Table of Contents
Anti-Racist Pedagogy Literature
Baker-Bell, A. (2020). Dismantling anti-black linguistic racism in English language arts classrooms: Toward an anti-racist black language pedagogy. Theory Into Practice, 59(1), 8–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2019.1665415
(Abstract) In this article, the author historicizes the argument about Black Language in the classroom to contextualize the contemporary linguistic inequities that Black students experience in English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. Next, the author describes anti-black linguistic racism and interrogates the notion of academic language. Following this, the author provides an ethnographic snapshot that shows how Black students in a ninth grade English Language Arts (ELA) class perceptions of Black Language reflected internalized anti-black linguistic racism. The author offers Anti-Racist Black Language Pedagogy as an approach that English Language Arts teachers can implement in an effort to dismantle anti-black linguistic racism and white cultural and linguistic hegemony in their classrooms using Angie Thomas’ (Citation2017) novel The Hate U Give. The author concludes with thoughts about how an Anti-Racist Black Language pedagogy can help ELA students develop useful critical capacities.
Brandt, G. L. (2022). The realization of anti-racist teaching. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003144625
(Abstract) First published in 1986, The Realization of Anti-Racist Teaching explores the subject and importance of anti-racist education. The book examines the relationship between the educational debate at the level of academic institutions, professional organisations, and local education authorities within the context of the actual practice of teaching. It also questions how to link anti-racist theories put forward by theorists and activists to the practice of teachers. The Realization of Anti-Racist Teaching is a detailed discussion of the history of racism and of anti-racist teaching and education.
Husband, T. (2010). He’s too young to learn about that stuff: Anti-racist pedagogy and early childhood social studies. Social Studies Research and Practice, 5(2), 61–75. https://doi.org/10.1108/SSRP-02-2010-B0006
(Abstract) Few early childhood teachers engage in critical and anti-racist forms of pedagogical practice, primarily on the basis of developmental and political concerns. With the exception of a few studies, little has been documented relative to early childhood teachers’ experiences while enacting this form of pedagogical practice. The purpose of this article is to examine Husband’s teaching experiences engaging in critical, anti-racist pedagogy through the development and implementation of a critical action research study/unit on African American history. Data from this study reveal four levels of challenges that emerged throughout the development and implementation phases of this study/unit. Finally, Husband discusses several implications of this study for early child-hood multicultural practice
Kishimoto, K. (2018). Anti-racist pedagogy: From faculty’s self-reflection to organizing within and beyond the classroom. Race Ethnicity and Education, 21(4), 540–554. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2016.1248824
(Abstract) This article is a synthesis of the author’s own work as well as a critical reading of the key literature in anti-racist pedagogy. Its purpose is to define anti-racist pedagogy and what applying this to courses and the fullness of our professional lives entails. Kishimoto argues that faculty need to be aware of their social position, but more importantly, to begin and continue critical self-reflection in order to effectively implement anti-racist pedagogy, which has three components: (1) incorporating the topics of race and inequality into course content, (2) teaching from an anti-racist pedagogical approach, and (3) anti-racist organizing within the campus and linking our efforts to the surrounding community. In other words, anti-racist pedagogy is an organizing effort for institutional and social change that is much broader than teaching in the classroom.
Mosley, M. (2010). ‘That really hit me hard’: Moving beyond passive anti‐racism to engage with critical race literacy pedagogy. Race Ethnicity and Education, 13(4), 449–471. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2010.488902
(Abstract) This study interrogates how understandings about racism and anti‐racism are constructed through interactions with students as well as peers in preservice teacher education contexts towards a closer understanding of racial literacy as both a personal and pedagogical tool. Critical race literacy pedagogy – a subset of the approaches known as multicultural education, culturally responsive teaching, and anti‐racist teaching – is a set of tools to practice racial literacy in school settings with children, peers, colleagues, and so forth. In this article, I explore the construction of critical race literacy pedagogy for one white preservice teacher in a U.S. teacher education program through two engagements with literacy pedagogy: a reading lesson with two African American students and the discussion of a children’s literature text in a teacher education book club. Through the critical, mediated discourse analysis of these two engagements, we see that for Kelly, the process of enacting racial literacy in a reading lesson required anti‐racist discourse patterns not yet available to her; whereas in the book club, interviews, and written reflections she was able to articulate what it means to practice racial literacy, pinpoint the breakdown of her pedagogy, and develop what it means to be ‘actively’ anti‐racist as a literacy teacher. The findings of this study suggest the complexity of the roles and the variety of paths available for white teachers who desire to be anti‐racist teachers. Ultimately, the findings indicate that we do not need only to prepare teachers for identities that ‘transcend’ predictable ways of being white but to construct a more complete framework for what it means to practice racial literacy in educational contexts.
Ng, R., Staton, P. A., & Scane, J. (Eds.). (1995). Anti-racism, feminism, and critical approaches to education. Bergin & Garvey.
(Abstract) This book argues that there has not been sufficient dialog and exchange between various forms of critical approaches to education, such as multicultural and antiracist education, feminist pedagogy, and critical pedagogy. Contributors from the United States and Canada address issues relevant to ethnic and minority groups in light of feminist and critical pedagogical theory in the following discussions: (1) “Multicultural Education, Anti-Racist Education, and Critical Pedagogy: Reflections on Everyday Practice” (Goli Rezai-Rashti); (2) “Multicultural Policy Discourses on Racial Inequality in American Education” (Cameron McCarthy); (3) “Multicultural and Anti-Racist Teacher Education: A Comparison of Canadian and British Experiences in the 1970s and 1980s” (Jon Young); (4) “Warrior as Pedagogue, Pedagogue as Warrior: Reflections on Aboriginal Anti-Racist Pedagogy” (Robert Regnier); (5) “Connecting Racism and Sexism: The Dilemma of Working with Minority Female Students” (Goli Rezai-Rashti); (6) “Aboriginal Teachers as Organic Intellectuals: (Rick Hesch); and (7) “Teaching against the Grain: Contradictions and Possibilities” (Roxana Ng).
