Francesca López and Christine Sleeter’s

Critical Race Theory and Its Critics

Implications for Research and Teaching

Read More

Published just earlier this year, Francesca Lopez of TRP and Waterbury Chair in Equity Pedagogy along with Christine Sleeter, professor at the Emerita College of Education, co-authored Critical Race Theory and Its Critics to unpack how the villainizing strategies of conservative critics of CRT have been successful and how it relates to larger issues of structural and institutional racism. Conservative institutions and the critics they support have spread misleading claims about CRT in order to uphold ongoing structural inequities. This has caused several negative effects, but most noticeably has created fear around the subject entirely, resulting in suppression of information about race and racism in schools.

cartoon depiction of a frustrated african american man sitting at a desk, looking at his computer that has a banned book symbol on it

The history of the book dates to 2010 when Arizona banned Tucson Unified School District’s ethnic studies courses, deeming them a violation of student’s first and fourteenth amendment rights. Following the ruling in 2012, Dr. Willis D. Hawley was appointed as a Special Master to oversee the creation of a unitary status plan for the district.  

In 2016, Dr. Hawley asked Christine to chair a National Panel on Culturally Responsive Curriculum and Instruction to assist the district’s Office of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Instruction in their goals of providing professional development to district staff, teachers, and leaders. Christine and Francesca began their work on ethnic studies together when Francesca was later asked to work with the district’s Office of Culturally Responsive Curriculum and Instruction in their goals, and soon joined the National Panel on Culturally Responsive Curriculum and Instruction.  

A generic cartoon image of a magnify glass over a bar graph info sheet over a webpage

The book analyzes the current patterns of controversy surrounding CRT, and how it negatively impacts educators of color, then relates these current attacks to historical accounts of the oppression of people of color. It also presents research and sketches on race and racism, anti-racist teaching, and how the media has played a role in creating a caricature of CRT. It closes out with evidence-based recommendations on organizing, messaging, conducting, and sharing research with policy makers.