Leaders within the black community are among the most important assets for black people in America. Given all that black Americans have experienced and still endure from social, economic, and political disenfranchisement, it is necessary to explore the values, beliefs, experiences, and practices of current leaders or those organizing for food justice with youth in black communities. This research explored the experiences of self-determination and empowerment of African American community organizers and educators, providing community-based educational opportunities to youth. It also sought to understand the values, beliefs, and experiences of the participant leaders pertaining to community empowerment, youth development, and food justice. A critical race theory (Bell, 1987; Crenshaw, 1989; Delgado and Stefancic, 2012) lens was utilized to conduct a narrative analysis of 10 black leaders in the Triad area of North Carolina. The researcher inquiry involved a narrative interview, using narrative inquiry practices (Saldana, 2016) that were both audio and visually recorded. Narrative inquiry is a methodological tool for capturing and co-interpreting the personal stories of people, their personal experiences and their interpretations (Clandinin, 2007). A narrative videography was developed to reach a wider audience and include the direct experiences of black leaders. Upon completion of the data-collection process, the leaders were brought together to view the video and discuss excerpts from their narratives in a single focus group. The study itself explored each leaders' views on what food justice looks like in their community, how self-determination influences their approach to black youth development for food justice, and their experiences of racial and micro-aggressive barriers to their work. It was found that the participants were very knowledgeable about what they needed to secure food justice in their communities. It was also found that the leaders often experienced racism and sometimes it was internalized racism, which often led them to the work with black youth empowerment and community food justice. / Doctor of Philosophy / African Americans have been among the most disenfranchised and marginalized populations in American history (Anderson, 2001). Although today is not as physically reflective of this as the days of slavery and post-slavery Jim Crow, racism is still as pervasive now as it was then, (Alexander, 2010). Critical Race Theory is the theoretical lens of this study thought it is primarily utilized in modern law to understand the presence of race discrimination in the decision making of court officials (Dixson & Rousseau, 2006). This research was a narrative inquiry exploration to understand the experiences of self-determination and empowerment of African American community organizers and educators providing educational opportunities to youth for food justice. The researcher utilized narrative inquiry as methodology in a community-based context to explore the perceptions and attitudes of African American leaders as organizers and educators in the Triad area of North Carolina as they pertain to community empowerment, youth development, and food justice. Using a critical race theory lens, each of the 10 adult participants had been identified as an asset to the black community regarding agriculture and youth empowerment practices. They were then interviewed after consent to audio and visual recording. Influenced by the Whole Measures for Community Food Systems (Abi-Nader et. al, 2009), interview questions were developed and applied to highlight the values and beliefs associated with a just community food system, efforts to counter unjust food access and the racism within it. Participants were asked to contribute to a single collective focus group discussing various excerpts from their narratives. Findings support that each participant was knowledgeable of the food justice issues and what was needed to create it in the communities they worked. Participants expressed several themes related to critical race theory, critical pedagogy and community food work.

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.

Thesis advisor: C. Patrick Proctor / Dominant conceptualizations for family-school relations across U.S. educational research, policy, and practice continue to privilege the behaviors, experiences, and practices of white, upper- and middle-class families, while failing to address the race and class power-relations that permeate educational institutions and their neighborhoods. In the field of bilingual education, there is an emergent body of research that examines issues of language, race, and class within the experiences of families in two-way dual language bilingual education, where children from multiple racial, cultural, and economic groups are educated together with the goals of bilingualism and biliteracy. However, this scholarship has not related the experiences and relations in bilingual programs to the broader issue regarding the dominant and deficit discourse of family-school relations in the U.S. In response, this dissertation situates families’ experiences in a two-way dual language bilingual program within the broader ideological, political, and historical dimensions of U.S. family-school relations. A theoretical orientation informed by Critical Race Theory, Critical Poststructuralist Sociolinguistics, and Feminist Poststructuralist frameworks was used to highlight how racialized positionalities of families in schools reverberate beyond individuals’ identity construction, connecting to discourses about families at other societal scales. This study utilized participant observations, semi-structured interviews, and artifact generation. Data was analyzed using discursive and textual analytical approaches. Findings include (a) an investigation of how the legal and institutional contexts related to family-bilingual school relations contribute to the racialization of people and their languaging; (b) an analysis of how raciolinguistic ideologies are deployed to naturalize the designation of linguistic and ethnoracial labels upon families; and (c) a generation of portraits highlighting how families ruptured deficit positionings by reporting on systems of oppression, their dynamic language practices, and their expansive relations across groups of people, places, and temporal scales. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that despite individual efforts of stakeholders in bilingual programs to foster the wellbeing and development of families, the racist and classist foundations of schooling will ensure the reification of oppressive educational experiences for multiply minoritized families. At the same time, these families will continue to find ways to survive, resist their subjugation, and reimagine more liberatory worlds. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