Zembylas, M. (2012). Pedagogies of strategic empathy: Navigating through the emotional complexities of anti-racism in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 17(2), 113–125. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2011.611869
(Abstract) This paper constructs an argument about the emotionally complicated and compromised learning spaces of teaching about anti-racism in higher education. These are spaces steeped in complex structures of feeling that evoke strong and often discomforting emotions on the part of both teachers and students. In particular, the author theorizes the notion of strategic empathy in the context of students’ emotional resistance toward anti-racist work; he examines how strategic empathy can function as a valuable pedagogical tool that opens up affective spaces which might eventually disrupt the emotional roots of troubled knowledge – an admittedly long and difficult task. Undermining the emotional roots of troubled knowledge through strategic empathy ultimately aims at helping students integrate their troubled views into anti-racist and socially just perspectives.
Disability Pedagogy Literature
Danforth, S. (2020). Teaching and the experience of disability: The pedagogy of Ed Roberts. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 9(5), 464–488. https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v9i5.705
(Abstract) Ed Roberts was a renowned activist considered to be one of the founding leaders of the American disability rights movement. Although he engaged in numerous political strategies, his main form of activism was teaching in his prolific public speaking career across the United States and around the world. The content and methods of his pedagogy were crafted from his own personal experiences as a disabled man. His teaching featured autobiographic selections from his own life in which he fought and defeated forces of oppression and discrimination. This article examines Roberts’ disability rights teaching in relation to the experiential sources, political content, and teaching techniques.
Dolmage, J. (2005). Disability studies pedagogy, usability and universal design. Disability Studies Quarterly, 25(4). https://doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v25i4.627
Jay Dolmage relates his experiences and suggestions in regards to the use of “universal design” in three undergraduate-level classes taught at Miami University of Ohio in fall 2024. This article gives the reader a basic insight into Universal Design for Learning (UDL), its history and significance, and its shortcomings in student-instructor interaction, dynamicism, and accessibility. Dolmage introduces usability and a new hybrid pedagogy that unites usability and universal design as a framework that reach a broad range of users and allow the designer and user to collaborate. Suggestions for application in the classroom are given.
Draper, E. (2022). Critical pedagogy and disability: Considerations for music education. Visions of Research in Music Education, 40(1). https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/vrme/vol40/iss1/10
(Abstract) Developed by Brazilian Paulo Freire to teach economically disadvantaged adults to read, critical peda- gogy has since inspired others to adapt the model to other subject areas. In the area of music education, Frank Abrahams created the Critical Pedagogy for Music Education (CPME) model and has written about the use of CPME in teacher preparation programs. Scholars in disability studies have also been inspired by critical pedagogy, writing about disability pedagogy. Notably, people with disabilities have historically been omitted from models of critical pedagogy. This article discusses the intersections of critical pedagogy, music education, and disability, and makes recommendations to music education scholars on including students with disabilities in future models.
Hogan, E., Fair, E., & Casson, B. (n.d.). Disability Pedagogy & Accessibility. University of Denver Office of Teaching & Learning: Inclusive Teaching Practices. https://operations.du.edu/inclusive-teaching/disability-pedagogy-accessibility
This web page is from the University of Denver’s Office of Teaching & Learning, and is under the broader heading of “Inclusive Teaching Practices,” which emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of any liberatory pedagogy. The page provides definitions for common disability language and discusses accessibility for students with disabilities that may not be physically apparent. It offers specific strategies and methods for educators to undertake in the classroom, including assistive technologies and course design techniques, and a perspective on the importance of disability pedagogy.
Hulgin, K., O’Connor, S., Fitch, E. F., & Gutsell, M. (2011). Disability studies pedagogy: Engaging dissonance and meaning making. Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal, 7(3 & 4). https://www.rdsjournal.org
(Abstract) Student responses to disability studies pedagogy are influenced by the context in which they learn. This study examined student responses in two disability studies initiatives: one within a teacher preparation program that included American Indian students, the other within a stand alone, interdisciplinary course taken primarily by Americans of European descent. Course dialogue and students’ written assignments were used to identify and categorize their responses. While some students readily engaged in critique of disability as culturally constructed, experiences of significant resistance related to positivist filters, adherence to individualism, and defense of identity-related norms. These responses are discussed as considerations for more effective pedagogy in this relatively new field.
Jeffress, M. S. (Ed.). (2017). Pedagogy, disability and communication: Applying disability studies in the classroom. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315399423
(Abstract) Bringing together a range of perspectives from communication and disability studies scholars, this collection provides a theoretical foundation along with practical solutions for the inclusion of disability studies within the everyday curriculum. It examines a variety of aspects of communication studies including interpersonal, intercultural, health, political and business communication as well as ethics, gender and public speaking, offering case study examples and pedagogical strategies as to the best way to approach the subject of disability in education.
Soorenian, A. (2018). Pedagogy, disability and communication: Applying disability studies in the classroom. Disability & Society, 33(3), 497–499. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2017.1414338
This book is a collection of interdisciplinary essays that explore the process of negotiating disability identity and give step-by-step advice for ethical and inclusive communication in the classroom. Each essay engages the incorporation of Disability Studies into other fields of study. In particular, there is significant discourse on the need to incorporate Disability Studies into communication, whether in its ethics, politicization, or specialization in public speaking.
Liberatory Pedagogy Literature
Castillo-Montoya, M., Abreu, J., & Abad, A. (2021). Racially liberatory pedagogy: A Black Lives Matter approach to education. In Black Liberation in Higher Education (pp. 59–79).
