A Risk Revealed: A Critical Discourse Analysis of A Nation at Risk

• In Event: Whose Histories? Whose Futures? Coloniality, Control, and Counterstories in Schooling

Abstract

This study uses critical discourse analysis to examine A Nation at Risk (1983), a foundational text in U.S. education reform. The report, framed as a national call to action, helped entrench colorblind ideology in public discourse by emphasizing accountability, nationalism, and civic duty while minimizing systemic racism. The analysis focuses on how colorblind ideology is embedded in the report’s language, particularly through its use of values and modality—expressions of certainty, obligation, and possibility. Findings reveal that modality operates along a spectrum and functions to reinforce colorblind narratives. This study contributes to broader efforts to interrogate the racialized assumptions in education reform and highlights how such discourse continues to obscure the lived realities of Black communities and other communities of color.

Author

• DreSha Singleton, North Carolina State University