Editorial Statement

In early 2015, when the editors of The Educational Forum first approached Kappa Delta Pi Laureate Dr. Pedro A. Noguera about guest editing an issue, we did so because we admire the way his work has confronted and challenged the structural foundations of race, poverty, and inequity. Further, for more than a generation, his work has focused on the ways in which these dominant power structures become visible, tangible, and practical in the educational inequalities that school-aged children live with in the United States and globally. Despite the shared understanding within the educational community that racism seriously hurts children's ability to achieve their potential by perpetuating a cycle of inequity and marginalization, racism and other forms of institutionalized oppression still persist.

Clearly, the work of education as a transformative experience has not yet managed to overcome racism, despite the efforts of educators, researchers, and policy makers to heighten our awareness of how race and racism function in practical terms. Consequently, there is strong reason to frequently revisit issues surrounding race, equality, and equity. Similarly, there is a continued, ongoing need for exploration into how power systems work to maintain the privilege of some at the expense of others.

In his essay on the nature of power, O'Loughlin (1995) drew on the mythology of L. Frank Baum's Emerald City to dramatically illustrate that exposing inequitable structures is not enough, because power tends not to acquiesce upon exposure, but rather returns full force to retain its hegemonic privilege. O'Loughlin asked educators to question their role in systemic inequality and liberatory education. Similarly, the authors assembled by Dr. Noguera for this issue illuminate the mechanics of inequality as they affect and influence matters such as second language instruction, college readiness, incarceration profiles, and poverty, leading to implications for new ways to counterbalance these persistent problems within education.

This issue of The Educational Forum collects perspectives on how race and inequality converge in educational theory, practice, and research. These articles seem even more warranted today than when we first extended the invitation to Dr. Noguera. As we face unanswered questions about the role that education and educational research might play in rebalancing racial equations, we seek inspiration for practice-rooted approaches that expressly work against perpetuation of divisiveness.

The articles gathered together by Dr. Noguera provide a road map to questions that can no longer remain rhetorical and require serious, concentrated, and intentional responses that connect foundational theory to implementation. The current polarized political climate of the United States has brought these issues into sharp relief once again. Simultaneously, the recurring issues around race and inequality reflect a larger set of global concerns, as the demographics of the contemporary world shift and change. Marginalized populations have grown in visibility, if not power, largely because of the efforts of educators and policy makers who put power analysis at the center of their research agenda. Serving as a discussant for a symposium at the American Educational Research Association's 2003 annual meeting (Cochran-Smith, 2003), noted scholar Dr. Geneva Gay challenged the presenters and audience to “stop thinking of margins as places of powerlessness.” Her call to recalibrate our understanding of sociocultural categorization is echoed in the work of the authors presented in this issue of The Educational Forum, who have chosen to tackle the problem of making large-scale changes that would enhance equity and access for a much wider landscape of schoolchildren.

Readers will find an inspiring philosophical voice threaded throughout this issue—one that will engage their own personal creativity in the service of enhancing opportunities for all the children, families, and cultures whose education they have taken on the responsibility to provide. Too often, we are frustrated by our own discomfort to broach controversial issues such as race, poverty, language, gender, or sexuality with our students and colleagues. These pervasive and problematic dynamics require collaborative discussion and action to realize the kinds of changes that we understand education and educators to be capable of making. We hope this issue will be part of our collective preparation for accomplishing this critical goal.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alan Amtzis

Dr. Alan Amtzis is Director of the Master of Education Program in Educational Leadership: Instruction for The College of New Jersey. A former English teacher, special education teacher, and school principal of a therapeutic school for adolescents in recovery for drug and alcohol problems, he received his doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from Boston College in 2003. Dr. Amtzis served for four years as Chair of the Teacher-as-Researcher Special Interest Group for the American Educational Research Association and currently serves as their Historian and Immediate Past Chair. His research and professional interests include teacher research and practitioner inquiry, creativity development, arts-based education, narrative and other forms of qualitative research methodology and assessment, and new and emerging issues about teaching, learning, and knowledge. He has presented his work on teacher education, therapeutic education, research methodology, reflective practice, and creativity development at more than 40 regional, national, and international professional research conferences.