Using Critical Race Theory to Revolutionize Elementary School Curricula

• In Event: Imagining a Just Future: The Generative Possibilities of Critical Race Theory for Classroom Practice

Abstract

Purposes and Framework
Racial literacy involves understanding not just the interpersonal, individual aspects of racism but rather the relationship between individual actions and structural racism (Guinier 2004). So, how did a school in a southern town that is 72% white come to foster racial literacy in elementary school students? This paper details how a commitment to Critical Race Theory (CRT) was essential in the effort. I use Solórzano’s (1998) critical race methodology and Berry and Stovall’s (2013) notion of revolutionizing the curriculum to show how CRT was used to develop both the teachers’ and students’ racial literacy.

Data Sources and Methods.
This paper draws on a larger ethnography at City Elementary, a school in a small southeastern city. I focus on two third-grade teachers: Erica, a Black woman, and Katie, a white woman. For the past ten years, I have worked with Erica and Katie, using a collaborative form of critical race ethnography to examine and intervene in how white supremacy is normalized in school practice (Author, 2020). Together, we use CRT tenets such as racial realism (Bell, 1992) and whiteness as property (Harris, 1993) to better understand how, despite intentions, white supremacy continually adapts to ensure increased access to educational resources for white students. Using CRT has helped us strategically respond in ways that forefront the voices and knowledge of students and staff of color (Author, 2022).

Results
This paper provides detailed examples from Erica and Katie’s classrooms to show how critical race methodology helped them revolutionize the curriculum in two ways. First, they adapted race-neutral standards and curricula to center race. Second, rather than be limited by the predetermined standard course of study, they used students’ own social justice perspectives of community and world events as a way to bridge students’ in-school and out-of-school lives. These examples show that it is possible to recraft curricula to center race, disrupt dominant narratives, and set the stage for social justice, which from a CRT perspective involves critically examining the role of race in unequal access to liberty (Chapman, 2013). The examples also show how Erica and Katie disrupted the dominant ideology that talking about race is too divisive for elementary-age students. By teaching about how racism works in society, their students actually became more connected across racial differences.

Significance
Race-neutral standard curriculum fails to prepare students for how to deal with racism in their own lives (Annamma & Morrison, 2018) and damages students’ relationships with each other and their teachers (Annamma & Handy, 2019). In contrast, Erica and Katie uplifted the perspectives of their students, especially those where students pointed out unfairness, to create cohesive classroom communities based on antiracism. This paper will show how, despite recent attacks on CRT and claims that schools are using it to indoctrinate students (Villareal, 2021), a CRT framework can help educators challenge taken-for-granted curricular practices and embrace students’ own experiences and perspectives to engage in more relevant forms of curriculum.

Word count: 494

Author

• Benjamin Blaisdell, East Carolina University