In this chapter of Black Liberation in Higher Education, the authors use a focus on the Black Lives Matter (#BLM) movement to discuss racially liberating frameworks for education. #BLM has brought change to institutions by forcing changemakers to recognize and combat anti-Blackness. The material in this book is designed to assist researchers, instructors, institutional leaders, and policy-makers in supporting Black affiliates of educational institutions.
Enns, C. Z., & Forrest, L. M. (2005). Toward defining and integrating multicultural and feminist pedagogies. In Teaching and social justice: Integrating multicultural and feminist theories in the classroom (1st ed.). American Psychological Association.
(Summary) Teaching and Social Justice provides psychologists and educators with a foundation to create their own multicultural feminist pedagogy. The volume challenges them with self reflection and thought-provoking questions such as: How does one’s multicultural or feminist theoretical orientation influence how one teaches social justice? How does this influence the manner in which one teaches about diversity issues? How might one’s theoretical position influence the organization and structure of the classroom, the interventions used, or classroom dynamics and learning?
Lather, P. (2014). Post-critical pedagogies: A feminist reading. In Feminisms and Critical Pedagogy (pp. 120–137). Routledge.
(Abstract) Feminisms and Critical Pedagogy centres around the theoretical effort to construct a feminist pedagogy which will democratize gender relations in the classroom, and practical ways to implement a truly feminist pedagogy.
Maher, F. A. (1987). Toward a richer theory of feminist pedagogy: A comparison of “liberation” and “gender” models for teaching and learning. The Journal of Education, 169(3), 91–100. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42741791
(Abstract) This essay articulates two distinct sources for the set of teaching practices that have come to be called “feminist pedagogy.” The separate contributions of liberation pedagogy and of feminist theories of women’s development are described. It is argued that neither approach taken by itself is adequate to produce a feminist pedagogy that fully challenges the androcentric universals of conventional teaching practices. By synthesizing the two approaches, however, feminist pedagogy can be developed in a way that will have a strong influence on contemporary education.
Nouri, A., & Sajjadi, S. M. (2014). Emancipatory pedagogy in practice: Aims, principles and curriculum orientation. The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 5(2). https://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/view/228
(Abstract) This study was conducted to develop a practical framework for applying the theory of emancipatory or liberatory pedagogy in educational policy and practice. For this purpose, after a brief review on the evolutionary process of emancipatory pedagogy in education, the theoretical literature that explicates, describes, and discusses emancipatory pedagogy was reviewed and some important aspects related to practice, such as its practical possibility, educational aims, principles, and its orientation to curriculum was deducted. Based on the literature review, Emancipatory approach to education that heavily represented in the works of Paulo Freire, Ira Shore, Henry Giroux and Peter McLaren, is an innovative approach in education which has been successful in practice. Emancipatory pedagogy is founded on the notion that education should play a role in creating a just and democratic society. The main educational aims of this approach are manifestation of humanization, critical conscientization, and establishing a problem-posing education system. Emancipatory pedagogy has its main function the revelation of tacit values that underlie the enterprise and empowering students and teachers through overthrow the barriers between teachers and students, and invite them to critically analyze the political and social issues as well as the consequences of social inequity. This requires a negotiated curriculum based on true dialogue that values social interaction, collaboration, authentic democracy, and self-actualization towards making fundamental changes both individually and socially.
Rodriguez, D., Boahene, A. O., Gonzales-Howell, N., & Anesi, J. (2012). Practicing liberatory pedagogy: Women of color in college classrooms. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 12(2), 96–108. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532708611435211
(Abstract) Following the works of Patricia Williams, bell hooks, and other feminist scholars of color, we address what it means for women of color teaching social justice issues in predominantly white classrooms. Very little research has been done to illuminate the challenges women of color face in classrooms and what this means for liberatory practice. We grapples with the question, “What are the particular experiences of women of color from various racial and ethnic backgrounds with white student resistance, specifically in relation to issues of authority?” We also provide recommendations for classroom practice as well as address policy recommendations to structurally support women of color.
Rodríguez, L. F. (2008). “I’ve never heard of the word pedagogy before”: Using liberatory pedagogy to forge hope for teachers in our nation’s public schools. InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.5070/D442000627
(Abstract) This paper describes an initiative that engages urban high school students, pre-service teachers, and university professors in liberatory practice. Rooted in Freirian pedagogy and using Participatory Action Research as a methodological tool, this initiative aims to provide opportunities for democratic engagement of all parties by forging dialogue, modeling liberatory pedagogy, and raising the critical consciousness of future teachers, particularly those committed to serving low-income children of color in our nation’s public schools. Implications for teacher development and partnerships between universities and K-12 schools are considered.
Shor, I., & Freire, P. (1987). A pedagogy for liberation: Dialogues on transforming education. Greenwood Publishing Group.
(Google Books) Two world renowned educators, Paulo Freire and Ira Shor, speak passionately about the role of education in various cultural and political arenas. They demonstrate the effectiveness of dialogue in action as a practical means by which teachers and students can become active participants in the learning process. In a lively exchange, the authors illuminate the problems of the educational system in relation to those of the larger society and argue for the pressing need to transform the classroom in both Third and First World contexts. Shor and Freire illustrate the possibilities of transformation by describing their own experiences in liberating the classroom from its traditional constraints. They demonstrate how vital the teacher’s role is in empowering students to think critically about themselves and their relation, not only to the classroom, but to society. For those readers seeking a liberatory approach to education, these dialogues will be a revelation and a unique summary. For all those convinced of the need for transformation, this book shows the way.
