Delpit, L. (1988). The silenced dialogue: Power and pedagogy in educating other people's
children. Harvard Educational Review, 58(3), 280-298.
Summary
 Centers on the belief that good teaching practices of teachers of all colors typically
incorporate a range of pedagogical orientations. Differing perspectives on the debate
between “skills” versus “process” approaches can lead to alienation and
miscommunication, resulting in a silenced dialogue between educators of color and
white educators.
 Teacher cannot be the only expert in the classroom; both student and teacher are experts
at what they know best. Adopting direct instruction is not appropriate; instruction must
be related to real purposes and everyday lives of students.
Connections to Practice
 Students need to be taught the appropriate codes (rules of power) needed to successfully
participate in dominant society, not through force, but through meaningful learning
partnerships in which the teacher’s knowledge is used as a resource as well as the
necessary acknowledgement of students own “expert” knowledge. In addition, students
need to learn about the arbitrariness of those codes and the power relationships they
represent.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. The Curriculum Studies Reader. 150158. NY: Routledge.
Summary
 There is transformative power in dialogue if dialoguers both act and reflect on their
words.
 Dialogue cannot exist without (a): Love - an act of commitment to the causes of the
world and others, which cannot exist in the presence of domination, (b): Humilityunderstanding that one person is not more valuable than another, (c): Faith in the power
of others to engage in the (re)creation of the world
 Authentic education involves teachers and students learning together through dialogue
with one another. Students and teachers need to be able to voice for themselves their
experiences with the world, allowing all dialoguers to learn and transform the world
around them
Connections to Practice
 Educators should allow for students to engage in dialogue with them in determining not
only what gets taught, but what their unique experiences and interpretations of the
material might be
 Educators and students should understand the power that comes with dialogue, and
that such is power is not a privilege for some but a right for all.
hooks, b. (1994). Embracing change: Teaching in a multicultural world. Teaching to
Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. 35-44. NY: Routledge.
Summary
 Change needs to occur in pedagogical practices that allows for our classrooms to be
effectively multicultural and transformative of thought
 There has to be a space in which educators can voice their fears, practices, and
methodology surrounding creating multicultural education. It is not enough to want to
include study of “marginal” groups and thinkers and the work of “marginal” voices and
perspectives.
 Classroom is a democratic setting: space in which everyone feels a responsibility to
participate in dialogue. Community should create a space for intellectual openness and
rigor, thus facilitating the presence of and dialogue between students, even when it is
uncomfortable to do so
Connections to Practice
 Multicultural education can do more than just present students with different
perspectives and topics. When it is truly transformational, it gives students the tools
with which to engage with and challenge their studies and environment.
Kumashiro, K. K. (2000). Toward a theory of anti-oppressive education. Review of
Educational Research, 70(1), 25-53.
Summary
Educators and education research has attempted to understand the dynamics of oppression and
articulate ways to work against it. This has surfaced four main approaches:
1. Education For the Other - addressing oppression focuses on improving experiences of
Othered students in and by mainstream society.
2. Education About the Other - focusing on what all students do know and should know
about the Other
3. Education that is Critical of Privileging and Othering
4. Education that Changes Students and Society
Connections to Practice
 Anti-oppressive education must move beyond identifying and discussing privilege and
lead to transformative action prompted by a curriculum that fosters critical thinking
skills to navigate systematic oppression in the real world.
Kumashiro, K. K. (2001). "Posts" perspectives on anti-oppressive education in
Social Studies, English, Mathematics, and Science classrooms. Educational
Researcher 30(3), 3-12.
Summary
Adding perspectives and voices to the classroom is not sufficient to fostering anti-oppressive
education; we must change what is considered the norm. Kumashiro suggests two powerful
approaches to conceptualize anti-oppressive education.
1. Unknowability, multiplicity, and looking beyond the known because all knowledge
is partial, multiple voices and perspectives will never disclose what is true, and
stories have political effects that will alter the framework for students’ thinking and
actions. Anti-oppressive education requires us to look beyond what we teach and
learn. This can happen when we add experiences, contributions, and practices of
Others to the social studies, math, and science, and English curricula.
