This
is a copy of an essay which appeared in the Perspective Section of the Oct. 23
Sunday Edition of the Tampa Bay Times.
https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2022/10/20/what-critical-theory-is-actually-all-about-column/
What ‘Critical Theory’ Is Actually All
About
It is a method of seeking answers when the
purported solution is actually part of the problem
Edward Renner, PhD
And
LaSonya Moore, EdD
“Critical theory” is a
straightforward but important area of study that is often misunderstood and
maligned. And yet, it’s pretty simple: It studies how reforms are necessary
when a government agency or function (the courts or criminal justice process and
the like), or an academic discipline (for example, law or history) contribute
in major ways to the very problem that they are intended to solve.
Here’s an example.
Critical law theory emerged as a specific sub-field more than 50 years
ago in the United States when feminist scholars documented how women who
reported their rape to the police were further victimized by the legal process.
The result was revisions to the criminal code to eliminate those barriers and
to create a new understanding of “sexual assault.” In short, the goal was to
prosecute the perpetrator and not blame or further traumatize the victim.
Nothing controversial in that.
Currently, the
discipline of history is questioning whether commonly accepted accounts of the
past may actually be contributing to the persistence of racism, requiring
reconsideration from the perspective of the present. Designating lynching
locations in the south as National Historical Sites is an example of
re-focusing that history.
When the specific
focus of critical theory is about racial issues, it is a sub-area of study
known as “critical race theory,” whether it is about a civic process, such as
how the justice system functions, or within the structure of academic
disciplines such as history. Simply put, racism is structural, not just
personal.
Many states, including
Florida, have passed laws restricting the teaching of critical race theory in
their colleges and universities. The legislative purpose of these laws is to
restrict the teaching of critical race theory and other topics that lawmakers
have labeled as “divisive
concepts.” When Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the “Stop Woke” Act, he had his
picture taken behind a sign that read “Freedom From Indoctrination.”
But “critical theory”
— whether it’s critical law theory or critical race theory or something else —
isn’t intended to indoctrinate. It simply investigates why systems fail at the
very problem they’re supposed to solve.
For example, in the
United States today, one of the most prominent racial areas of national concern
is the large number of failing, largely minority, urban schools. The Pinellas
County school system provides a classic case study of such failing schools
resulting in discipline and achievement gaps between Black and white students.
In 2015 the Tampa Bay
Times identified five elementary schools in predominately Black neighborhoods
of St. Petersburg that went from successful, partially desegregated schools in
2006, to racially segregated, failing schools a decade later. As a result of
their investigative reporting, Pinellas County schools undertook a 10-year, wide-ranging
reform effort called “Bridging the Gap.” While the outcome assessments are ongoing, the annual reports
have been positive.
How does critical race
theory help to study this problem? From the perspective of critical race
theory, a common misperception of our schools is that there is a hierarchically
organized set of independent elements that proceed in a circular sequential
order: A causes B, B causes C, and C causes A. For example:
When students do not
behave, teachers cannot teach. When teachers cannot teach students do not
learn. When students do not learn, the schools fail. When schools fail students
do not behave.
When a school system
becomes segregated — as in urban, largely minority, failing public schools,
illustrated by the five Pinellas schools — then these vicious circles are about
minority students and their parents, and the situation becomes a racial issue.
In this case, the behavior and achievement of the Black students becomes the
focus of attention.
However, vicious
circles have neither definite starting nor end points. One starting point
focuses on the students and their parents, and implicitly blames them. A second
starting point implicitly blames the teachers. And a third implicitly blames
the schools.
When none of the three
are prepared to accept responsibility for the failure of the other two, no
solution is obvious, and the problem appears intractable.
How to break the
circle? That is the problem to be solved. Should we train the teachers in
classroom management or give them diversity training? Should we discipline or
use positive behavioral modification procedures with the students? Should we
modify institutional and situational factors that result in largely minority
schools? Which of the elements is broken and who should be held responsible to
break the chain?
Critical race theory
provides an alternative perspective on how to approach these issues.
Specifically, that the success of any school is a function of the
teacher/student relationship, that the success of the teacher is a function of
the school/student relationship, and that the success of the student is a
function of the school/teacher relationship.
Simply put, no one of
the three sets of relationships can succeed without the other two sets of
relationships also being successful. Each is dependent on the other two. They
are interactive and not organized hierarchically. They are simultaneous, not
sequential.
