The Evolving Significance of Race—Living, Learning, and Teaching

This book won the 2014 AESA (American Educational Studies Association) Critics Choice Award.

We are living, learning, and teaching by questioning how to address race in a society that consistently prefers to see itself as colorblind, a society claiming to seek a «post-racial» existence. This edited volume offers evidence of the evolving significance of race from a diverse group of male and female contributors selfidentifying as Black, Latino, Asian, White, Gay, Lesbian, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim. Our attempts to provide every child and adult learner with what they need – equity – to make the most of their educational experiences – excellence – are still consciously and unconsciously thwarted by the ingrained nature of racism in our society. This point becomes obvious when we begin teaching those audiences that represent diverse lived experiences of race about the changing significance of race and how to develop a more critical, reflexive lens focused upon the politics of race. This book invites readers to co-construct and implement a critical race pedagogy that reflects both an acknowledgment of the evolving significance of race and opportunities for hope via education.

Sherick A. Hughes is Assistant Professor of Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. He earned a BA from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, an MA from Wake Forest University, and an M.P.A. and a PhD from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. His scholarship applies qualitative and mixed methodology to engage a critical examination of race, class, and gender as experienced in living, learning, and teaching.
Theodorea Regina Berry is Assistant Professor at Mercer University. She has an Ed.D. from National-Louis University in curriculum and social inquiry and has completed a three-year American Educational Research Association (AERA) post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Dr. Berry’s scholarship focuses on curriculum theory, qualitative research, critical race feminism, and urban teacher education.