Education, Critical Race Theory, and an Ethnic Studies Education Research Praxis

• In Event: Liberation as Political Imperative: Toward the Conceptualization of Ethnic Studies Education

Abstract

The advancement of Ethnic Studies in states like California via the implementation of requirements in the high school, community college, and four-year levels happened simultaneously to nationwide attacks on critical race theory (CRT). We examine how unsurprisingly, opponents of any form of liberatory education tend to conflate Ethnic Studies and CRT. We argue that such conflation has led to two distinct observable phenomena among education and Ethnic Studies scholars alike. On one hand, there was a denunciation of CRT among some Ethnic Studies practitioners in an attempt to protect educators to continue their work in places where legal sanctions against CRT would have prevented their ability to do so. On the other hand, the debate on CRT emboldened an Ethnic Studies offense that recognized an attack on CRT would necessitate an interrogation on the legality of Ethnic Studies curriculum. As many Ethnic Studies Education scholars are also CRT scholars, we explicitly address the nuanced relationship among Ethnic Studies and CRT, their distinctions, and potential to push education scholars to meaningfully engage in an Ethnic Studies Education research praxis.
The following guideposts characterize an Ethnic Studies Education research praxis. Namely, anyone pursuing this work must do so in such a way that (a) centers community, (b) encourages collectivity, (c) is co-conspiratorial, and (d) requires critical reflexivity. Research should consider how students and educators are members of communities and often embody the issues that impact and shape those communities. Thus, Ethnic Studies Education research should be collective and encompass some aspect of being relational in subject and/or methodological approach, crossracial, intersectional, and intergenerational. Part of being collective is a practice of moving at the pace of the group as an effort toward accountability and inclusivity. This practice is reflective of Ethnic Studies Education research as co-conspiratorial, where the process of research values power and resource redistribution, and toward the building and thriving of communities historically disenfranchised by centuries of colonialism, imperialism, and racism. Last, we center critical reflexivity to acknowledge that this work is not just about theory and content, but also an embodied praxis that forefronts the reality of trauma and grief. And so our processes are non-linear and undergirded by love and with a goal of harm reduction toward liberation.
Our Ethnic Studies Education research praxis emerged from focus groups with an intergenerational collective of 18 researchers with expertise in Ethnic Studies (including but not limited to Asian American Studies, African American and Black Studies, Chicanx and Latinx Studies, and Native American and Indigenous Studies), CRT, and Education research from across the United States. This paper highlights the work of these individuals to outline a national research agenda, what Ethnic Studies and Education research can be within the P–20 continuum, and identifies key theories, emerging methods, and knowledges attentive to Ethnic Studies. We acknowledge the significant and sustained ways education, CRT, and Ethnic Studies are intimately connected and honor the activist energies that initiated the movement for Ethnic Studies to outline a critical Ethnic Studies Education research agenda.

Authors

• Tracy Lachica Buenavista, California State University - Northridge

• Edward R. Curammeng, California State University - Dominguez Hills

• David O. Stovall, University of Illinois at Chicago