To empirically
evaluate the critical race theory perspective, we have used three public
databases for the 2013-14 academic year (the semi-annual Civil Rights Data
Collection series, the Pinellas County Schools’ website, and the Florida
Department of Education accountability reports). This is the last set of public
data before the investigative reporting by Tampa Bay Times resulted in the
reform efforts now in progress by the Pinellas School District.
In these five schools,
from 2006 through 2015, the level of segregation increased from 51% to 80%
Black, and the schools declined from a state-issued letter grade of B- to F.
Teachers had transferred out of the schools, or resigned from the system,
resulting in new, inexperienced teachers at the beginning of each school year.
By 2015, 59.9% of the
students failed to meet grade-level academic standards, and the schools
received a failing grade of F. When students did not learn, there was lack of
parental support; only 11.1% of the teachers felt they received positive
parental support. When there was a lack of parental support, there was a high
rate of teacher turnover, resulting in 45% of new, inexperienced teachers.
Schools with new, inexperienced teachers had more classroom management
problems, resulting in 390 formal disciplinary actions. When classroom
management was an issue, only 14.4% of the students were seen as well behaved.
When students misbehaved, there were many referrals (2,165) for staff and
administrative support. When there was no school history of administrative
support, only 57.2% of the teachers looked forward to coming to school each
day. When teachers did not want to come to work, morale was low, with only 44%
reporting positive morale. Schools with low morale had a failing grade of F. In
failing schools, only 8.3% of the teachers felt parents were involved.
Three sets of
dysfunctional relationships. Every negative element made every other element
worse. It was a vicious circle, spiraling downward ever faster.
For the comparison, we
selected five of the most successful elementary schools, which had remained
integrated over the same period, 2006 through 2015, but had a stable white
majority (70% to 66%).
In these schools,
84.8% of the students met high academic standards, and the schools received a
Grade of A. When students learned, 100% of the teachers experienced strong
positive parental support. When there was parental support, there was a low
rate of teacher turnover with only 5% of new, inexperienced teachers. Schools
with experienced teachers had no serious problems which resulted in formal
disciplinary actions. When classroom management was not an issue, 100% of the
teachers felt their students were well behaved. When students were well
behaved, there were only 8 referrals requiring staff and administrative support.
In the schools with a history of a stable experienced staff working together as
a team, 96.8% of the teachers looked forward to coming to school each day. When
teachers wanted to come to work 86% reported having positive morale. Schools
with high morale were successful (earning the schools an A grade). In the
successful schools, 100% of the teachers felt the parents were involved.
At the end of this
successful continuum, there was a clear, positive, mutually reinforcing
climate. Happy teachers, with cooperative students and parents, had a
high-performing school. A school with happy and stable staff had manageable
classrooms. And a successful school with cooperative parents had stable and
happy teachers.
Traditionally,
educational research has focused separately on schools (for example,
comparative achievement, quality of facilities), teachers (for example,
retention rates, credentials, personal characteristics) and students (for
example, preparedness, achievement gap, head start) as if they were independent
issues, each with their own independent solutions.
From the perspective
of critical race theory, one cannot blame the teachers, the students, or the
failing schools themselves. None alone can fix the problem. Instead, one must
blame the process that binds the three together in a specific way, at a
specific time and place, as illustrated by our case study of 10 elementary
schools in Pinellas County.
Critical race theory
is the necessary perspective for informing “Bridging the Gap” of its specific
obligations to the five failing schools in Pinellas County. It is a
well-established area of scholarship that identifies how the specific issues at
a particular time and place are actually contributing to the problems for which
they are the intended solution. In no way is this being “woke,” as critics
would dismissively claim.
A broader and more
sophisticated understanding of both our physical and social worlds is the
engine of change we recognize as human progress. Change always has been and
always will be disruptive to someone’s comfort level. Clearly, this has been
the case for critical race theory with some elected officials who would prefer
not to have their current political agendas disrupted in this way.
We did not need to be
“protected” from knowing about five failing schools in St. Petersburg or the
location of historical lynching sites in Florida. A healthy and thriving
democracy depends on this type of uncensored scholarship. It is something that
needs to be cherished, supported, and protected.
Critical race theory
is not an indoctrination of individuals, it is the foundation for creating
improvements and lasting change toward eliminating racism in the United States.
It is the political censorship of critical race theory that is a dangerous form
of indoctrination.
Edward Renner is a
retired University Professor who has been a faculty member at the University of
Pennsylvania and the University of Illinois. He has served as an Adjunct
instructor at the University of South Florida. LaSonya Moore is an assistant
professor in the College of Education at the University of South Florida in St.
Petersburg.