Conceptualizing a Critical Race Spatial Analysis in Education

• In Event: 70.049 - Race and Equity Issues in Schools

Abstract

Over the past decade, a growing number of scholars have begun to explore how spatial analysis of racial processes “teaches us things about race we cannot know by other means”. If this is true, then a deeper understanding of space can, too, provide a more comprehensive understanding of race. This paper seeks to conceptualize a Critical Race Spatial Analysis. Specifically, I use Critical Race Theory paired with the four characteristics of space embedded in a Critical Spatial Analysis to present a framework analytically useful in investigating education reform. By using a CRSA to examine the spatial dimensions that race and racism occupy in education reform across urban districts, researchers can better understand the relationship of space to educational inequities.

Author

• DeMarcus Antonio Jenkins, University of California - Los Angeles