2023 Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education Award Lecture: My Epistemological Journey: The Quest for Educational Equity in a National and Global Context

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

In this presentation I will describe how my epistemological journey began with my socialization within a racially segregated community in the Arkansas Delta. As a young child, I questioned the image of enslaved African Americans who were depicted in my social studies textbooks as happy. This image was inconsistent with the Blacks in my community who were not happy but were resilient and defiant. My questions started me on an epistemological journey that revealed the powerful ways in which race, class, and gender influence how knowledge is constructed.
I will define and discuss my typology of knowledge construction and two of the types of knowledge it contains: mainstream academic knowledge and transformative academic knowledge. I contend that the mainstream knowledge that undergirds the social studies curriculum and teaching in most schools needs to change to transformative knowledge to help students from diverse and marginalized groups become effective participants in their local, national, and global civic communities.
The final part of this presentation will describe how my epistemological journey to transform civic education and to institutionalize educational equity has expanded to other nations. I will describe three interrelated research and publication projects that focus on civic education and equity within a global context.

Sub Unit

• AERA Sessions

Chair

• Gloria J. Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Presenter

• James A. Banks, University of Washington