Interest Convergence Across National Boundaries

• In Event: 16.042 - A Reenvisioned Interest Convergence: Toward a New Racial Equity Framework

Abstract

Objectives and Framework

In our current globalized era, where ideas, people, economic and political systems are increasingly interconnected, efforts to advance the educational and civil rights of historically marginalized students in the US are both ideologically and materially connected with efforts to combat educational inequality around the world. In this context, we must think broadly about how we answer Bell’s (1980) call to build diverse coalitions with converging (or at least not competing) interests in continued pursuit of educational and racial justice. Though it is indeed vital that we pursue shared interests, we must also think carefully about the complex and fluid ways that individuals and communities bound and mark their identities.

This paper will thus argue that a helpful approach to building coalitions for educational equity may be to push beyond the often dichotomous “us” vs. “them” framing that is assumed in the interest convergence approach. It draws on transnational theory (Levitt and Schiller, 2004) to suggest that this framing may not fully respond to the multiple identities that we assume and enact simultaneously in and through networks stretching beyond constructed borders of race and nation. It will suggest that it we should consider the interests of a larger “us”—the human “us”--to help open up new possibilities for coalition-building across traditionally held borders of race and nation.

Methods and Data Sources

The motivation for this theoretical paper will draw from my own experience spanning academic and theoretical boundaries. I will describe how, though my early research focused on building multiracial coalitions for educational justice in racially diverse US contexts, my role as a faculty member in a school of international relations has helped me re-envision the deep and productive interconnections between the local and the global forces shaping educational policy and practice, and their possibilities for supporting efforts for racial justice both in the US and abroad.

This conceptual paper will draw from several bodies of literature, including transnational studies, community organizing, sociology and critical race theory, and will seek to put forward an interdisciplinary emerging theory of transnational educational justice. It will then suggest how such a theory could provide a helpful framing for efforts to build diverse coalitions in pursuit of educational equity not only between racial groups in the US but also for historically marginalized communities worldwide.

Conclusions and Scholarly Significance

By adopting a transnational perspective on the seemingly domestic issue of racial inequality in American public schools, this paper promises to provide important guidance to advocates for educational equity. It will suggest that, in our continued efforts to build multiracial coalitions for educational justice, we should not continue to simply widen our boundaries of who deserves to receive a high-quality education, by redefining who “we” (as Americans of all racial backgrounds) are in contrast to “them” (as others in nations around the world). Instead, this paper will push us to stretch our thinking across these traditional borders, to argue for how we share a collective—and urgent—human interest in high-quality education.

Author

• Amanda J. Taylor, American University