College and university administrators are increasingly called to confront the deeply entrenched racial inequities in higher education. To do so, corresponding attention must be given to historical and contemporary manifestations of whiteness in higher education and student affairs.This book bridges theoretical and practical considerations regarding the ways whiteness functions to underwrite racially hostile and unwelcoming campus communities for People of Color, all the while upholding the interests and values of white students, faculty, and staff.While higher education scholars and practitioners have long explored the role of race and racism in college and university contexts, rarely have they done so through a lens of Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS). Exploring such topics through the lens of CWS offers new opportunities to both examine white identities, attitudes, and ways of being, and to explicitly name how whiteness is embedded in environments that marginalize and oppress students, faculty, and staff of color. This book is especially concerned with naming the material consequences of whiteness in the lives of People of Color on college and university campuses in the United States.Part one of the book introduces theoretical ideas and concepts administrators, scholars, and activists might use to interrogate how whiteness functions on campus. Part two of the book explores practical considerations for how whiteness functions across campus spaces, including student leadership programs, fraternity and sorority life, faculty tenure and promotion, LGBTQ support services, and so forth.

Racism and ignorance churn on college campuses as surely as they do in society at large. Over the past fifteen years there have been many discussions regarding racism and higher education. Some of these focus on formal policies and dynamics such as Affirmative Action or The Dream Act, while many more discussions are happening in classrooms, dorm rooms and in campus communities. Of course, corollary to these conversations, some of which are generative and some of which are degenerative, is a deafening silence around how individuals and institutions can actually understand, engage and change issues related to racism in higher education. This lack of dialogue and action speaks volumes about individuals and organizations, and suggests a complicit acceptance, tolerance or even support for institutional and individual racism. There is much work to be done if we are to improve the situation around race and race relation in institutions of higher education. There is still much work to be done in unpacking and addressing the educational realities of those who are economically, socially, and politically underserved and oppressed by implicit and overt racism. These realities manifest in ways such as lack of access to and within higher education, in equitable outcomes and in a disparity of the quality of education as a student matriculates through the system. While there are occasional diversity and inclusion efforts made in higher education, institutions still largely address them as quotas, and not as paradigmatic changes. This focus on “counting toward equity rather” than “creating a culture of equity” is basically a form of white privilege that allows administrators and policymakers to show incremental “progress” and avoid more substantive action toward real equity that changes the culture(s) of institutions with longstanding racial histories that marginalize some and privilege others. Issues in higher education are still raced from white perspectives and suffer from a view that race and racism occur in a vacuum. Some literature suggests that racism begins very early in the student experience and continues all the way to college (Berlak & Moyenda). This mis-education, mislabeling and mistreatment based on race often develops as early as five to ten years old and “follows” them to postgraduate education and beyond.

This volume of Theory and Method in Higher Education Research contains analyses and discussions of, amongst others, disability frameworks, rhythms research, loose coupling, mixed methods, internet-mediated research, critical whiteness and selection bias

Discussing race and racism often conjures up emotions of guilt, shame, anger, defensiveness, denial, sadness, dissonance, and discomfort. Instead of suppressing those feelings, coined emotionalities of whiteness, they are, nonetheless, important to identify, understand, and deconstruct if one ever hopes to fully commit to racial equity. Feeling White: Whiteness, Emotionality, and Education delves deeper into these white emotionalities and other latent ones by providing theoretical and psychoanalytic analyses to determine where these emotions so stem, how they operate, and how they perpetuate racial inequities in education and society. The author beautifully weaves in creative writing with theoretical work to artistically illustrate how these emotions operate while also engaging the reader in an emotional experience in and of itself, claiming one must feel to understand. This book does not rehash former race concepts; rather, it applies them in novel ways that get at the heart of humanity, thus revealing how feeling white ultimately impacts race relations. Without a proper investigation on these underlying emotions, that can both stifle or enhance one’s commitment to racial justice in education and society, the field of education denies itself a proper emotional preparation so needed to engage in prolonged educative projects of racial and social justice. By digging deep to what impacts humanity most—our hearts—this book dares to expose one’s daily experiences with race, thus individually challenging us all to self-investigate our own racialized emotionalities. “Drawing on her deep wisdom about how race works, Cheryl Matias directly interrogates the emotional arsenal White people use as shields from the pain of confronting racism, peeling back its layers to unearth a core of love that can open us up. In Feeling White: Whiteness, Emotionality, and Education, Matias deftly names and deconstructs distancing emotions, prodding us to stay in the conversation in order to become teachers who can reach children marginalized by racism.” – Christine Sleeter, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, California State University, Monterey Bay “In Feeling White, Cheryl E. Matias blends astute observations, analyses and insights about the emotions embedded in white identity and their impact on the racialized politics of affect in teacher education. Drawing deftly on her own classroom experiences as well as her mastery of the methodologies and theories of critical whiteness studies, Matias challenges us to develop what Dr. King called ‘the strength to love’ by confronting and conquering the affective structures that promote white innocence and preclude white accountability.” – George Lipsitz, Ph.D., Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of The Possessive Investment in Whiteness Cheryl E. Matias, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Colorado Denver. She is a motherscholar of three children, including boy-girl twins."

Educational leaders confront instances of inequity every day, whether they are aware of it or not. Many find themselves inadequately reacting to such issues due in part to traditional preparation programs that fail to interrogate the existence and impact of systems of oppression. Why is naming and tackling inequity not at the forefront of every conversation about educational leadership? How do our social constructions of identity hierarchies and deficits (mis)shape what leaders think and do? How do leaders advocate for those who need and deserve advocacy? This volume considers these questions and more by offering unique leadership frameworks that integrate critical theories for social change with everyday practice. By bringing together diverse researchers, practitioners, and policymakers who are often pushed to the margins, this volume will help today’s leaders see with new eyes and gain the critical tools, language, and concepts for equity leadership. The text is organized into four sections: Transforming Self, Transforming Educators, Transforming Organizations, and Transforming Systems. Book Features: Interrupts prevailing practices and advocates for a more inclusive, intersectional vision of leaders and the field of educational leadership.Specific and useful frames, concepts, and practices that leaders can adapt to their own context.Authors that reflect diverse perspectives with wide-ranging identities who intentionally push back against the White male-dominated discourse. A practitioner-friendly format that includes glossaries of terms and resources. Insights that reflect the worldwide pandemic crises of 2020.

This book considers the causes and effects of an education field that remains white and gendered and critically examines how the race-gendered power afforded to white women in educational spaces is transacted through instructional practices and interpersonal interactions. White women occupy a complex position in society within systems of white supremacy and patriarchy, participating as both oppressors and oppressed. Emphasizing the consequences of whiteness for educational professionals and students of all racial identities, the chapters in this book offer strategies for identifying and moving beyond the gendered transaction of whiteness, including what white women can do instead and how all educators can work toward transformative antiracist education.