News media, film, and the music industry have become powerful sources of misrepresentation of Black male life in the social imagination of white society. The pedagogy of popular culture has important implications for educators and youth advocates who desire to challenge the myths and distortions that ultimately harm youth. This volume raises awareness of the media war on Black male youth in popular culture, and the impact this image battle has on the discriminatory treatment of the population in urban educational settings. Citing the recent controversial deaths of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, the portrayal of black males in contemporary films, and the locus of hip-hop masculinities, this volume offers a unique framework for analyzing how contemporary image-making practices affect Black male youth in urban education. It also offers ethical considerations for educators in their critique, consumption and reading of Black male subjectivity in media, and provides avenues for practical applications of critical media literacy on the ground.

News media, film, and the music industry have become powerful sources of misrepresentation of Black male life in the social imagination of white society. The pedagogy of popular culture has important implications for educators and youth advocates who desire to challenge the myths and distortions that ultimately harm youth. This volume raises awareness of the media war on Black male youth in popular culture, and the impact this image battle has on the discriminatory treatment of the population in urban educational settings. Citing the recent controversial deaths of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, the portrayal of black males in contemporary films, and the locus of hip-hop masculinities, this volume offers a unique framework for analyzing how contemporary image-making practices affect Black male youth in urban education. It also offers ethical considerations for educators in their critique, consumption and reading of Black male subjectivity in media, and provides avenues for practical applications of critical media literacy on the ground.

There is growing pressure on teachers and other educators to understand and adopt culturally relevant pedagogies as well as strategies to work with diverse groups of races, cultures, and languages that are represented in classrooms. Establishing sound cross-cultural pedagogy is also critical given that racial, cultural, and linguistic integration has the potential to increase academic success for all learners. The Handbook of Research on Race, Culture, and Student Achievement highlights cross-cultural perspectives, challenges, and opportunities of providing equitable educational opportunities for marginalized students and improving student achievement. Additionally, it examines how race and culture impact student achievement in an effort to promote cultural competence, equity, inclusion, and social justice in education. Covering topics such as identity, student achievement, and global education, this major reference work is ideal for researchers, scholars, academicians, librarians, policymakers, practitioners, educators, and students.

Grounded in Critical Race Theory (CRT), Black Men in Law School refutes the claim that when African American law students are "mismatched" with more selective law schools, the result is lower levels of achievement and success. Presenting personal narratives and counter-stories, Jackson demonstrates the inadequacy of the mismatch theory and deconstructs the ways race is constructed within American public law schools. Calling for a replacement to mismatch theory, Jackson offers an alternative theory that considers marginalized student perspectives and crystallizes the nuances and impact that historically exclusionary institutions and systems have on African American law school students. To further the debate on affirmative action, this book shows that experiences and voices of African American law school students are a crucial ingredient in the debate on race and how it functions in law schools.

This book employs a narrative approach to recount and interpret the story of an innovative teaching and learning project about whiteness. By offering a first-hand description of a nationally-recognized, high school-based Youth Participatory Action Research project—The Whiteness Project—this book draws out the conflicts and complexities at the core of white students’ racial identities. Critical of the essentializing frameworks traditionally given to address white privilege, this volume advances a distinctive and theoretically robust account of ‘second-wave critical whiteness pedagogy’.

Educational policies explicitly implemented in order to reduce educational gaps and promote access and success for disenfranchised youth can backfire—and often have the unintended result of widening those gaps. In this interdisciplinary collection of case studies, contributors examine cases of policy backfire, when policies don’t work, have unintended consequences, and when policies help. Although policy reform is thought of as an effective way to improve schooling structures and to diminish the achievement gap, many such attempts to reform the system do not adequately address the legacy of unequal policies and the historic and pervasive inequalities that persist in schools. Exploring the roots of school inequality and examining often-ignored negative policy outcomes, contributors illuminate the causes and consequences of poor policymaking decisions and demonstrate how policies can backfire, fail, or have unintended success.

Challenging perspectives that often characterize Latinos as ‘at-risk,’ this book takes an ‘asset’ approach, highlighting the favorable linguistic, cognitive, education, and cultural assets Latino children bring to educational settings. An Asset-Based Approach to Latino Education in the United States addresses the increasingly important challenge and opportunity of educating the linguistic and cultural diversity of the growing population of Latino students. The book confronts the educational debate regarding effective instructional practices for Latinos, bilingual education, immigration, and assimilation.