Falling into the gap: the coloniality of achievement gap discourses and their responses

ABSTRACT

This paper critically analyzes gap discourses in student learning, starting from the achievement gap, education debt, and opportunity gaps, applying the lens of coloniality, racial-capitalism, and modernity (CRCM). Gap discourses are the prevalent rationale behind educational policies and school reforms globally. Specifically in the United States, achievement gap discourses contribute substantially to the educational framework that minoritized students (students of color) are inherently – intellectually and academically – behind White students. This paper will show the pervasive power of achievement gap discourses and their influence on school policy, practices, and norms. Additionally, we highlight how some of the most formidable achievement gap critiques fail to grasp the power of gap discourses. In some cases, these critiques end up reifying White supremacy ideologies. We propose a decoloniality framework or a layered and multi-disciplinary response to help re-think the entire gap discourses informed by White supremacy.

KEYWORDS:

• Decoloniality
• coloniality
• CRCM
• achievement gap
• opportunity gap
• education debt
• discourse analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Named after a popular Black minstrel show character, Jim Crow state and local laws began in the US post-Civil War era around 1865 and lasted until the Civil Rights era in 1968. Jim Crow laws restricted Blacks’ access to wealth, education, and the political arena, and those who resisted or defied risked prison, violence, and death.

2 A name for a pervasive criminal justice system of racial and social control. Mass incarceration best describes the 600 percent increase in incarceration from the mid-1960s to 2000, which disproportionally impacted Black and Latinx men and devastated their communities. This criminal justice process named its captors criminals and felons, relegated them to permanent second-class citizenship, stripped them of fundamental civil and human rights, and subjected them to various degrees of discrimination.