Wilson, C. M., Hanna, M. O., & Li, M. (2019). Imagining and enacting liberatory pedagogical praxis in a politically divisive era. Equity & Excellence in Education, 52(2–3), 346–363. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2019.1656563
(Abstract) In this essay, the authors challenge the myth of political neutrality in teaching and emphasize the urgent need for teachers to imagine and enact liberatory pedagogical praxis that sensitively responds to the nation’s divisive political climate. They point to U.S. political shifts and changing federal policies in education as catalysts for the social and cultural exclusion of vulnerable children of color. They suggest how teacher educators and in-service teachers can use media sources that reveal how children experience and navigate increasingly xenophobic and polarizing political climates as critical texts. Critical pedagogy and civic education scholarship offer frames to further explain how such texts serve to enhance students’ learning, sense of belonging, and their ability to contribute to a democratic and just society. The authors conclude with strategies for supporting teachers’ development and advocacy.
Queer Pedagogy Literature
Bryson, M., & de Castell, S. (1993). Queer pedagogy: Praxis makes im/perfect. Canadian Journal of Education / Revue Canadienne de l’éducation, 18(3), 285–305. https://doi.org/10.2307/1495388
(Abstract) This article examines tensions between post-structuralist theories of subjectivity and essentialist constructions of identity in the context of a lesbian studies course co-taught by the authors. We describe the goals, organizing principles, content, and outcomes of this engagement in the production of “queer pedagogy” — a radical form of educative praxis implemented deliberately to interfere with, to intervene in, the production of “normalcy” in schooled subjects. We argue for an explicit “ethics of consumption” in relation to currciular inclusions of marginalized subjects and subjugated knowledges. We conclude with a critical analysis of the way that, despite our explicit interventions, all of our discourses, all of our actions in this course were permeated with the continuous and inescapable backdrop of white heterosexual dominance, such that: (a) any subordinated identity always remained marginal and (b) “lesbian identity” in this institutional context was always fixed and stable, even in a course that explicitly critiqued, challenged, and deconstructed a monolithic “lesbian identity.”
Fraser, J., & Lamble, S. (2014). Queer desires and critical pedagogies in higher education: Reflections on the transformative potential of non-normative learning desires in the classroom. Journal of Feminist Scholarship, 7(7), 61–77. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/jfs/vol7/iss7/7
(Abstract) This article considers what a queer approach might offer in addressing some of the challenges of higher education in the contemporary neoliberal landscape. Despite a rich literature on queer issues in the classroom, most of the existing scholarship has focused on engaging queer students, being a queer teacher, or teaching queer content in the curriculum. Very little work has focused on what it means to take a queer approach to pedagogic techniques or how such an approach might impact educational practices more broadly. We ask: What does it mean in theory and practice to “queer” our teaching methods? What role can queer pedagogic practices play in contesting the marketization of higher education and the shift towards more instrumentalist and consumer-based modes of learning? We argue that a queer approach to pedagogy, which explicitly seeks to open up spaces for non-normative educational desires to emerge, potentially offers fruitful strategies for fostering critical and transformative learning.
Gonzalez-Pons, K. (2023). Resource guide for trans and nonbinary students. Best Colleges. https://www.bestcolleges.com/resources/transgender-nonbinary-student-guide/
Intended for transgender and nonbinary (TNB) pre-college students, this web page describes TNB-specific barriers to success in the college setting, including gender-segregated on-campus housing, name and gender changes, inequitable healthcare options, exclusivity in college athletics, and microagressions and harassment. It also provides advice on finding gender-inclusive colleges and links to resources for TNB college students, including GLSEN and ACLU’s Know Your Rights Guide, the Gender Odyssey Conference, the TRANSforming Gender Conference, the Trans Legal Services Network, Trans Lifeline, college scholarships for LGBTQ+ students, and a college experience guide for LGBTQ+ students.
Mayo, C., & Rodriguez, N. M. (Eds.). (2019). Queer pedagogies: Theory, praxis, politics (Vol. 11). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27066-7
This book explores queer pedagogies across a range of themes and topics and grapples with the meaning and practice of queer pedagogy within different educational contexts. The authors engage readers with ongoing questions related to theory, praxis, and politics.
Nemi Neto, J. (2018). Queer pedagogy: Approaches to inclusive teaching. Policy Futures in Education, 16(5), 589–604. https://doi.org/10.1177/1478210317751273
(Abstract) While it is common knowledge that language shapes how we think about gender and sexual identity there is no standard educational practice to create awareness about the place of sexual and gender diversity in the context of language learning. This article draws on queer pedagogy and queer theory to devise teaching practices that acknowledge queer visibility in the classroom. The goal of this article is to examine strategies to enhance inclusion, recognition and visibility of sexual and transgender minorities in the classroom. I propose that language instruction is in need of a queer pedagogy that challenges both the heteronormative assumptions of most language textbooks, and classroom practices that erase Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Asexual (LGBTQIA) visibility. I argue that language instructors need to be inventive and critical, willing to address in class what most language manuals omit. This way, I hope to contribute to the development of tools and strategies that guarantee a safe, affirmative space for sexual and transgender minorities in our classrooms.
Potvin, L. (2020). Queer pedagogies. In N. A. Naples (Ed.), Companion to Sexuality Studies (1st ed., pp. 122–139). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119315049.ch7
(Summary) Emerging from queer theory, queer pedagogies resist dominant social norms in classrooms and schools and create space to counteract the marginalization experienced by Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Trans/Queer+ (LGBTQ+) people in educational contexts. I situate this chapter within a Western context by acknowledging my privilege as a white/settler, Canadian scholar and explore the emergence of queer pedagogies from sociological and educational theory. I outline the significance of challenging heteronormativity and heterosexism for educators working to queer their classroom practices. The chapter concludes with strategies for educators to deepen their pedagogy and practice.
