Description:
This book provides a contemporary overview of work in critical ethnography that focuses on language and race/ism in education, as well as cutting edge examples of recent critical ethnographic studies addressing these issues. The studies in this book, while centred primarily on the North American context, have wide international significance and interdisciplinary reach and address a range of educational contexts across K-12 education and less formal educational settings. They explore the racialized construction, positioning and experiences of bi/multilingual students, and the implications of this for educational policy, pedagogy and practice. The chapters draw on a range of critical theoretical perspectives, including CRT, LatCrit, Indigenous epistemologies and bilingual education; they also address significant methodological questions that arise when undertaking critical ethnographic work, including the key issues of positionality and critical reflexivity.
Brief description:
Blanca Caldas is Associate Professor in Second Language Education and Elementary Education in the College of Education and Human Development at The University of Minnesota Twin Cities, USA. Her research focuses on bilingual education, preservice and in-service bilingual teacher education, minoritized language practices and pedagogies, and critical pedagogy.
Review Quotes: In their timely, highly engaging collection, May and Caldas bring together theoretically informed and empirically grounded critical ethnographic studies from a range of educational contexts in the US and elsewhere by internationally recognized scholars. A must-read for all interested in advancing understandings of language, race, and (in)equality in education.