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The intersecting colonial systems of child welfare and education overdetermine experiences of educational exclusion of Indigenous children in Manitoba. A fictionalized case vignette is used to depict how settler colonialism, carcerality, and anti-Indigenous racism play out in the lives of students with child welfare involvement. Using critical thematic analysis, we analyze reports from the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth on the lives and deaths of two Indigenous children, focusing on the role of discretionary education policy enactment. Four themes are explored: racist constructions of the “problem child;” use of exclusionary discipline; being missed from and missed at school; and an ethical responsibility to care rooted in the Cree conceptualization of wâhkôhtowin. Examples of different policy enactment to better support Indigenous students with child welfare involvement are provided through a reimagined case vignette, with a call to educators to center ethical responsibilities of care for children as their primary duty.

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This study aimed to understand, from a critical point of view, the condition of semantic, discursive, and rhetorical displacement that operates in the Colombian educational system, where the category of education has been displaced by the concept of competence. The following question guides the investigation: What are the deep meanings, from semiotic considerations and discourse analysis, that underlies the rationality of competencies as a category inserted in the discourse of the Ministry of National Education of Colombia (MEN)? The research confirms that since 2004, under the neoliberal government of Álvaro Uribe Vélez, the Colombian educational system has been guided by an instrumental and economistic conception of education, whose logic is characterized by the notions of "efficiency", "competence", "results" and "success" as categories that indicate the educational horizon promoted by the Colombian State. We argue that the pragmatic result is an institutional isomorphism that tends to nullify real social participation and creates conflict, ignoring the cultural and regional diversity of the country.

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Vocational education and training (VET) programs in Sweden blend classroom instruction and internships, while coding bootcamps offer accelerated adult education in computer science. These institutions increasingly teach in English, mirroring the shift towards English-medium Instruction (EMI) in higher education. Consequently, most EMI scholarship is focused on higher education. This paper investigates how ten Swedish EMI schools are discursively constructed on their webpages, employing reflective thematic analysis to uncover three primary themes: the schools’ affinity with success, the uniqueness of their students, and the schools’ teaching methods. The analysis reveals the schools’ strong affinities with the neoliberal language and ideology, suggesting an alignment with the discourse of academic capitalism in higher and vocational EMI contexts. This paper discusses the similarities and differences in the dominance of neoliberal language and ideology in both educational settings, highlighting broader implications for critical education.

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Amid the global neoliberal assault on public education, teachers and their unions are called upon to resist detrimental educational reforms. Employing photo-elicitation focus groups, this paper explored ten Saskatchewan teacher activists’ perceptions of their political resistance to neoliberalism both within their union and beyond. Utilizing a comparative case study approach, the study employed a poststructural framework of alliances, assemblages, and affect to analyze teachers’ intellectual and emotional views. Intellectually, teachers agreed that the teacher union was less responsive than grassroots activism because of their diverse membership and legislative requirements. Teachers expressed that, despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles, they valued equity, activism, mentoring, and group collectivity. Emotionally, teachers exuded feelings of anger and isolation, but also hope and empowerment rooted in learning. Featuring teachers' metaphorical interpretations, this paper delves into teachers’ affective understandings of their activism as a potential antidote to neoliberalism.

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This article focuses on an essential element of economic education, namely the ability to think critically. First, the significance of education and empowerment is discussed in relation to the two levels of subject and society. Subsequently, the educational intentions in the two fundamental paradigms of economic education are characterized, namely in socio-economic education and in economistic education. In these, reflexivity and functionality are expressed in different ways: either as the implementation or negation of critical approaches. As a result, criticism, the ability to think critically and a reflexive basic attitude of young people are either promoted or suppressed. This has significant consequences for students’ understanding of themselves and the world. Based on a differentiated concept of the ability to think critically (according to Hedtke, 2023a), facets of critical or uncritical economic and financial education are analyzed in a differentiated manner in relation to the subject level and the societal level in a four-field diagram developed from this. Finally, implementations of critical economic education and their opponents are discussed using Austria as a case study.

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This paper draws from a critical ethnographic case study of the Roses in Concrete Community School (RiC) in East Oakland, California to explore their approach to repurposing a traditional school into a community responsive learning institution by operationalizing a critical humanist vision of education in a marginalized, urban community. The educator activists who founded RiC envisioned a school that would not only meet the needs of students and families, but act as an intervention and a catalyst for healing and transformation. Historiographic methods are used to examine how the founders conceived and implemented the design of RiC and to demonstrate how they drew upon the history of social movements in the Bay Area to design a school that they believed could meet the needs of poor and working-class Black and Brown children, and in doing so contributed to a longer, intergenerational struggle for justice.

