Summary

Critical Race Theory in Education is an edited book consisting of 11 articles. The editors offer a brief introduction on Critical Race Theory (CRT) and a summary of the articles included in the book. The first chapter introduces CRT, its history, and key tenets, and how it relates to the field of education. The second emphasizes the importance of storytelling in CRT despite the critiques it faces in the legal field and highlights colorblindness and its negative effects on minorities. The following chapter focuses on student athletes and the importance of CRT in underlining the injustices they face where universities and colleges exploit their skills in sports and neglect their education. The article focuses on interest convergence, which refers to the benefits African Americans receive only when there is benefit for Whites. In chapter five, Gillborn also discusses interest-convergence, but he puts to the forefront the opposite term which is interest-divergence, which refers to Whites getting more benefits by excluding minorities. He provides examples from both the US and UK with the UK being mentioned for the first time in the book.

The highlight of chapter six is anti-bias training in two schools in the US, and teachers' and administrators’ view of such training. The article is guided by CRT and the Whiteness as a property concept by Harris (1993). The authors underline how the training is reduced to a focus on cultural differences and racism as individual acts, calling for distributive justice, which allows for all to have access to privileges and equity. In chapter seven, Yosso continues to provide background information on CRT, and how it differs from previous movements. The article explores the deficit view of minorities and different forms of capital. Chapter eight discusses racial microaggressions, which is a term coined by Chester Pierce. The authors present a model representing macroaggressions, institutional racism and microaggressions and provide two examples to explain it. The article only referred to education in the conclusion highlighting how CRT and the model can be used in the field.

In chapter nine, Stovall explores the Chicago school reform and the two projects that were designed to supposedly fix the broken system of schools and housing. His article underlines how these projects were merely a façade of reform hiding school closures and gentrification of areas mainly populated by minorities. He underlined the role of activism and organizations that stood against similar projects. Chapman’s chapter explores White majority suburban schools and the pressures that students of colour face due to colorblind policies, double standards enforced by teachers, and traditional curricula. She highlights the importance of critical multiculturalism in changing school policies and curricula and providing all students with equitable educational opportunities. The final chapter discusses achieving change for minorities by using Fanon’s concept of violence; violence, which is not about doing physical harm, but one that disrupts the safe space, which Whites live in. They underline the need for discussions on race that are challenging and uncomfortable for Whites.

Evaluation

Critical Race Theory in Education is a useful source on CRT, its background, and how it can be used in the field of education. The book offers a selection of articles that discuss the theory from different angles providing the readers with a general overview of the theory and how it relates to education. The articles offer examples of CRT in practice in education and highlight the importance of such theory for educators, students, and parents.

The language used in the articles is accessible and the book is engaging, evoking different emotions while reading the stories about the different injustices inflicted on people of colour. The book is suitable for multiple readers, educators, policy makers, teachers in training and anyone interested in a theory that is both fluid and practical. Even though the book introduces CRT very well, a reader who is interested in knowing more about the theory and its evolution might use this book as an introduction and read additional books that offer a more comprehensive and detailed description of the theory. The chapters are mostly focused on the American context, except for chapter five which discusses the English context. The inclusion of the theory being used in different countries would have provided a more general view of CRT, and how it can be utilized in other contexts.

The book offers tangible and real-life examples of the injustices faced by people of color and provides implications in the field of education to disrupt racism and the White supremacy ideology, and to bring about change. In addition, even though all articles are focused on race, racism and CRT, they offer different perspectives and suggestions which provide the readers with the chance to not only deepen their understanding of the issues discussed, but also give them suggestions which were tried out and proven successful. Nevertheless, the inclusion of more practical suggestions and how to use them in schools would have been useful.