Despite progress in recent years, the K–12 education system still grapples with pervasive discriminatory and inequitable practices that hinder students’ learning experiences and future success. Such practices can have far-reaching consequences, threatening students’ long-term outcomes and putting their well-being at risk. This study delved into the effects of exclusionary practices on academic performance and student withdrawal, with a particular focus on minority students with disabilities. By examining archived data, this research analyzed various exclusionary practices, including in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension, Baker Acts, and law enforcement referrals. To uncover correlations and determine hypothesis acceptance, the study employedsophisticated statistical techniques such as logistic regression. Results of the study show exclusionary discipline practices significantly correlate with dropout rates for minoritized students with disabilities. In other words, students of this study who are subject to these practices are not more likely to drop out of school. The study recommends implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and providing training to educators on how to instruct students with disabilities. Further study is needed to explore the quantitative impact of specific discipline practices on learning and detrimental effects of instructional loss on student engagement. Nonetheless, this research underscores the urgency of using professional development to identify and address discriminatory and inequitable practices in the K–12 education system to ensure all students have the opportunity to succeed.

This study explored the work of critically race-conscious on the front lines of understanding, addressing, and confronting issues of race, racism, and institutionalized systems of power within their school context. Using personal narratives and critical racial reflections as a qualitative research methodology, this research bears witness to four Black principals using the race card to cultivate spaces filled with love, joy, and genius through high expectations and community.

This thesis investigates how norms regarding good parenting and ideas about the best interest of the child interact with race and whiteness. It explores different themes found in the main government report (SOU) conducted by the state appointed committee  (Inseminationsutredningen) in a qualitative discourse analysis. The focus has been to discern how race and whiteness is presented through its non-disclosure in the material. The main body of theory consists of work surrounding critical race theory, critical adoption studies, parenting as white privilege, discourse analysis and critical studies of Swedish reproductive politics. This thesis sets out to investigate how the report discusses race, but also how whiteness is constructed in relation to parenting. The general conclusion is that the reports reluctance to talk about race and the analogy with adoption both helped establish a view on insemination as a practice for white parents. Since the report repeatedly said that insemination could not be viewed as a human right, it would imply that only those best qualified would be entitled to insemination. The vagueness of the criteria put forth by the report, indicates that not all people will have the same ability to qualify as parents, since parents with immigration background often are seen as less adequate parents, because of their lack of Swedishness. While the report does in fact not deny people of non-Swedish status access to insemination, this thesis shows that ideas about who can be viewed as both Swedish and adequate parents are closely related to race and whiteness. Combined with the reluctance to mention race and how the analogy with adoption positioned the insemination couple as white, I suggest whiteness can be viewed as an unspoken criteria, an invisible hurdle that only non-white Swedes will encounter.

This study examined Black lactation professionals’ lived experiences navigating the human lactation workforce. Grounded in hermeneutic phenomenology and guided by Black feminist thought and critical race theory, this research unveiled the impact of various barriers that play a role in human lactation. While evidence cites the importance of human milk feeding, the voices of Black lactation professionals are often overlooked and marginalized, resulting in limited representation of Black lactation training practices. This study aimed to address a critical gap in the literature by centering the voices of Black lactation professionals. This research was conducted utilizing semi-structured interviews and a focus group with Black lactation professionals from various locations across the U.S. South. Participants represented diverse professional roles, years of experience, and lactation work settings ranging from hospitals and academia to private practice and government agencies. Additionally, reflexive journaling and document analysis were utilized in this study. In my research process, I applied the hermeneutic circle process through reflexive journaling to note my assumptions, biases, opinions, and reactions. The document analysis of two lactation textbooks allowed me to review and understand the content as it pertains to the materials used in the education and training of lactation professionals (Wambach & Spencer, 2021; Wilson-Clay & Hoover, 2022). Findings from this study revealed that Black lactation professionals used self-definition in their identities as lactation providers and were often made to feel like an “outsider within” the human lactation field. This combined with their experiences of implicit bias, microaggressions, and racism, manifested in various ways, such as being questioned on their competence or authority by both colleagues and patients/clients. Research contributors also reported facing significant barriers to entering into and advancing in the lactation field, including unsupported education and clinical training, limited mentorship opportunities, and financial constraints. While Black lactation professionals face challenges within the field, there were strategies of resistance and action that Black lactation professionals applied to navigate the barriers. Specifically, Black lactation professionals shifted the narrative of the dominant society within lactation with counter-storytelling, coalition building, and mentorship. These findings created concrete strategies to improve the experiences of Black lactation professionals in the field.

<p dir="ltr">This dissertation considers policy impacts on access for historically excluded students in the United States higher education system. By conducting a content analysis within performance-based funding literature, this research highlights the exclusion of a critical theory and the implications the omission has on policy creation to support historically excluded students. The history of higher education in the United States is heavily detailed to frame the challenges associated with changing policies that have been in place for decades or centuries. To highlight the specific, often negative, impact that policies have on historically excluded students, critical race theory (CRT) is introduced to analyze the systemic and systematic racial undertones within the U.S. higher education system. CRT has not been previously applied to performance funding research, signifying the importance of introducing a critical framework to policies and research that have been in use for many decades. Recommendations for future research are included and support the continuation of challenging traditional theories and frameworks associated with policy research.</p>

This thesis explores the perspectives of University of Central Florida (UCF) students on the complex interactions between minority communities and law enforcement. Through a carefully designed survey, this study captures a range of student opinions on the social dynamics shaping these encounters, with a particular focus on the underlying factors that influence these perspectives. By examining elements such as media exposure, personal encounters, and societal narratives, this research delves into how students form their views on policing and minority relations. This study also investigates potential biases, whether implicit or explicit, that may arise from these factors and contribute to shaping public opinion on police-minority interactions. Ultimately, by identifying the sources that may inform student perspectives, this thesis researches their perceptions and opinions on law enforcement and how they handle interactions with people of minorities. These findings enhance the understanding of these biases, contributing to the broader conversation on improving the relationship between minority groups and law enforcement in ways that can promote trust, accountability, and equity.

