Contesting Racial, Ethnic, and Indigenous Categorization in Higher Education Research and Practice

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium brings together diverse higher education scholars to explore together the contested landscape of race, ethnicity, and indigeneity. An emerging body of literature documents the limitations of conceptions of race and ethnicity in the U.S. Census and the National Center for Education Statistics, where categories do not accurately capture the actual identities and nuanced lived experience of our increasingly diversifying population. The presentations will theorize and expand methodologies that expose categorical insufficiency across multiple groups, providing space for the stimulation of new truths about the racialization of education research and practice. In particular, we explore how our cross-community conversations can better inform critical praxis to further humanize the research process focusing on the categories we utilize.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Critical Examination of Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender in Education

Chair

• Michelle M. Leao, The Ohio State University

Papers

• Learning From Racial Contestation Across Groups to Expose Categorical Insufficiency - Orkideh Mohajeri, West Chester University of Pennsylvania; Marc P. Johnston-Guerrero, University of Denver

• The Power of the X in Latinx: The Politics of Terminology as Reflected in Contemporary Research - Cristobal Salinas Jr, Florida Atlantic University; Diana Cervantes, University of Texas at Austin

• Native Student Erasure in Education Data - Amanda R. Tachine, Arizona State University

• Contesting Categories in Survey Data - Karly Ford, Pennsylvania State University