Kerren's Sociocultural Theory, Education Policy, and Pedagogy Blog

In this weeks text, Dis/ability critical race studies (DisCrit): theorizing at the intersections of race and dis/ability, the argument of the authors, Annamma, Conner, and Ferri, begins with the assertion that aspects of Critical Race Theory and Disability Theory ought to be combined into one new theoretical framework that analyzes race and ability in the same capacity. Citing the 1920's essay, Racial Intelligence, by W.E.B. Du Bois, DisCrit illuminates the way anthropological physiognomy shapes hegemonic views of  the intellectual, socitial, and moral growth of persons of color and those with disabilities. In his work, Dubois relates how scientific racism was used to portray African Americans as being of inferior intelligence, through post-mortem examinations of human brains, in order to justify slavery, segregation and inequalities around the world. Marking people of color with the stigma of possessing developmental conditions, akin to those who are disabled, and therefore, not f

In the documentary, Precious Knowledge, viewers are confronted with the startling statistic that 48 percent of Mexican American students drop out of high school. Many of these students leave school feeling that the education system was stacked against them and that they have been ignored and subjected to benign neglect. In an effort to offset the number of dropouts the documentary states: “In 1997, community activism led the Tucson city council to set up a study committee to look at ways of boosting Latino student achievement and reducing dropout rates. Based on its findings, the school board unanimously voted to create what was then called the Hispanic Studies Department” This name was later changed to Raza. The program was intended to present students with greater opportunities in life. One teacher of the program José Gonzales makes an analogy with an Indigenous concept called Chinacle. Plant a seed and it will grow.  By 2010, despite the fact that students became engaged, informed,