Search

In this article, we present findings from a review and synthesis of historical and contemporary research to examine the concept of diversity leadership in higher education as it pertains to African American administrators at predominantly White colleges and universities. Through the use of critical race theory, we first argue that to understand the leadership disparity of African Americans and other administrators of color in higher education, one must begin by examining the cultural context in which predominantly White institutions originate, exist, and operate through the intersection of group relations. Second, we argue that due to a historical pattern of exclusivity, the title of administrator is considered whiteness property in higher education. As a consequence, the disparity between African American administrators and their White counterparts has become an organizational norm in higher education. Last, we posit that if true diversity leadership is to exist within the administrative rankings at predominantly White institutions, the conceptualization and inclusion of minority experiences must not only inform stakeholders but also shape the recruitment, retention, and assessment of minority representation at the university administrative level.

In this article we examine preservice teachers' ideas about the role of multicultural citizenship education in social studies classrooms. We use qualitative techniques to explore data collected from observations and interviews with preservice teachers enrolled in a secondary social studies methods course. The findings suggest that even when teacher education programs are designed around goals of promoting multicultural citizenship education, preservice teachers' pre-existing and emerging ideas about social studies content and classrooms can limit their thinking and practice with transformative social studies pedagogy.

Although multicultural citizenship education has been theorized as a goal of social studies, there is a paucity of empirical research to illustrate what actually occurs in diverse schools and class...

(2012). A Framework for Instructional Innovation in the Preparation of Tomorrow’s Teachers. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education: Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 130-132.

As these comments illustrate, in the early twentieth century black and white perspectives on the kind of education that would be beneficial to African Americans were loaded with controversy. At the center of the debate was the issue of just what content and practice should shape moral and civic learning for African Americans, who at that time were denied full constitutional and natural human rights. Few other cases show the tension between myth and reality or prove to be as stark as the African American pursuit of racial justice through education. Georgia Governor Allen Candler expressed a sentiment that was at that time reflective of southern whites’ thinking about what should be the proper aim of education for blacks. Coming some 30 years later, Anna Julia Cooper’s comments suggested that the controversy had not been resolved in the North or the South. The distance between the ideal and actual educational practices focusing on the African American experience is key to understanding the unfulfilled promise of democracy in the United States.1