Thomas-Reid, M. (2021). Queer pedagogical theory. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1398
(Summary) Queer pedagogical theory might be best thought of as a mindset to approaching the classroom derived from the lived experience of queerness. Starting with a consideration of what is to be queer, one can begin to develop an understanding of how queerness as an identity might inform a decentering of classroom spaces that allows for marginalized positionalities to disrupt normative assumptions about how we approach myriad aspects of classroom experiences. After tracing the theoretical lineage of queer pedagogy and the theory that informs it, specific pedagogical aspects such as method, texts, and assessment can be cast in a queer context. With openness, fluidity, and the embracing of the unknown, the queer pedagogue holds space for new sites of epistemological inquiry which moves toward not inclusion, rather a disruption of the colonized lineage of the classroom.
Reproductive Rights and Justice Literature
Costa, L. M., & Leong, K. J. (2012). Introduction critical community engagement: Feminist pedagogy meets civic engagement. Feminist Teacher, 22(3), 171–180. https://doi.org/10.5406/femteacher.22.3.0171
(Excerpt from introduction) The essays in this special issue expand the conversation about what constitutes civic engagement and provide examples of how feminist teachers have designed courses and projects to meet pedagogical goals while also respecting the specific needs of students and communities. Because not all pedagogical needs are the same, we sought to include essays that evidence a range of approaches based on the specificity of regional location (in the United States and Canada), student demographics, types of institution, and focus of course content. Rather than advocate for a one-size-fits-all model, these essays demonstrate that the incorporation of civic engagement in higher education must attend to cultural and locational specificities, i.e., to difference. Furthermore, civic engagement pedagogy must be rooted in equal partnerships between community members and university representatives.
Crawley, S. L., Willman, R. K., Clark, L., & Walsh, C. (2009). Making women the subjects of the abortion debate: A class exercise that moves beyond “pro-choice” and “pro-life.” Feminist Teacher, 19(3), 227–240. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40546102
(Excerpt from article) In this article, we describe a classroom exercise designed to put women (and children and men) back at the center of the abortion debate, avoiding the standard rhetoric and engaging reflection on how we might find common political goals among the so-called pro-life and pro-choice sides. As feminists, we can avoid losing students who are accepting of feminists ideals on many issues but feel unable to participate in feminist movements because they ideologically disagree with legalized abortion. We also provide a brief history of the current public debate and a discussion abotu some problems that arise from a binary, polarizing debate. As we work toward creating a safe space, students and the instructor can take the vitriol out of the abortion debate and have a constructive conversation. The challenge is to direct the students to a certain degree, to facilitate intellectual debate without silencing any student altogether. With careful planning and active facilitation, we think this exercise allows just that.
Daniel, C., & Haugeberg, K. (2022). Feminist pedagogy after roe. Feminist Pedagogy for Teaching Online Blog. https://feminists-teach-online.tulane.edu/2022/05/10/feminist-pedagogy-after-roe/
This article discusses the impact of the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision on feminist educators and their students, noting that the criminalization of abortion will exacerbate gender-, race-, and class-based inequalities. As educators at a private school in Louisiana, the authors discuss variations in access to abortion across state borders. They describe the historical precedence of unsafe, illegal abortions and prosecutions of both abortion providers and seekers during periods when abortion was a crime.
Hurst, R. A. J. (2020). Abortion as a feminist pedagogy of grief in Marianne Apostolides’s Deep Salt Water. Feminist Studies, 46(1), 43–73. https://doi.org/10.1353/fem.2020.0011
(Excerpt) Deep Salt Water is a poetic textual and visual memoir about abortion and loss set against the backdrop of ecological catastrophe in the world’s oceans. It is the result of an artistic exchange between artist Catherine Mellinger and writer Marianne Apostolides. Apostolides’s memoir emerges during a complex and often fraught historical moment for abortion access in Canada, where she and Mellinger live, as well as the United States. Concerned about drawing attention to the reality that some “women feel guilt and grief at what is a rather violent surgical procedure (as most surgical procedures are),” Apostolides worried her work could be manipulated by anti-abortion activists and politicians to support the position that abortion rights should be revoked or severely curtailed.
Omolade, B. (1987). A black feminist pedagogy. Women’s Studies Quarterly, 15(3/4), 32–39. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40003434
Omolade draws from her own experiences as a Black woman and as an instructor at a college serving primarily Black woman to speak to the need for a Black feminist pedagogy that is not merely concerned with the principle of instruction of Black women by Black women and about Black women, but also sets forth learning strategies informed by Black women’s historical experience with race/gender/class bias and the historical consequences of marginality and isolation. She advocates for an explicit pedagogy that places instructors in a classroom as consultants, rather than controllers, of the learning process, and considers the intersectionality of power and authority in the classroom, teaching writing skills, and the struggle for a better university.
Price, K. (2008). Teaching about reproduction, politics, and social justice. Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy, 19(2), 42–54. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43505850
In this essay, Price describes the development of a course that addresses the human rights and social justice aspects of reproduction in order for students to understand how social, political, and economic institutions and processes, and intersecting oppressions and privileges can affect the reproductive choices of individual women and entire communities, zooming out from the narrow concept of individual choice, which dominates discussions of reproductive rights in the United States. She discusses the theoretical foundations of reproductive justice and offers some strategies for its incorporation into courses on the politics of reproduction.
Ross, L. J. (2017). Reproductive justice as intersectional feminist activism. Souls, 19(3), 286–314. https://doi.org/10.1080/10999949.2017.1389634
(Abstract) Reproductive justice activists have dynamically used the concept of intersectionality as a source of empowerment to propel one of the most important shifts in reproductive politics in recent history. In the tradition of the Combahee River Collective, twelve Black women working within and outside the pro-choice movement in 1994 coined the term “reproductive justice” to “recognize the commonality of our experiences and, from the sharing and growing consciousness, to a politics that will change our lives and inevitably end our oppression.” Its popularity necessitates an examination of whether reproductive justice is sturdy enough to be analyzed as a novel critical feminist theory and a surprising success story of praxis through intersectionality. Offered to the intellectual commons of inquiry, reproductive justice has impressively built bridges between activists and the academy to stimulate thousands of scholarly articles, generate new women of color organizations, and prompt the reorganization of philanthropic foundations. This article defines reproductive justice, examines its use as an organizing and theoretical framework, and discusses Black patriarchal and feminist theoretical discourses through a reproductive justice lens.