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.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Kay A. Taylor / This qualitative multiple participant case study examined Mexican American women‘s experiences at the intersection of race and gender in public high school. Mexican American women‘s experiences cannot be isolated and described independently in terms of either race or gender. The intersection of race and gender for Mexican American women has not been investigated fully. The few studies that include Mexican American females focus on dropouts and emphasize at risk factors such as gender, race, socioeconomic status, and language. Consequently, the gaps in the empirical literature are caused in part by the shortage of research on Mexican American women and the propensity toward examining Mexican American women from the deficit perspective. Critical Race Theory was the framework for the analysis and the interpretation in this study. The significant findings of this research support CRT, in that racism is prevalent and ordinary in the daily the lives of Mexican American females. The findings of the study included: First, racism is endemic and pervasive in public education. Second, colorblindness is the notion from which many educational entities operate. Third, the participants perceive social justice as the solution to ending all forms of racism and oppression. Finally, navigating the system is necessary to learn to be academically successful. The results contribute to the limited research on Mexican American women at the intersection of race and gender and the racism experienced in public high school to the overall CRT research in education, and in particular, to LatCrit research.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Special Education, Counseling and Student Affairs / Kenneth F. Hughey / African American and Latino students continue to experience lower retention and higher attrition rates then their White counterparts. The aim of this qualitative interview study was to understand how African American and Latino students at a predominantly White institution (PWI) achieved graduation in Agriculture-STEM (A-STEM) disciplines. Based on the global need for more A-STEM and STEM professionals and the under-representation of African American and Latino students in the fields, there appeared to be a gap in the research on this population and success attributes with respect to completing undergraduate degrees. There was a tendency in the literature toward examining African American and Latino students utilizing the deficit model. This study explores the lived experiences of two African American and one Latino alumni of A-STEM programs. Understanding the life stories, via counter narratives, of these students may help universities develop stronger support for student success in college for not only African American and Latino students, but for all students in A-STEM disciplines. Critical Race Theory was the framework used for the analysis and the interpretation of the data in this study. The data consisted of interview transcripts, timeline, documents, photographs, and e-mail conversations. Communicating the findings in qualitative interview studies is the result of constructing the experiences and meanings of events through the eyes of the participants in a manner that portrays a representation of their experiences. Each participant’s counter narratives were created to highlight salient patterns reflected in their experiences. The writing around the participants’ experiences, and the interrogation of data allowed for the identification of patterns that were consistent with each participant’s stories and their individual unique details. The findings revealed: (a) ethnic minority students want faculty and administrators who looked like them because having someone to understand their experiences as people of color in PWI is needed; (b) the need for organizations that support ethnic minority student academic and social success, which in turn helps to create a sense of belongingness and a more inclusive campus climate; (c) more overall faculty support in and out of the classroom; and (d) opportunities for involvement in faculty-led research projects.

Doctor of Philosophy / Special Education, Counseling and Student Affairs / Christy D. Craft / BeEtta L. Stoney / The United States of America’s demographic population has shifted vastly to include a “new” multiracial growing population. Multiracial individuals are those who self-identify as two or more races, which now reflects a very young population. Higher education institutions are noticing an influx of more and more multiracial individuals, and many institutions are grappling with how to recognize and to support this growing population. Specifically, higher education institutions need to understand how multiracial graduate students think about their own racial identities and how they navigate their graduate school experiences. The purpose of this research was to gain a deeper understanding of multiracial graduate students’ lived experiences. There is an imperative to understand the daily experiences of multiracial graduate students to allow these students to retell the stories of their everyday lives in graduate school. The theoretical framework used to guide this study was critical race theory. Narrative inquiry methodology was the methodology chosen to focus on the unique voices and experiences of the participants in this study. Narrative analysis was employed to make meaning of the data retrieved from self-reflective writing samples and two semi-structured individual interviews with each of three participants. The findings from this research revealed the ever-present importance of racism and colorism and their impact on racial identity, the continued challenges of the campus climate experienced by multiracial students at a predominantly White institution (PWI), the impact and influence of religion at a PWI, and how multiracial students manage different types of relationships with peers and faculty. Implications for research and practice are provided as a result of the insights gleaned through this research about the lived experiences of three multiracial graduate students at one predominantly White higher education institution.