Identifying Dysfunctional Education Ecologies: A DisCrit Analysis of Bias in the Classroom

Abstract

In this critical theoretical conceptualization situated in Disability Critical Race Theory (Annamma, Connor, & Ferri, 2013), we identify the current education system as a series of dysfunctional education ecologies. We next analyze how dysfunctional education ecologies are maintained through implicit bias, consider how these biases may impact classroom interactions, and reframe bias as dysconscious racism (King, 1991). Finally, we explore how school personnel can use transformative praxis (Freire, 1970) to actively dismantle these dysfunctional education ecologies through a shift in both their epistemological and axiological commitments to develop functional ecologies of learning by enacting a DisCrit Classroom Ecology.

Acknowledgments

We thank each of the readers who has offered support in the development of this article. Thank you to Cati de los Ríos, Felicia Moore Mensah, and David Stovall. Your expertise and feedback strengthened this article. Additionally, thank you to the reviewers and editors of EEE. We appreciate the time each of you committed in order to grow the concepts presented in this article.

Notes

1 “Education” instead of “educational” is intentionally used as we are specifically concerned here with activity within school-based K-12 education environments (nouns) not any education experience, setting, or activity (adverbs) that occurs across a wide range of everyday settings.

2 As per Neil Gotanda (1991), we intentionally choose to capitalize “Black,” while leaving “white” not capitalized. In the same spirit we also capitalized phrases, such as Students of Color, and others. Gotanda’s (1991, p. 4) twelfth footnote explains the reasoning for our stylistic choice.

3 Ecology is the study of interactions between organisms and their environment. Ecosystems are the community of organisms interacting within a specific environment and interacting as a system. We use the term ecology, which has been taken up more broadly in education literature, but note that it should include a systems perspective that is indicated within ecosystems.

4 We use the term multiply-marginalized to refer consistently to the intersecting oppressions that impact students. This is not to smooth over difference, but to recognize that students who experience multiple oppressions are most in danger in school settings and society. When we use multiply-marginalized Students of Color, we are centering race while purposefully drawing attention to the fact that those most vulnerable to individual and systemic oppression are Students of Color at the intersections with other identities (e.g., disability, gender and sexual diversity, class).

5 Using disabled students instead of students with disabilities is a purposeful language choice, shifting from the person-first to the identity-first, a change for which many in the disability community have repeatedly called. They argue that if we imagine disability as a political identity with immense possibilities, instead of a deficit, then we do not need to say “person with a disability.” Instead disability is an identity to be claimed, similar to race. There needs to be no euphemisms for disabled (e.g., differently abled) or hiding from the term disabled. See Brown’s (2011), “Identity and Hypocrisy: A Second Argument Against Person-First Language.” We also have stopped using the slash in dis/ability due to similar calls that this is another euphemism for difference. Also, by using the slash to highlight the social construction of disability to non-disabled people, we were centering non-disabled people (the powerful) as our audience. Instead, we encourage those who are non-disabled to learn from the Disabled People of Color who have claimed disability as a social construction AND a political identity such as Patti Berne, Mia Mingus, Leroy Moore, Alice Wong, T.L. Lewis, and Vilissa Thompson, among others.

6 This is true of other multiply-marginalized Students of Color. Girls of Color are overrepresented in special education and incarceration (Morris, 2016). LGBTQ Students of Color are overrepresented in disciplinary actions (Burdge & Licona, 2014). Hence, the point is that students at the intersections of multiple oppressions are most susceptible to labeling, surveillance, and punishment (Annamma, 2018). Said differently, multiply-marginalized Students of Color are most likely to be positioned as outflows.

7 We use Gillborn’s (2005) definition of white supremacy, “The most dangerous form of ‘white supremacy’ is not the obvious and extreme fascistic posturing of small Neo-Nazi groups, but rather the taken-for-granted routine privileging of white interests that goes unremarked in the political mainstream” (p. 2). We argue that this simple definition should not distract us from the power of white supremacy. Rabaka (2010) notes, “White supremacy serves as the glue that connects racism to colonialism, and racism to capitalism” and therefore we must fully recognize its “global, historical, cultural, social, political, legal and economic influence and impact” (p. 147).

8 Anti-Blackness is the way white supremacy is upheld; white supremacy privileges white interests and punishes Black humanity. This does not mean that no other racial groups beside Black people are oppressed. Instead there is a permanent fixture of white on top, and Black on the bottom with other Groups of Color in the middle (Bonilla-Silva, 2006). These Groups of Color are racialized “at different times, in response to [the dominant group’s] shifting needs” (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001, p. 8).

9 All students are watched, or under surveillance, in schools (Maguire, Ball, & Braun, 2010). However, several studies have shown that Students of Color are watched more closely and punished more harshly for misbehaviors (Emihovich, 1983; Ferguson, 2001; Monroe, 2005), resulting in hyper-surveillance.

10 As former and current educators in the education system, we feel it is necessary to name ourselves as educators. This is to recognize both the culpability we hold as educators who have reproduced racism and intersecting marginalizing oppressions, despite our best intentions, and the possibility of doing better. Therefore, this is not an accusatory discussion focused on “those teachers,” but a “calling in” to all responsible for educating, in both formal and informal settings, to unlearn oppressive practices. It is clear that educators are both the marginalized—by education policies and administrative dictates which hyper-surveil teachers’ pedagogy, curriculum, and disciplinary approaches—and the marginalizing, their power reverberating in the classroom through interactions with students.

11 This is not to suggest that Teachers of Color do not perpetuate white supremacy. Instead, it is to recognize that the majority of the teaching force is white (U.S. Department of Education, 2016) and that white teachers often experience particular types of cognitive dissonance when learning about systemic racism. Research has indicated that Teachers of Color are more aware of racism infused in society due to their own experiences (Kohli, 2009).

12 Our goal is not to label people as anti-racist activists or allies, but instead to center our attention on the actions of disrupting racism. In other words, we emphasize action over labels.

13 It is important to note that the majority of implicit bias research cited here is focused on experiences of Black people, which makes sense given white supremacy’s use of anti-Blackness. However, other bias work addresses how particular Groups of Color also experience bias (Dovidio & Fiske, 2012). Differential racialization means that Bodies of Color are punished for their proximity to Blackness. We find it important to use the term “Children/Students of Color” to recognize how all non-white appearing students may experience varying degrees of bias in the classroom, while simultaneously distinguishing the unique oppression that Black students face due to anti-Blackness.

14 We find it important to share these examples but have no wish to repeat the slurs used by educators in the various situations. Therefore, we will XX-out racial slurs.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Subini Annamma

Subini Annamma, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas and Ford Foundation Post-doctoral Fellow 2018-2019. Her research focuses on increasing access to equitable education for multiply-marginalized communities. She critically examines the mutually constitutive nature of racism and ableism, how they interlock with other marginalizing oppressions, and how these intersections impact education in urban schools and youth prisons. Annamma positions students as knowledge generators, exploring how their resistance disrupts systemic inequities and reimagines education as a liberatory space.

Deb Morrison

Deb Morrison has a background in ecosystem ecology, science classroom instruction, and learning sciences. Her work centers along the research-practice boundary to disrupt inequities and foster equitable science learning activity. She is deeply engaged in praxis to promote environmental justice in all aspects of her life.