Negation of being and reason in the World History classroom: “they used to think of me as a lesser being”

ABSTRACT

This article addresses how students of color experience negation through world history, and exclusion from being recognized as fully human. What are the logics of exclusion within a world history classroom, and how do these logics of exclusion reproduce themselves in student experiences of alienation and exclusion from the curricular narrative? This study draws from interviews with 10^th grade global studies students of color, and employs critical theory, critical race theory, critical disability studies, and queer studies, to conduct a different reading of these students. These frameworks redirect our gaze to the exclusionary logics of reason, the politicized construction of history as a discipline, and the impact of distinctions between being and non-being, civilized and savage, in world history. The article intervenes into these moments when teachers dismiss what students say, to understand the impacts history has on how students understand themselves, and how history has engaged students.

KEYWORDS:

• History education
• social studies
• multicultural education
• critical race theory
• critical theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The US federal government subsidizes school lunch for children, based on family income and size in comparison to the federal poverty level guidelines. This school is a Title 1 school, meaning they participate in a federal program that provides extra funding and support for schools with over 40% of students from low-income families.

2. Before 2013, public schools in New York state graded the Regents exams in-house. Since 2013, the exams are sent to distributed scoring sites around the city to be graded by teams of teachers from various schools.

3. As Wun (2016) noted, young girls of color in US schools are often disciplined and punished because of how they exist in the world.