Jamel K. Donnor

Bio: Jamel K. Donnor is an academic researcher from College of William & Mary. The author has contributed to research in topics: Critical race theory & Racism. The author has an hindex of 14, co-authored 35 publications receiving 1118 citations. Previous affiliations of Jamel K. Donnor include Urbana University & University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Critical Race Theory in Education : All God's Children Got a Song

Abstract: Foreword: The Evolving Role of Critical Race Theory in Educational Scholarship Gloria Ladson-Billings Introduction: All God's Children Got a Song Section I: Critical Race Theory and Education in Context 1. Toward a Critical Race Theory of Education Gloria Ladson-Billings and William F. Tate, IV 2. And We Are Still Not Saved: Critical Race Theory in Education Ten Years Later Adrienne Dixson and Celia Rousseau Section II: Critical Race Theory Constructs 3. The First Day of School: A CRT Story Celia Rousseau and Adrienne Dixson 4. Peddling Cackwards: Reflections of Plessy and Brown in the Rockford Public Schools De Jure Desegregation Efforts Thandeka Chapman 5. 'Proving Your Skin is White, You Can Have Everything': Race, Racial Identity and the Property Rights in Whiteness in the Supreme Court Case of Josephine DeCuir Jessica DeCuir-Gunby 6. Keeping it Real: Race and Education in Memphis Celia Rousseau 7. Critical Race Perspectives on Desegregation: The Forgotten Voices of Black Educators Jerome Morris 8. Parent(s): The Biggest Influences in the Education of African American Football Student-Athletes Jamel Donnor Section III: The Interdisciplinary Nature of Critical Race Theory 9. Whose Culture has Capital? A Critical Race Theory Discussion of Community Cultural Wealth Tara J. Yosso 10. Critical Race Ethnography in Education: Narrative, Inequality, and the Problem of Epistemology Garret Duncan 11. The Fire This Time: Jazz, Research and Critical Race Theory Adrienne Dixson Section IV: Critical Race Theory in US Classrooms and Internationally 12. Where the Rubber Hits the Road: CRT Goes to High School David Stovall 13. Critical Race Theory Beyond North America: Towards a Trans-Atlantic Dialogue on Racism and Antiracism in Educational Theory and Praxis David Gillborn Conclusion 14. Ethics, Engineering, and the Challenge of Racial Reform in Education William F. Tate, IV

Towards an interest‐convergence in the education of African‐American football student athletes in major college sports

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to advance Derrick Bell’s (1992b) interest-convergence principle as an analytical lens for understanding the complex role of race in the educational experiences of AfricanAmerican football student athletes. Currently, there is a scarcity of educational research that employs a critical theoretical perspective on race to address the education of African-American students in general, and student athletes in particular. This article includes American law cases that attend to the educational experiences of student athletes participating in high profile intercollegiate football programs. The inclusion of the legal literature is meant to adhere to the intellectual and methodological origins of critical race theory and to demonstrate how educational differences are institutionalized through coercion and ideology. The article concludes with a discussion of the interest-convergence principle as a means of investigating and establishing alternative strategies on behalf of the student athlete in order to improve his educational experience and academic outcomes.

Waiting for the Call: The Moral Activist Role of Critical Race Theory Scholarship

Abstract: It doesn't matter who you are, or how high you rise. One day you will get your call. The question is how will you respond? The epigraph that opens this chapter comes from a colleague and friend who serves as a top administrator at a major university. His use of the term " your call " is his reference to what in African American vernacular would be known as being called the " N-word. " call. Rather than focus on the controversy over the term and its appropriateness (see Kennedy, 2002), this chapter looks more specifically at the meaning of the " call " and the ways it should mobilize scholars of color 1 and others who share commitments to equity, social justice, and human liberation. This friend was referring to the way African Americans almost never are permitted to break out of the prism (and prison) of race that has been imposed by a racially coded and constraining society. Clearly, this same hierarchy and power dynamic operates for all people of color, women, the poor, and other " marginals. " 2 The call is that moment at which, regardless of one's stature and/or accomplishments , race (and other categories of otherness) is recruited to remind one that he or she still remains locked in the racial construction. Below, we provide examples from popular culture, and each of the authors demonstrates how the " call " is mobilized to maintain the power dynamic and hierarchical racial structures of society. The first example comes from the 1995 murder trial of Orenthal James Simpson, more commonly known as O. J. Simpson. Simpson was an American hero. He was revered for his exploits on the football field at the University of Southern California, and with the professional football franchises in Buffalo and San Francisco, coupled with his good looks and " articulateness. " 3 The latter two qualities allowed Simpson to turn his postcompetition years into a successful sports broadcasting career and a mediocre but profitable acting career. Simpson moved comfortably in the

Toward a new narrative on Black males, education, and public policy

Abstract: This article examines the Black male crisis thesis promulgated by the social science literature, public policy, and mainstream discourse, respectively. The authors contend that the stock‐story that the majority of African American males are ‘at‐risk’ for engaging in self‐destructive behavior or on the verge of extinction perpetuates a discourse of Black male pathology, which leads to over‐emphasis of behavior modification as a strategy for their collective improvement. Subsequently, de‐emphasis on the historical and structural role of race as a life opportunity‐shaping variable occurs, which renders an incomplete understanding of the social and educational status of Black males in the United States. As a result, public policies and social programs guided by this deficit discourse are unlikely to create meaningful change for this population, because society’s existing political economic structures are left unchallenged. The article concludes with the assertion that a ‘new narrative’ is needed in order to r...

