Examining Race in LatCrit: A Systematic Review of Latinx Critical Race Theory in Education

• In Event: Pushing the Boundaries of Latinidad: Expanding Research on Latina/o/x Communities

Abstract

This systematic review includes 125 peer-reviewed education-research articles that employ a LatCrit framework. The author examines how the literature utilizes LatCrit and advances ideas about race, Latinxs, and Latinidad in education. The author presents significant patterns and divergences in the literature’s strengths, challenges, and tensions. Some strengths include detailing Latinxs’ experiences and valuing experiential knowledge. The author problematizes four research practices and presents how these complications lead to a paradox: even though LatCrit emerges from critical race theory and exists for Latinxs, the literature largely undertheorizes race and lacks clarity about conceptualizing Latinxs as a racialized group. The author recommends four framing ideas that are particular to LatCrit and that help advance the specificity of Latinidad in education.

Author

• Laura Chavez-Moreno, University of California - Los Angeles