom practices. Equity & Excellence in Education, 35(2), 108–118
Scheurich, J. J. & Young, M. D. (1997). Coloring epistemologies. Are our research epistemologies racially biased? Educational Researcher, 26(4), 4–16
Shujaa M. J. (1995). Too much schooling, too little education: A paradox of Black life in White societies. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press
Sleeter, C. E. & Delgado Bernal, D. (2002). Critical pedagogy, critical race theory and anti-racist education: implications for multicultural education. (2nd ed.). San Franciso: Jossey Bass
Solórzano D. (1997). Images and words that wound: Critical race theory, racial stereotyping, and teacher education. Teacher Education Quarterly, 24(3), 5–19
Solórzano D., Yosso T. J. (2001). Critical race and LatCrit theory and method: Counter-storytelling Chicana and Chicano graduate school experiences. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 14(4), 471–495
Solórzano D., Yosso T. J. (2002a). A critical race counter-story of race, racism, and affirmative action. Equity and Excellence in Education, 35(2), 155–168
Solórzano D., Yosso T. J. (2002b). Maintaining social justice hopes within academic realities: A Freirean approach to critical race/LatCrit pedagogy. Denver Law Review, 78(4), 595–621
Solórzano D., Yosso T. J. (2002c). Critical race methodology: counterstorytelling as an analytical framework for education research. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 23–44
Tate W. F. (1993). Advocacy versus economics. A critical race analysis of the proposed national assessment in mathematics. Thresholds in Education, 19(1–2), 16–22
Tate W. F. (1994). From inner city to ivory tower: Does my voice matter in the academy? Urban Education, 29, 245–269
Tate W. F. (1995). School mathematics and African American students: Thinking seriously about opportunity-to-learn standards. Educational Administration Quarterly, 31, 424–448
Tate, W. F. (1997). Critical race theory and education: History, theory and implications. In M. Apple (Ed.), Review of Research in Education, vol. 22 (pp. 195–250). Washington DC: American Educational Research Association
Tate W. F., Ladson-Billings G., Grant C. A. (1993). The Brown decision revisited: Mathematizing social problems. Educational Policy, 7(3), 255–275
Taylor E. (1998). A primer on critical race theory: Who are the critical race theorists? and what are they saying? Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 19, 122–124
Valdes F., Culpe J. C., Harris A. (Eds.), (2002). Crossroads, directions, and a new Critical Race Theory. Philadelphia: Temple University Press
Valencia R. (Ed.). (1997). The evolution of deficit thinking in educational thought and practice. New York: Falmer Press
Weiler K. (1988). Women teaching for change: Gender, class and power. New York, MA: Bergin and Garvey Publishers, Inc
Weis, L., & Fine, M. (Eds.). (1993). Beyond silenced voices: Class, race, and gender in the United States schools. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press
Welner K. G. (2001). Legal rights, local wrongs: When community control collides with educational equity. Albany, NY: SUNY Press
West C. (1993). Race matters. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Williams P. J. (1987). Alchemical notes: Reconstructing ideals from deconstructed rights. Harvard Civil Rights—Civil Liberties Law Review, 22, 401–433
Williams P. J. (1991). The alchemy of race and rights: Diary of a law professor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Wing A. K. (1997). Critical race feminism: A reader. New York: NYU Press
Writer J. H. (2002). Terrorism in Native America: Interrogating the past, examining the present, and constructing a liberatory future. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 33(3), 317–330
Yamamoto E. (1997). Critical race praxis: Race theory and political lawyering in the post-civil rights America. Michigan Law Review, 95, 821–947
Yosso, T. J. (2002). Toward a critical race curriculum. Equity & Excellence in Education, 35(2), 93–107
Yosso, T., Parker, L., Solorzano, D., & Lynn, M. (2004). From Jim Crow to affirmative action and back again: A critical race discussion of racialized rationales and access to higher education. Review of Research in Education, 28, 1–25
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Marvin Lynn is an Assistant Professor of Department of Curriculum & Instruction in University of Maryland, College Park. He completed his B.S., at DePaul University, Chicago, IL, M.A. at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY and Ph.D. at University of California, Los Angeles. He has published articles in the area of Critical Race Theory and education and critical race pedagogy. He has also written a number of articles that explore the work and lives of Black male teachers.
Laurence Parker is Professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies in University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He completed his B.A., at Earlham College, Richmond, IN, M.A. and Ph.D. in University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His current research examines Critical Race Theory and its connection to educational research, policy and practice in the k-12 and post-secondary settings. His research also examines social justice perspectives in educational administration, leadership and policy, particularly with respect to race and social class
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lynn, M., Parker, L. Critical Race Studies in Education: Examining a Decade of Research on U.S. Schools. Urban Rev 38, 257–290 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-006-0035-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-006-0035-5