Critical Data Justice Literature
Bentley, C., Muyoya, C., Vannini, S., Oman, S., & Jimenez, A. (2023). Intersectional approaches to data: The importance of an articulation mindset for intersectional data science. Big Data & Society, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517231203667
(Abstract) Data’s increasing role in society and high profile reproduction of inequalities is in tension with traditional methods of using social data for social justice. Alongside this, ‘intersectionality’ has increased in prominence as a critical social theory and praxis to address inequalities. Yet, there is not a comprehensive review of how intersectionality is operationalized in research data practice. In this study, we examined how intersectionality researchers across a range of disciplines conduct intersectional analysis as a means of unpacking how intersectional praxis may advance an intersectional data science agenda. To explore how intersectionality researchers collect and analyze data, we conducted a critical discourse analysis approach in a review of 172 articles that stated using an intersectional approach in some way. We contemplated whether and how Collins’ three frames of relationality were evident in their approach. We found an over-reliance on the additive thinking frame in quantitative research, which poses limits on the potential for this research to address structural inequality. We suggest ways in which intersectional data science could adopt an articulation mindset to improve on this tendency.
D’ignazio, & Bhargava, R. (2018). Creative Data Literacy: A Constructionist Approach to Teaching Information Visualization. Digital Humanities Quarterly, 12(4). https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/123473
(Abstract) Data visualization has rapidly become a standard approach to interrogating and understanding the world around us in domains that extend beyond the technical and scientific to arts, communications and services. In business settings the Data Scientist has become a recognized and valued role [Davenport and Patil 2012]. Journalism has re-oriented itself around data-driven storytelling as a potential saviour for an industry in peril [Howard 2014]. Governments are moving to more data-driven decision making, publishing open data portals and pondering visualization as an opportunity for citizen participation [Gurstein 2011]. This journal itself has numerous examples that use visualization tools and techniques within the digital humanities as a tool for exploration [Roberts-Smith et al. 2013] [Hoyt, Ponto, and Roy 2014] [Forlini, Hinrichs, and Moynihan 2016]. This boom in attention has led large new populations of learners into the field. Formal educational settings have rushed to create new approaches and introductions to this content, but often they fall back on traditional approaches to things such as scientific charting and graphing [Webber et al. 2014] [Calzada and Marzal 2013]. Many view data visualization as a new technology, which runs the risks of replicating old approaches without acknowledging the unique affordances and domains that data visualization relies upon. Data visualization is not simply another technology to integrate into education. It is visual argument and persuasion, far more closely associated with rhetoric and writing than spreadsheets [Zer-Aviv 2014]. In this paper we present novel approaches to learning technologies and activities, focused on novice learners entering the field of data driven storytelling. We begin with a deeper dive into the problems we see with introducing new learners into a field characterized by inequality, continue with a discussion of approaches for introducing technologies to education, and summarize the inspirational pedagogies we build on. We then offer some design principles and three activities as examples of the concept of creative data literacy. We assert that creative approaches grounded in constructionist educational theories are necessary to empower non-technical learners to be able to tell stories and argue for change with data.
D’Ignazio, C. & Klein, L. F. (2020). The Numbers Don’t Speak for Themselves. In Data Feminism (149-172). MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11805.003.0008
In this chapter of Data Feminism, D’Ignazio and Klein introduce the principle of considering context, and walk through situating data on the web, viewing data as partisan, communicating context, and restoring context. Data feminism asserts that data are not neutral or objective. They are the products of unequal social relations, and this context is essential for conducting accurate, ethical analysis. The authors begin the chapter with an error made by media sources referencing the Global Database of Events, Language and Tone (GDELT), a database that, like many others, is characterized by a totalizing and dominating framework as enacted through data capture and analysis. They state that the contextualization of data is just as important as its availability, and provide the United States’s and Brazil’s apparent data transparency as examples; although the data is in theory available to the public, a lack of metadata and understanding of the government systems from which the data originate make it practically inaccessible to possible users. In this light, the authors advocate for a viewing of all data as “cooked” – that is, already a product of numerous social relations and data sorting methods.
D’Ignazio, C., & Bhargava, R. (2020). Data visualization literacy: A feminist starting point. In M. Engebretsen & H. Kennedy (Eds.), Data Visualization in Society (pp. 207–222). Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvzgb8c7.19
(Abstract) We assert that visual-numeric literacy, indeed all data literacy, must take as its starting point that the human relations and impacts currently produced and reproduced through data are unequal. Likewise, white men remain overrepresented in data-related fields, even as other STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine) fields have managed to narrow their gender gap. To address these inequalities, we introduce teaching methods that are grounded in feminist theory, process, and design. Through three case studies, we examine what feminism may have to offer visualization literacy, with the goals of cultivating self-efficacy for women and underrepresented groups to work with data, and creating learning spaces were, as Philip et al. (2016) state, ‘groups influence, resist, and transform everyday and formal processes of power that impact their lives.’