Leaving Us behind: A Political Economic Interpretation of NCLB and the Miseducation of African American Males.

Abstract: Introduction The educational tribulations of African American males are well documented (Clark, 1989/1965; Davis & Jordan, 1994; Harry & Anderson, 1994; Polite & Davis, 1999; Majors & Billison, 1992). According to a report by the Schott Foundation for Public Education (2004), 70% of African American males entering the ninth grade will not graduate with their cohort (p. 2). The foregoing figures are troubling considering that the overall percentage of African American students enrolled in public schools has increased from 14.8% in 1972 to 15.6% in 2006 (1) (U.S. Department of Education, 2008, p. 85). Despite this modicum of progress, the education system's ability to adequately serve African American males is worsening. The need to address the low academic achievement of Black males is important for two reasons. The first reason is the link between low educational attainment and incarceration (Mauer & King, 2004; Justice Policy Institute, 2007; Children's Defense Fund, 2007). The second reason is the shift in the skills needed for productive participation in the global economy (Green, 2001). With regards to the relationship between low education attainment and incarceration, the Justice Policy Institute (2007) reported that "52% of African American male high school dropouts had prison records by their early thirties" in 1999 (p. 11). Incidentally, the incarceration rate per 100,000 African American men between the ages of 18-64 was 7,923 compared to 1,072 for White men (Human Rights Watch, 2008). These statistics are problematic considering that African Americans only constitute 12% of the U.S. population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). Based on the foregoing statistics, one can easily surmise that there are more African American males incarcerated than in school. Conversely, the economic vitality of the United States in the 21st century is contingent upon the productivity of well-trained people and the steady stream of scientific and technical innovations they produce. Levy and Murnane (2004) point out that the nation's challenge is to "recognize the inexorable changes in the job distribution and to prepare young people with the skills needed in the growing number of good jobs" (p. 6). Further, expansion of international markets through globalization has contributed to the transformation of America's economy from a mass-producer of durable goods such as automobiles, to a developer and provider of information and biotechnology products and services. This economic shift has not only altered the types of products required for international competitiveness, but more importantly the requisite skills needed to ensure high-tier workforce participation has been permanently altered (Waks, 2003). In addition to access to quality scientific, mathematical, and technological learning opportunities, a "good education" in the global age includes the development of "soft-skills" (2) (Levy & Murnane, 2004; Gordon Nembhard, 2005). For traditionally under-served students, such as African Americans males, the education policies that govern curriculum and instruction are essential to shaping the capacity of learning opportunities vital to their collective social and economic advancement. Indeed, the relationship between education and social mobility is not a recent finding; what is new, however, is that public schools more than at any other time in American history are held accountable for preparing students to serve private interests and the public good (Kliebard, 1999; Hargreaves, 2003). The purpose of this article is to discuss the misalignment between public school assessment policies and teaching practices in accordance with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), and the human capital, curricula, and soft-skill needs of the global economy. The authors suggest that changes regarding the nature of learning, how it is assessed, and the skills taught are critical to the educational and social success of African American males. …

Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality

Abstract: Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality. Aihwa Ong. Durham, NIC: Duke University Press, 1999. ix. 322 pp., notes, bibliography, index.

Race, Culture, and Researcher Positionality: Working Through Dangers Seen, Unseen, and Unforeseen

Abstract: This author introduces a framework to guide researchers into a process of racial and cultural awareness, consciousness, and positionality as they conduct education research. The premise of the argument is that dangers seen, unseen, and unforeseen can emerge for researchers when they do not pay careful attention to their own and others’ racialized and cultural systems of coming to know, knowing, and experiencing the world. Education research is used as an analytic site for discussion throughout this article, but the framework may be transferable to other academic disciplines. After a review of literature on race and culture in education and an outline of central tenets of critical race theory, a nonlinear framework is introduced that focuses on several interrelated qualities: researching the self, researching the self in relation to others, engaged reflection and representation, and shifting from the self to system.

The Sociopolitical Turn in Mathematics Education

Abstract: Over the past decade, the mathematics education research community has incorporated more sociocultural perspectives into its ways of understanding and examining teaching and learning. However, researchers who have a long history of addressing anti-racism and social justice issues in mathematics have moved beyond this sociocultural view to espouse sociopolitical concepts and theories, highlighting identity and power at play. This article highlights some promising conceptual tools from critical theory (including critical race theory/Latcrit theory) and post-structuralism and makes an argument for why taking the sociopolitical turn is important for both researchers and practitioners. Potential benefits and challenges of this turn are also discussed.