By Pierre Bourdieu (London: Routledge, 2010), xxx + 607 pp. £15.99 paper. A combination of social theory, statistical data, illustrations, and interviews, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judg...

Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste

In this open letter, Eve Tuck calls on communities, researchers, and educators to reconsider the long-term impact of "damage-centered" research—research that intends to document peoples' pain and brokenness to hold those in power accountable for their oppression. This kind of research operates with a flawed theory of change: it is often used to leverage reparations or resources for marginalized communities yet simultaneously reinforces and reinscribes a one-dimensional notion of these people as depleted, ruined, and hopeless. Tuck urges communities to institute a moratorium on damage-centered research to reformulate the ways research is framed and conducted and to reimagine how findings might be used by, for, and with communities.

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Suspending Damage: A Letter to Communities.

Preface (1999) Preface (1990) 1. Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire I. 'Women' as the Subject of Feminism II. The Compulsory Order of Sex/Gender/Desire III. Gender: The Circular Ruins of Contemporary Debate IV. Theorizing the Binary, the Unitary and Beyond V. Identity, Sex and the Metaphysics of Substance VI. Language, Power and the Strategies of Displacement 2. Prohibition, Psychoanalysis, and the Production of the Heterosexual Matrix I. Structuralism's Critical Exchange II. Lacan, Riviere, and the Strategies of Masquerade III. Freud and the Melancholia of Gender IV. Gender Complexity and the Limits of Identification V. Reformulating Prohibition as Power 3. Subversive Bodily Acts I. The Body Politics of Julia Kristeva II. Foucault, Herculine, and the Politics of Sexual Discontinuity III. Monique Wittig - Bodily Disintegration and Fictive Sex IV. Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions Conclusion - From Parody to Politics

Postmodern Subjects, Postmodern BodiesThinking Fragments: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and Postmodernism in the Contemporary WestYearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural PoliticsGender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity

In the context of the second Gulf war and US and the British occupation of Iraq, many ‘old’ debates about the category ‘woman’ have assumed a new critical urgency. This paper revisits debates on intersectionality in order to show that they can shed new light on how we might approach some current issues. It first discusses the 19 th century contestations among feminists involved in anti-slavery struggles and campaigns for women’s suffrage. The second part of the paper uses autobiography and empirical studies to demonstrate that social class (and its intersections with gender and ‘race’ or sexuality) are simultaneously subjective, structural and about social positioning and everyday practices. It argues that studying these intersections allows a more complex and dynamic understanding than a focus on social class alone. The conclusion to the paper considers the potential contributions to intersectional analysis of theoretical and political approaches such as those associated with poststructuralism, postcolonial feminist analysis, and diaspora studies.

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Ain't I A Woman? Revisiting Intersectionality

"A Different Mirror" is a dramatic new retelling of our nation's history, a powerful larger narrative of the many different peoples who together compose the United States of America. In a lively account filled with the stories and voices of people previously left out of the historical canon, Ronald Takaki offers a fresh perspective - a "re-visioning" - of our nation's past.

A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. First Edition.

Drawing on the traditions of critical race theory, the paper is presented as a chronicle – a narrative – featuring two invented characters with different histories and expertise. Together they explore the strengths and weaknesses of quantitative approaches to race equality in education. In societies that are structured in racial domination, such as the USA and the UK, quantitative approaches often encode particular assumptions about the nature of social processes and the generation of educational inequality that reflect a generally superficial understanding of racism. Statistical methods can obscure the material reality of racism and the more that statisticians manipulate their data, the more it is likely that majoritarian assumptions will be introduced as part of the fabric of the calculations themselves and the conclusions that are drawn. Focusing on the case of recent national data on the secondary education of minoritized children in England, the paper highlights statisticians’ ability to define what ...

The colour of numbers: surveys, statistics and deficit‐thinking about race and class

Part 1: Theories: Making Sense of Race, Racism and Education 1. On the Theoretical Status of the Concept of Race 2. Race, Knowledge Construction, and Education in the USA: Lessons from History 3. Anti-Racism: From Policy to Praxis 4. Just What is Critical Race Theory and What's It Doing in a Nice Field like Education? Part 2: Identities: Race, Ethnicity, Class, Gender, Sexuality 5. Dysconcious Racism: Ideology, Identity, and the Miseducation of Teachers 7. Identity Traps or How Black Students Fail: The Interactions between Biographical, Sub-Cultural, and Learner Identities 7. Loose Canons: Exploding the Myth of the 'Black Macho' Lad 8. The Souls of White Folk: Critical Pedagogy, Whiteness Studies, and Globalization Discourse Part 3: Practices: Life in School 9. Good, Bad, and Normal Teachers: The Experiences of South Asian Children 10. How White Teachers Construct Race 11. Critical Multicultural Education and Students' Perspectives 12. Black Women in Education: A Collective Movement for Social Change Part 4: Methods: Doing Critical Research 13. Between Neo and Post: Critique and Transformation in Critical Educational Studies 14. The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children 15. The Myth of Neutrality in Educational Research 16. The Power to Know One Thing is Never the Power to Know All Things: Methodological Notes on Two Studies of Black American Teachers