Greene, D., Beard, N., Clegg, T., & Weight, E. (2023). The visible body and the invisible organization: Information asymmetry and college athletics data. Big Data & Society, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517231179197
(Abstract) Elite athletes are constantly tracked, measured, scored, and sorted to improve their performance. Privacy is sacrificed in the name of improvement. Athletes frequently do not know why particular personal data are collected or to what end. Our interview study of 23 elite US college athletes and 26 staff members reveals that their sports play is governed through information asymmetries. These asymmetries look different for different sports with different levels of investment, different racial and gender makeups, and different performance metrics. As large, data-intensive organizations with highly differentiated subgroups, university athletics are an excellent site for theory building in critical data studies, especially given the most consequential data collected from us, with the greatest effect on our lives, is frequently a product of collective engagement with specific organizational contexts like workplaces and schools. Empirical analysis reveals two key tensions in this data regime: Athletes in high-status sports, more likely to be Black men, have relatively less freedom to see or dispute their personal data, while athletes in general are more comfortable sharing personal data with people further away from them. We build from these findings to develop a theory of collective informational harm in bounded institutional settings such as the workplace. The quantified organization, as we term it, is concerned not with monitoring individuals but building data collectives through processes of category creation and managerial data relations of coercion and consent.
Iliadis, A., & Russo, F. (2016). Critical data studies: An introduction. Big Data & Society, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951716674238
(Abstract) Critical Data Studies (CDS) explore the unique cultural, ethical, and critical challenges posed by Big Data. Rather than treat Big Data as only scientifically empirical and therefore largely neutral phenomena, CDS advocates the view that Big Data should be seen as always-already constituted within wider data assemblages. Assemblages is a concept that helps capture the multitude of ways that already-composed data structures inflect and interact with society, its organization and functioning, and the resulting impact on individuals’ daily lives. CDS questions the many assumptions about Big Data that permeate contemporary literature on information and society by locating instances where Big Data may be naively taken to denote objective and transparent informational entities. In this introduction to the Big Data & Society CDS special theme, we briefly describe CDS work, its orientations, and principles.
Johnson, B., Shapiro, B.R., DiSalvo, B., Rothschild, A., & DiSalvo, C. 2021. Exploring Approaches to Data Literacy Through a Critical Race Theory Perspective. Learning Sciences Faculty Publications, 40. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445141
(Abstract) In this paper, we describe and analyze a workshop developed for a work training program called DataWorks. In this workshop, data workers chose a topic of their interest, sourced and processed data on that topic, and used that data to create presentations. Drawing from discourses of data literacy; epistemic agency and lived experience; and critical race theory, we analyze the workshops’ activities and outcomes. Through this analysis, three themes emerge: the tensions between epistemic agency and the context of work, encountering the ordinariness of racism through data work, and understanding the personal as communal and intersectional. Finally, critical race theory also prompts us to consider the very notions of data literacy that undergird our workshop activities. From this analysis, we offer a series of suggestions for approaching designing data literacy activities, taking into account critical race theory.
Lupton, D. (2018). How do data come to matter? Living and becoming with personal data. Big Data & Society, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951718786314
(Abstract) Humans have become increasingly datafied with the use of digital technologies that generate information with and about their bodies and everyday lives. The onto-epistemological dimensions of human–data assemblages and their relationship to bodies and selves have yet to be thoroughly theorised. In this essay, I draw on key perspectives espoused in feminist materialism, vital materialism and the anthropology of material culture to examine the ways in which these assemblages operate as part of knowing, perceiving and sensing human bodies. I draw particularly on scholarship that employs organic metaphors and concepts of vitality, growth, making, articulation, composition and decomposition. I show how these metaphors and concepts relate to and build on each other, and how they can be applied to think through humans’ encounters with their digital data. I argue that these theoretical perspectives work to highlight the material and embodied dimensions of human–data assemblages as they grow and are enacted, articulated and incorporated into everyday lives.
Mahoney, J., Risam, R., & Nassereddine, H. (2020). Data Fail: Teaching Data Literacy with African Diaspora Digital Humanities. The Journal of Interactive Technology & Pedagogy, 18. https://jitp.commons.gc.cuny.edu/data-fail-teaching-data-literacy-with-african-diaspora-digital-humanities/
(Abstract) This essay examines the authors’ experiences working collaboratively on Power Players of Pan-Africanism, a data curation and data visualization project undertaken as a directed study with undergraduate students at Salem State University. It argues that data-driven approaches to African diaspora digital humanities, while beset by challenges, promote both data literacy and an equity lens for evaluating data. Addressing the difficulties of undertaking African diaspora digital humanities scholarship, the authors discuss their research process, which focused on using archival and secondary sources to create a data set and designing data visualizations. They emphasize challenges of doing this work: from gaps and omissions in the archives of the Pan-Africanism social movement to the importance of situated data to the realization that the original premises of the project were flawed and required pivoting to ask new questions of the data. From the trials and tribulations—or data fails—they encountered, the authors assess the value of the project for promoting data literacy and equity in the cultural record in the context of high school curricula. As such, they propose that projects in African diaspora digital humanities that focus on data offer teachers the possibility of engaging reluctant students in data literacy while simultaneously encouraging students to develop an ethical lens for interpreting data beyond the classroom.
Markham, A. N. (2020). Taking Data Literacy to the Streets: Critical Pedagogy in the Public Sphere. Qualitative Inquiry, 26(2), 227–237. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800419859024
(Abstract) This article describes an ongoing series of public arts–based experiments that build critical curiosity and develop data literacy via self-reflexive public interventions. Examined through the lens of remix methodology the Museum of Random Memory exemplifies a form of collective–reflexive meta-analysis whereby interdisciplinary researchers generate immediate social change and build better questions for future public engagement. The experiments help people critically analyze their own social lives and well being in cultural environments of growing datafication and automated (artificial intelligence [AI]-driven) decision-making. Reflexivity, bricolage, and critical pedagogy are emphasized as approaches for responding to changing needs in the public sphere that also build more robust interdisciplinary academic teams.
