Toward a Critical Mass of Collective Consciousness: Going Beyond Black and White

• In Event: 16.056 - Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: 16.056-5 - Building on Strengths: Responses to Students' Positionalities and Social Locations

Abstract

Power and privilege disparities along lines of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and language are ingrained in our society and have been described as a matrix of domination (Collins, 2008) in which no individual or social institution is immune, including the education system. By operating from a historical perspective researchers and educators can examine the challenges within the educational system centrally linked to these problems in society. Researchers engage discourse analysis to examine how going beyond Black and White enables researchers to develop critical consciousness and reorient the ways in which problems in education are addressed. Implications for community activism, teacher education, and higher education and student affairs preparation are proposed.

Authors

• Wilfredo Portillo, Indiana University - Indianapolis

• Samantha M. Ivery, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Andrew Martin Gatza, Indiana University - IUPUI