2. Resistance, crisis, and resignifying the self so that students can learn new knowledge
while critiquing the ways they come to know. Students need to reexamine and resist
forms of repetition that hinder attempts to challenge oppression.
Connections to Practice
 Anti-oppressive education requires that teachers not only think about core subjects, but
to think about these subjects differently. In planning lessons, teachers need to leave
room for the unpredictable and unknown. If we want students to understand that all
knowledge is impartial, we must provide them with the skills to unlearn and to
reconsider their prior knowledge as definitive truths.
Leonardo, Z. (2004). The color of supremacy: Beyond the discourse of white privilege.
Educational Philosophy & Theory, 36(2), 137-153
Summary
 The study of whiteness must critically examine both white privilege and white
supremacy. White racial hegemony is secured by a process of domination that white
subjects perpetrate on people of color. The conditions of white supremacy make white
privilege possible. As a result, we need to look beyond the taken-for-granted privileges
and look at the actions, decisions, and structures that allow Whites to be dominant and
privileged.
 Critical analysis should begin with the objective experiences of the oppressed in order to
understand the dynamics of structural power relations. Discourses on privilege can be
the starting point for Whites to enter into a space for discussing race critique.
Connections to Practice:
 Teachers need to create space for students to engage in conversations about racial
domination and to confront white supremacy. We have to encourage students to think
about their positions of power and privilege as they reinsert themselves into history. The
first step toward solidarity between whites and non-whites begins with both a
recognition and an acceptance that their privileges result from years of oppression and
domination of racial minorities.
McIntosh, P. (1988) White Privilege and Male Privilege: A personal account of coming to
see correspondences through work in women’s studies, in: M. Andersen & P. H.
Collins (Eds.), Race, class, and gender: An anthology. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth Publishing.
Summary
 The parallel connection and intersection of different forms of oppression known as
white and male privilege. Privilege is seen as a favored state (whether earned or
conferred by birth or luck) yet not beneficial to whole society because it gives license to
be oppressive. Regardless of a white individual’s disapproving of the systems, their
change of attitude will not change the fact that privilege exists systematically.
Connections to Practice
 In maintaining the myth of meritocracy in schools, the existence of systems of
dominance is not acknowledged. Therefore white and male privileges are perpetuated in
curriculum, instructional and school practices oppressing students of color and female
students of color. Individuals who are privileged do not recognize these forms of
interlocking oppressions because they are part of the dominant group and taught not to
see it.
 Anti-oppressive educators must work to disrupt these systems of power through the
curriculum they prepare, the resources they present (analyzing the implicit and explicit
messages relayed through them) in order to develop critical thinkers that can identify,
recognize and act to disrupt these systems of power.
Nieto, S. (2007). Affirmation, solidarity and critique: Moving beyond tolerance in
education. In Lee, E., Menkart, D., & M. Okazawa-Rey (Eds.), Beyond heroes and
holidays: A practical guide to K-12 anti-racist, multicultural education and staff
development (pp. 18-29). Washington D.C.: Teaching for Change.
Summary
 Educators often think that multicultural education is moving beyond tolerance.
However, Nieto reveals that tolerance is a low level of support, only following
monocultural education. It should also build on acceptance, respect, affirmation,
solidarity, and critique. The ultimate goal is to transcend one’s own cultural experiences
through conflict and critique based on solidarity.
 Affirmation, Solidarity & Critique: powerful learning results from students struggling
and working with one another. Student and family differences are embraced and
accepted as legitimate vehicles for learning. Conflict is accepted as an inevitable part of
learning. Culture is subject to critique because it is an ever evolving artifact.
Connections to Practice
 Flexible classes based on interdisciplinary curricula and team-teaching in flexible
sessions that are not constrained into a certain time limit.
 High expectations for all students; students with special needs taught along with others
and occasionally pulled into small group instruction with other students who are not
classified as having a disability.