Murillo, L. F. R., Wylie, C., & Bourne, P. (2023). Critical data ethics pedagogies: Three (non-rival) approaches. Big Data & Society, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517231203666
(Abstract) In a moment of heightened ethical questioning concerning data-intensive analytics, “data ethics” has become a site of dispute over its very definition in teaching, research, and practice. In this paper, we contextualize this dispute based on the experience of teaching data ethics. We describe how the field of computer ethics has historically informed the training of computer experts and how, in recent years, the scholarship on science and technology studies has created opportunities for transforming the way we teach with the inclusion of critical scholarship on relational ethics and sociotechnical systems. The emergent literature on “critical data ethics” has created a space for interdisciplinary collaboration that integrates technical and social science research to examine digital systems in their design, implementation, and use through a hands-on approach. As a contribution to the recent efforts to reimagine and transform the field of data science, we conclude with a discussion of the approach we devised to bridge technology/society divides and engage students with questions of social justice, accountability, and openness in their data practices.
Philip, T. M., Olivares-Pasillas, M. C., & Rocha, J. (2016). Becoming Racially Literate About Data and Data-Literate About Race: Data Visualizations in the Classroom as a Site of Racial-Ideological Micro-Contestations. Cognition and Instruction, 34(4), 361–388. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370008.2016.1210418
(Abstract) Data visualizations are now commonplace in the public media. The ability to interpret and create such visualizations, as a form of data literacy, is increasingly important for democratic participation. Yet, the cross-disciplinary knowledge and skills needed to produce and use data visualizations and to develop data literacy are not fluidly integrated into traditional K–12 subject areas. In this article, we nuance and complicate the push for data literacy in STEM reform efforts targeting youth of color. We explore a curricular reform project that integrated explicit attention to issues pertaining to the collection, analysis, interpretation, representation, visualization, and communication of data in an introductory computer science class. While the study of data in this unit emphasized viewing and approaching data in context, neither the teacher nor the students were supported in negotiating the racialized context of data that emerged in classroom discussions. To better understand these dynamics, we detail the construct of racial literacy and develop an interpretative framework of racial-ideological micro-contestations. Through an in-depth analysis of a classroom interaction using this framework, we explore how contestations about race can emerge when data visualizations from the public media are incorporated into STEM learning precisely because the contexts of data are often racialized. We argue that access to learning about data visualization, without a deep interrogation of race and power, can be counterproductive and that efforts to develop authentic data literacy require the concomitant development of racial literacy.
Pinney, L. (2020). Is literacy what we need in an unequal society? In H. Kennedy & M. Engebretsen (Eds.), Data Visualization in Society (pp. 223–238). Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048543137-018
(Abstract) Having the skills and awareness to make sense of data visualizations has become a contributing factor in determining who gets to participate in our data-driven society. Initiatives that seek to enable people to make sense of some aspect of our digital, dataf ied worlds are often described in terms of literacy. However, taking a closer look at different usages of literacy across academia, policy, and practice reveals dif ferent notions of power embedded in different populations’ implicit understanding of the term. Situated in the emerging f ield of critical data studies, the f ield that is concerned with understanding data’s role in reproducing and creating social inequalities, this is a conceptual chapter that asks how useful literacy is in this context.
Thompson, T. L. (2020). Data-bodies and data activism: Presencing women in digital heritage research. Big Data & Society, 7(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951720965613
(Abstract) As heritage-as-the-already-occurred folds into heritage-in-the-making practices, temporal and spatial fluidity is made more complex by digital mediation and particularly by Big Data. Such liveliness evokes ontological, epistemological and methodological challenges. Drawing on more-than-human theorizing, this article reframes the notion of data-bodies to advance data activist-oriented research in heritage. Focused primarily on women, it examines how their distributed agency and voice with respect to data practices and the (re)makings of (digital) heritage could be amplified. I describe three methodological directions, influenced by feminist work in critical data studies, which could be employed by researchers: attuning to and becoming with data, making data physical and changing narratives. From data-bodies to haunted data, performative data curation and mapping data-bodies, and attuning to data streams and re-voicing narratives, this article contributes to discussions of how to engage critically and creatively with the datafication of digital heritage practices, knowings and ontologies.
Tygel, A. F. & Kirsch, R. (2016). Contributions of Paulo Freire for a Critical Data Literacy: a Popular Education Approach. The Journal of Community Informatics, 12(3), 108–121. https://doi.org/10.15353/joci.v12i3.3279
(Abstract) Paulo Freire is the patron of education in Brazil. His main work – the Popular Education pedagogy – influences many educators all over the world who believe in education as a way of liberating poor oppressed people. One of the outcomes of Freire’s work is a literacy method, developed in the 1960’s. In this paper, we propose the adoption of elements of Freire’s Literacy Method for use in a pedagogical pathway towards data literacy. After tracing some parallels between literacy education and data literacy, we suggest some data literacy strategies inspired on Freire’s method. We also derive from it a definition for critical data literacy.
Vargas-Solar, G. (2022). Calling for a feminist revolt to decolonise data and algorithms in the age of Datification. International Forum 2022- Decolonial Perspectives on Gender, Sexuality and Patriarchy: art, activism and academia. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2210.08965
(Abstract) Feminist and women groups, indigenous communities and scholars in the global south/north refusing to adhere to hegemonic datafication programs have started to organise and fight back from the inside. The first essential step is to show and problematise technological progress exhibiting the poverty, violence, exclusion, and cultural erase promoted by this “progress”. The second step is to promote technology, algorithmic and artificial literacy. Education is critical to learn how to revert and revoke the datified digital twin already colonising all Earth’s societies silently and with impunity. It is not the colonisation of body-territories; it goes beyond and occupies humanity’s mind’s essence, i.e., imagination and imaginary. Against the colonisation of the imaginary, militant groups are imagining and designing alternative algorithms, datasets collection strategies and appropriation methods. The paper discusses their actions and alternative thinking.