ENCUESTAS A FAMILIARES

Critical Race Theory (CRT) was born within the field of legal studies in the United States in the 70s and since then has become a ‘theoretical, analytical, and conceptual frame that has garnered significant attention over the last two decades where issues of race and education are concerned’ (Howard & Navarro, 2016, p. 255). This approach challenges the multicultural education perspective where issues of race were not

problematised within the educational curriculum or the school culture (Banks, 2004). In addition, scholars from a multicultural education perspective did not challenge the deficit perceptions around students of colour.

Ladson-Billings and Tate (1995, p. 52) argue that there are some common characteristics within the critical race movement that includes:

1. An assumption that racism is not a series of isolated acts, but is endemic in American life, deeply ingrained legally, culturally, and even

psychologically;

2. A call for a reinterpretation of civil-rights laws in light of its ineffectuality, showing that laws to remedy racial injustices are often undermined before they fulfil their promises;

3. A challenge to the ‘traditional claims of legal neutrality, objectivity, colour- blindness, and meritocracy as camouflages of the self-interest of dominant groups in American society’;

4. An insistence of subjectivity and the reformulation of legal doctrine to reflect the perspectives of those who have experienced and been victimised by racism first-hand;

5. The use of first-person accounts.

I find CRT an important framework to analyse racism against indigenous peoples in Mexico. CRT follows Wellman’s definition of racism understood as ‘culturally sanctioned beliefs which, regardless of the intentions involved, defend the advantages Whites have because of the subordinated positions of racial minorities’ (Wellman 1977 in Ladson-Billings & Tate IV, 1995, p. 55). The dynamics of racial inequalities have been absent from the educational discourses and policies. Saldivar argues that ‘the

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displacement of race by ethnicity and class has limited the understanding of race and racism, and when recognized, racial practices are often dismissed as isolated events and/or irrelevant to social justice’ (Saldívar, 2014, p. 92). Multicultural and intercultural education in Mexico will continue to reproduce racial inequalities if they do not engage in discussing aspects of racism such as ‘domination, inequality, and privilege’ (ibid).

Critical Race Theory privileges the use of stories to ‘to overcome ethnocentrism and the dysconscious conviction of viewing the world in one way’ Ladson-Billings and Tate IV (1995, p. 57) in order to name ‘one’s own reality’. It is the objective of this thesis to give privilege to the voices of indigenous children, in order to understand their realities from their own perspectives, especially in relation to the discrimination they see or experience within the field of the urban school. Storytelling, as is common within many other minority groups, such as the African-American, is a pillar of indigenous peoples:

Historically, storytelling has been a kind of medicine to heal the wounds of pain caused by racial oppression. The story of one’s condition leads to the realization of how one came to be oppressed and subjugated and allows one to stop inflicting mental violence on oneself (Ladson-Billings & Tate IV, 1995, p. 57).

The approach of CRT is similar to Freire’s ideas that say that ‘the oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom’ (Freire, 2000, p. 29). Through naming one’s own reality with stories can also have an effect on the oppressor (Ladson-Billings & Tate IV, 1995) who is very often unaware of his/her oppressing privileges.

According to Howard and Navarro (2016, p. 258) the application of CRT into educational research follows five principles:

1. Centrality of race and racism – All CRT research within education must centralise race and racism, including intersections with other forms of subordination, such as gender, class, and citizenship.

2. Challenging the dominant perspective – CRT research works to challenge dominant narratives and re-centre marginalised perspectives.

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3. Commitment to social justice – CRT research must always be motivated by a social justice agenda.

4. Valuing experiential knowledge – CRT builds on the oral traditions of many indigenous communities of colour around the world. CRT research centres the narratives of people of colour when attempting to understand social inequality.

5. Being interdisciplinary – CRT scholars believe that the world is

multidimensional, and similarly, research about the world should reflect multiple perspectives (Solorzano & Bernal, 2001).

The importance of valuing experiential knowledge is one of the pillars of this thesis, since for indigenous children in urban schools, traditional knowledge is a subcultural capital that is not translated into any benefits within the mainstream society. It is within this unequal power dynamic that speaking clearly about children’s experiences of racism and discrimination is important to this research.

2.7 Summary

The purpose of this chapter was to present the main theoretical concepts that serve as the analytical framework to understand children’s data. Based on the Mexican research, conducted over the last few decades on indigenous children in rural and urban schools, it is evident that multicultural and intercultural education approaches have failed to strengthen indigenous children’s identity (Dietz, 2003). In fact, it has resulted in indigenous children learning to navigate the education system by making themselves invisible. Given this context, I decided to incorporate within the study of ethnic identities the concepts of territory (Oehmichen, 2005), self- identification (Gutiérrez Martínez, 2008) and indigenous political demands (De la Peña, 2006) into my studies of ethnic identities, within a context of racial inequalities embedded in the Mexican

colonial history (Saldívar, 2014).

In order to unveil children’s experiences of discrimination and racism, Bourdieu’s logic of practice (Bourdieu, 1990) was also considered. The concepts of habitus, field, and

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capital that were identified, have been especially useful in organising the data analysis within a framework of Critical Race Theory.

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Chapter 3: Methodology

This chapter describes the methodological approach that informed this research project. Firstly, it explains the epistemological standpoint and theoretical perspectives that guided the design of the project: critical theory, post-structuralism, and decolonisation. Secondly, it portrays critical ethnography as the methodology adopted and the methods used for privileging children’s voices. Thirdly, it describes the process of gaining access to schools and the selection process of participant children, explaining the negotiation process of reciprocity and the different stages of the data collection. Fourthly, it tries to systematise the process of data analysis, describing the different stages and approaches to triangulation, validity, and reliability within the research process. Finally, ethical implications and issues of reflexivity are considered in the context of working with young children from ‘minorised contexts’.