Like many institutions of high education throughout the United States, the University of North Texas requires all students to pass introductory United States History courses. While the purpose of these courses should be to create a population well versed in U.S. history and sociopolitical and economic context, the foundational textbooks utilized in these courses promote American exceptionalism and U.S. supremacy. Their omission of the complex and controversial history of the United States creates a false master narrative based on an idealized version of U.S. history. Even textbooks that include diversity continue to uphold a progressive master narrative that ignores issues of systemic racism, sexism, and homophobia. My theoretical analysis of the required textbooks, Exploring American Histories: A Survey with Sources, is applicable to all introductory U.S. history textbooks. Decolonialism, critical race, and intersectional feminism are theoretical lenses that disentangle and highlight otherwise invisible aspects of American exceptionalism and the serious consequences of the subjugation of subaltern historical narratives. This thesis applies theory with examples of how textbooks or supplemental teaching can expose foundational oppression, violence, and discrimination to teach students critical thinking and help them see connections between the past and their present.

This essay explores how in the Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling's magical heroes function asparadigms whose roles reflect on issues of race, prejudice and racism. Those issues include goodand evil, socialism and aristocracy, purity and impurity, freedom and indebtedness. This essayfocuses on showing how those themes are reflected and confronted in the dipole between HarryPotter and Draco Malfoy. Additionally, the Critical Race Theory, a theory that examines howculture uses and assorts power and race in society, is implemented to show how race andprejudice are reflected in the magical world. By further analyzing Harry and Draco's upbringingand social milieus in relation to the theme of good vs. evil, the development of these characters ispresented in response to their contrasting surroundings. The paper concludes that thesecharacters evolve in the final novels and make conscious choices to achieve the common causeof defying evil, despite their opposing backgrounds. / Denna uppsats utforskar hur J. K. Rowlings magiska hjältar, i Harry Potter-serien, fungerar somen paradigm vars roller reflekterar frågor kring ras, fördomar och rasism. Dessa frågor inkluderargott och ont, socialism och aristokrati, renhet och orenhet, frihet och skuldsättning. Dennauppsats fokuserar på att visa hur dessa teman reflekteras och konfronteras i dipolen mellan HarryPotter och Draco Malfoy. Dessutom implementeras Critical Race Theory, en teori somundersöker hur kultur använder och sorterar makt och ras i samhället, för att visa hur ras ochfördomar återspeglas i den magiska världen. Genom att ytterligare analysera Harry och Dracosuppväxt och sociala miljöer i förhållande till temat ’gott mot ont’, presenteras dessa karaktärersutveckling som ett resultat av kontrasterande omgivning. Uppsatsen drar slutsatsen att dessakaraktärer utvecklas i de sista romanerna och gör medvetna val för att uppnå det gemensammamålet till att bekämpa det onda, trots deras motsatta bakgrunder.

This thesis examines gender verifications issues in track and field from a feminist and antiracist perspective. In 2019 the international governing body for the sport of athletics (World Athletics) introduced limits on blood testosterone levels for women with some types of Differences in sex development (DSD) in races from 400 metres to 1 mile. According the eligibility rules Caster Semenya and other athletes with heightened testosterone levels need to lower their testosterone levels in order to be eligible to compete in middle distance running races in the women’s class. This thesis discuss the relationship between gender verifications in athletics and the protection of athletes right to privacy according to article 8 ECHR and prohibition of gender and race discrimination according to article 14 ECHR. The balance between the interests for fair competition in sports and the protection of athletes human rights is an ongoing discussion. Complex relationship between states accountability and international non-governmental sports organizations can put athletes in a vulnerable position.  This paper includes three research questions. Firstly, can the state parties to the ECHR be accountable if the eligibility rules infringe human rights? Secondly, is the eligibility rules in compliance with the right to respect for private and family life according to article 8 ECHR? Thirdly, is the eligibility rules in compliance with prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of sex and race according to article 14 ECHR.

School orchestra programs are overwhelmingly concentrated in suburban districts, which are becoming increasingly racially and economically diverse. Diversifying suburbs lie at the crossroads of race, racism, and whiteness and findings drawn from these settings can have implications for racial dynamics in all educational contexts. The purpose of this instrumental case study was to explore how racially underrepresented students perceive race within an urban characteristic high school orchestra program through the lens of critical race theory. I developed a composite counter-story to examine the racialized experience of school orchestra told from the perspective of students of color with a particular interest on competition. Participants were six students and two teachers affiliated with the same high school orchestra program in Texas. Emergent thematic findings examined students' sense of racial belonging, mechanisms upholding the racial status quo, and fulfilling aspects of students' orchestra participation. Though the lens of critical race theory, I discuss how everyday whiteness, property of whiteness, and meritocracy function to maintain white hegemony in school orchestra.