The RoutledgeFalmer Reader in Multicultural Education

The issue of 'Institutional Racism' briefly rose to the top of the policy agenda when, in 1999, the British government was faced with a damning report into the circumstances surrounding the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence (an 18 year old Black college student). The official inquiry found evidence of institutional racism throughout the London police force and argued that all key agencies in society, including education, had a duty to identify and combat racism (including unintended and indirectly discriminatory actions). This paper examines the evidence of institutional racism in the English educational system and argues that the promotion of citizenship education, as a solution to this problem, acts as a placebo in terms of policy intentions and outcomes. Citizenship education is now a required component of the national curriculum that must be taught by all state funded schools in England. It is constantly highlighted by policy makers as a major innovation that promotes social cohesion in general, and race equality in particular. At the same time, however, the government has continued to pursue a so-called 'standards' agenda that emphasizes a hierarchy of schools based on their students' performance in high stakes tests and promotes increased selection that is known to disadvantage Black students. Consequently, the principal education policy strategies are themselves revealed as potentially racist by the government's own definition. It is in this context that the promotion of citizenship education can be seen as a public policy placebo, i.e. a pretend treatment for institutional racism that gives the impression of action but is, in fact, without substance or effect. Meanwhile, the excesses of racialized educational inequality not only continue, but in some cases worsen.

Citizenship Education as Placebo: 'standards', institutional racism and education policy

This article examines recent research on the variability of educational performance in Britain. The composition of Britain's minority population is reviewed, followed by a discussion of differences in attainment. The bulk of the article explores some of the social processes that lie behind the statistics, especially concerning teacher racism and student adaptations. The possibilities for improvement at the school level are considered briefly within the context of national reforms that prioritize market principles and marginalize equality concerns. Although Britain has never been a homogeneous nation, it was only in the late 1950s and early 1960s that educationalists began seriously to consider the importance of ethnic diversity. This coincided with a period of increased immigration control that sought to end large-scale migration from the Indian subcontinent and the Caribbean. The dominant conception of minority students was as a problem: a threat to standards and order. Although political rhetoric has changed, and community and practitioner pressure has won certain victories, students of color continue to occupy a marginal place in the British educational system. In this article I review the most important recent data on the educational experiences and achievements of minority students. My main focus is on the attainments of students during the years of compulsory schooling

Ethnicity and Educational Performance in the United Kingdom: Racism, Ethnicity, and Variability in Achievement

The paper presents an empirical analysis of education policy in England that is informed by recent developments in US critical theory. In particular, I draw on ‘whiteness studies’ and the application of Critical Race Theory (CRT). These perspectives offer a new and radical way of conceptualising the role of racism in education. Although the US literature has paid little or no regard to issues outside North America, I argue that a similar understanding of racism (as a multifaceted, deeply embedded, often taken-for-granted aspect of power relations) lies at the heart of recent attempts to understand institutional racism in the UK. Having set out the conceptual terrain in the first half of the paper, I then apply this approach to recent changes in the English education system to reveal the central role accorded the defence (and extension) of race inequity. Finally, the paper touches on the question of racism and intentionality: although race inequity may not be a planned and deliberate goal of education policy neither is it accidental. The patterning of racial advantage and inequity is structured in domination and its continuation represents a form of tacit intentionality on the part of white powerholders and policy makers. It is in this sense that education policy is an act of white supremacy. Following others in the CRT tradition, therefore, the paper’s analysis concludes that the most dangerous form of ‘white supremacy’ is not the obvious and extreme fascistic posturing of small neonazi groups, but rather the taken-for-granted routine privileging of white interests that goes unremarked in the political mainstream.

David Gillborn

Papers

The colour of numbers: surveys, statistics and deficit‐thinking about race and class

The RoutledgeFalmer Reader in Multicultural Education

Citizenship Education as Placebo: 'standards', institutional racism and education policy

Ethnicity and Educational Performance in the United Kingdom: Racism, Ethnicity, and Variability in Achievement

Education Policy as an Act of White Supremacy: Whiteness, Critical Race Theory, and Education Reform