Table 1 Activities and Outcomes Related to the Tenets of Critical Race Theory. The 5 tenets of Critical Race Theory from Solorzano, Villalpando, and Oseguera, 2005 and their implications for BUILD PODER activities and outcomes
CRT Tenet: Centrality of Race and Racism | |
“CRT acknowledges as its most basic premise that race and racism are defining characteristics of American society. In American higher education, race and racism are imbedded in the structures, practices, and discourses that guide the daily practices of universities.” (P. 274) | |
Sample Activities | Outcome/Objective |
• Student and mentor training; readings; field trips; film nights; fall conference; historical and structural perspectives on race, colorblindness, and historical trauma • New courses in CRT: Race, Racism, and Science; Public Health for Social Justice | • Awareness of historical and structural racism; preservation of native identities; new methods, theories • Sustainable structure for introducing students to STEM and CRT, linking research to social justice, contextualizing race/ethnicity in the sciences |
CRT Tenet: Challenge to Dominant Ideologies | |
“CRT in higher education challenges the traditional claims of meritocracy, objectivity, colorblindness, race neutrality, and equal opportunity.” (P. 275) | |
Sample Activities | Outcome/Objective |
• Jumpstart Summer program provides education, activities, and specific methods of countering racism in academe • Emphasis on mixed methods: Courses in qualitative methods; QuantCrit perspectives; faculty course in mixed methods research | • Students develop strategies for responding to racism through belonging, ownership, and empowerment • Innovative research; publish papers and write grants with new research questions and methods that are valid to the communities studied |
CRT Tenet: Interdisciplinary | |
“CRT challenges ahistoricism and the unidisciplinary focus of most analyses in educational research. In the field of higher education, this framework analyzes race and racism in both a historical and a contemporary context using interdisciplinary methods.” (P. 275) | |
Sample Activities | Outcome/Objective |
• ~100 faculty mentors, 5 community college partners, 5 research partners, 22+ departments • Scholarship: Tech tool for connecting faculty and students with one another and with grant opportunities, sharing equipment, expertise • Faculty Scholar Academies: Interdisciplinary mentored grant group; NRMN STAR grant-writing/coaching • Cluster Hires: Thematic hires inherently building interdisciplinary links in health equity across the Colleges of Health and Human Development and Social and Behavioral Sciences | • Multiple options for students; match is a good fit between student and mentor • Increased interdisciplinary grant proposals; new faculty connections, better communication, shared resources • Increased interdisciplinary grant proposals; new faculty connections, higher-level (R01) grants written • Thematic collaborations; greater grant and publication productivity; catalyzing new academe-community research partnerships, greater collaboration with research partners |
CRT Tenet: Experiential | |
“The application of a CRT framework in the field of higher education requires that the experiential knowledge of people of color be centered and viewed as a resource stemming directly from their lived experiences.” (P. 275) | |
Sample Activities | Outcome/Objective |
• Bi-weekly meetings and professional development courses with program director that include discussions of students’ backgrounds, holistic health, researcher identity, science as a profession, matching skills and career • BUILD Conferences: Fall - large audience, livestreamed to partners and community with presenters including Octavio Villalpando, Tim Wise, Karina Walters; and presenting research; Spring – campus-wide research competition | • Students have a sense of belonging and commitment to their native identity; students have tiered mentors and strategies for meeting academic challenges; seniors mentor juniors and sophomores; K-12 student projects, speakers as role models, opening possibilities • Connections among community members; morale and collaborations around race and racism; public dissemination of tenets; university-level discussions; policy changes |
CRT Tenet: Commitment to Social Justice | |
“In higher education, these theoretical frameworks are conceived as a social justice agenda that struggles to eliminate all forms of racial, gender, language, generation status, and class subordination.” (P. 275) | |
Sample Activities | Outcome/Objective |
• BUILD PODER and the Health Equity Research and Education (HERE) center sponsor research projects that address community-based needs, nonprofits, community clinics, health equity • Senior BUILD PODER Project: Community partnership with 4th, 8th, 12th grade classes around research | • Collaborative research and action grants around academe-community social problems and health equity solutions; publications and grants with social justice themes • Empirical study of research identity development; action research for BUILD PODER trainees; students giving back |