Identity in Education

This edited volume explores the impact of social identity (race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion and so on) on teaching and learning. Operating within a realist framework, the contributors to this volume (all of whom are minority scholars) consider ways to productively engage identity in the classroom and at the institutional level, as a means of working toward racial democracy in higher education. As realists, all authors in the volume hold the theoretical position that identities are both real and constructed, and that identities are always epistemically salient. Thus the book argues—from diverse disciplinary and educational contexts—that mobilizing identities in academia is a necessary part of progressive (antiracist, feminist, anticolonial) educators' efforts to transform knowledge-making, to establish critical access for minority students to higher education, and to create a more just and democratic society.

This edited volume explores the impact of social identity (race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion and so on) on teaching and learning. Operating within a realist framework, the contributors to this volume (all of whom are minority scholars) consider ways to productively engage identity in the classroom and at the institutional level, as a means of working toward racial democracy in higher education. As realists, all authors in the volume hold the theoretical position that identities are both real and constructed, and that identities are always epistemically salient. Thus the book argues--from diverse disciplinary and educational contexts--that mobilizing identities in academia is a necessary part of progressive (antiracist, feminist, anticolonial) educators' efforts to transform knowledge-making, to establish critical access for minority students to higher education, and to create a more just and democratic society.

Susan Sánchez-Casal is the director of Tufts University / Skidmore College in Madrid. She was formerly Associate Professor and Chair of Hispanic Studies at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. She has published essays on Latin American and Latin@ literature, and is the co-author and co-editor, with Amie A. Macdonald, of Twenty-First-Century Feminist Classrooms: Pedagogies of Identity and Difference (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002). Dr. Sánchez-Casal’s current research focuses on realist pedagogy and educational policy, specifically on increasing critical access and racial democracy for minority students in higher education. She is a member of the Future of Minority Studies Research Project (FMS) Executive Coordinating Team.

Amie A. Macdonald is Associate Professor of Philosophy at John Jay College of Criminal Justice/City University of New York. She is the co-author and co-editor, with Susan Sánchez-Casal, of Twenty-First-Century Feminist Classrooms: Pedagogies of Identity and Difference (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002). Her teaching and research are focused on racial democracy, racial justice, and equity in education, with a focus on urban public higher education and implementing policy changes that increase access to graduate and professional schools for first-generation college students. Professor Macdonald is a member of the Future of Minority Studies Research Project (FMS) Coordinating Team.