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In this conceptual paper, we argue that many episodes of the so-called culture wars of the 1990s in the U.S. can be better understood as attacks on Blackness, a contention that critical race theory illuminates. To substantiate this claim, we recast key societal episodes through a Black perspective that unfolded in both formal and informal educational spaces. We demonstrate that the notion of the culture wars reflects a pivotal tension between Black, often gendered, modes of expression and dominant US culture, which we assert operates under the guise of morality. Drawing on critical race theory’s themes of racial realism, intersectionality, and counter storytelling, we analyze three racialized occasions often subsumed under the culture wars umbrella: the scapegoating of hip hop, specifically Sister Souljah, for systemic racism; Lani Guinier’s Assistant Attorney General nomination revocation; and the Oakland Ebonics Debate. To end, we illustrate the current relevance of these enduring culture wars themes in a hip hop-informed prison-based literacy initiative and the curricular prohibition of African American studies.

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The current anti-truth context, in which discussions of race and racism in K-12 schools are rendered illegal, is just the latest iteration of anti-Black legislation that impacts schools. In this article, we historicize the contemporary moment by using BlackCrit and fugitive pedagogies to discuss how Black teachers have navigated discussions of race and racism with Black students through previous anti-Black contexts, noting that we believe contemporary Black teachers will continue in this rich tradition, despite current legislation.

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Analogous to the political use of language itself in determining, even producing, student learning outcomes, the use of politically charged discourse circumscribes (the boundaries of) student learning opportunities. This ‘positive’ (i.e. productive) understanding of discourse does not only prohibit discussion about race and racism but helps determine how we can, even should, engage with issues related to race and racism. In light of both the power that discourse exerts upon students’ and teachers’ educational opportunities and the increasing racial diversity of the U.S. student population), such a development demands consideration of its potential impact on educator praxis. This paper explores how (anti-)CRT discourse contours and outlines the ‘appropriate’ teaching, discussion, and learning of race and racism within educational spaces. By examining ‘moments’ in (anti-)CRT discourse, including moments when educators push back against censorship efforts, this largely conceptual article seeks to highlight how discourse (unintentionally) produces ‘normalized’ and ‘common sense’ ways of thinking and teaching about race that get reified and (re)produced.

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The contemporary moment has been marred with attacks on diverse children’s literature and critical and antiracist pedagogy. The increasing numbers of banned books and curricular materials are aimed at diluting and silencing discussions of difference in classrooms. Moreover, race and racism continue to be “bad words” to some early childhood and elementary educators. As three teacher educators committed to justice-centered pedagogy, we reject the omnipresent whiteness that invades early childhood and elementary education and instead seek to shift the gaze to Blackness. Using the ghost pipe plant as a conceptual metaphor, this article will outline practical, instructional strategies and methods for educators who seek to challenge the persistent and overwhelming anti-CRT discourse and censoring by amplifying the stories, lifeworlds, and futures of Black children, families, and communities. We distill how educators can operate from a place of race consciousness to move beyond fear and colorblindness toward actualizing liberatory teaching and learning for Black children through critical engagements with Black children’s literature.

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This conceptual essay explores the contentious discourse surrounding Coach Prime Deion Sanders’ decision to leave Jackson State University (JSU), a historically Black college and university (HBCU), for the University of Colorado (CU), a predominantly white institution (PWI). Using King’s principle of Black historical contention and Glaude’s concept of nation language, we analyze Black male sports media commentary to examine how Sanders’ move is perceived through divergent Black separatist and integrationist lenses. Employing principles of Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA) as an analytic framework, this study interrogates the tensions between personal autonomy and collective responsibility within Black liberation narratives. Our findings reveal how Sanders’ decision ignited polarized views, underscoring complex intersections of Black male identity and roles in public discourse. This work contributes to interdisciplinary discussions on Black representation and challenges oversimplified narratives, advocating for a nuanced understanding of Black men’s pathways to liberation in mainstream spaces.

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Discussions of Black anarchism are rarely, if ever, found in the fields of educational theory and research. Characterizations of Black anarchism often paint it as a philosophy and praxis to be feared—as a movement that promotes violence and chaos. Yet, as the authors of this piece argue, Black anarchism is exactly the opposite: promoting a vision of a world that is free from the control of the State, absent of white supremacy and capitalism, and anchored in radical community care. Therefore, drawing from the rich lineage of Black anarchist thought, the imprisoned Black radical tradition, and abolition; the authors present an invitation for educators to utilize Black anarchism as a lens for curriculum, pedagogy, and praxis. This conceptual piece aims to not only demystify the concept of Black anarchy within the field of education, but points to the radical promises inherent within Black anarchy during the most recent, intense attacks on critical Black education within the United States.