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Colonial discourse analysis was initiated as an academic sub‐discipline within literary and cultu... more Colonial discourse analysis was initiated as an academic sub‐discipline within literary and cultural theory by Edward Said's Orientalism (Said, 1978). This is not to suggest that colonialism had not been studied before then, but it was Said who shifted the study of colonialism among cultural critics towards its discursive operations, showing the intimate connection between the language and forms of knowledge developed for the study of cultures and the history of colonialism and imperialism. This meant that the kinds of concepts and representations used in literary texts, travel writings, memoirs and academic studies across a range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, could be analyzed as a means for understanding the diverse ideological practices of colonialism. Said's Foucauldian emphasis on the way in which Orientalism developed as a discursive construc‐ tion, so that its language and conceptual structure determined both what could be said and what recognized as truth, demonstrated that all other perspectives on colonialism share and have to deal with a common discursive medium: the language used to describe or analyze colonialism is not transparent, innocent, ahistori‐ cal or merely instrumental. Colonial discourse analysis therefore looks at the wide variety of texts of colonialism as something more than mere documentation or 'evi‐ dence', and also emphasizes and analyzes the ways in
In this paper we share findings of a textbook analysis in which we explored the treatment of segr... more In this paper we share findings of a textbook analysis in which we explored the treatment of segregated education in eight, widely-used secondary United States history and government textbooks. We positioned our findings within the historiography related to the African American school experience which challenges the notion that the lack of resources allocated to Black schools in many areas of the country necessarily equated to a substandard educational experience for Black children. In our analysis we found textbook coverage to be episodically robust, but generally lacking in sufficient context to promote students' recognition of the complexity and nuance of the development and disintegration of African American education. Using the theoretical lens of critical race theory, we suggest that failure of teachers and teacher educators to include recognition of the African American education experience serves to enshrine an approach to learning about America's segregated education history that may contribute to excessively abstract generalizations and perpetuation of historical racial stereotypes.
Over the last decade or so, the study of whiteness in the US has grown in both cultural and acade... more Over the last decade or so, the study of whiteness in the US has grown in both cultural and academic significance, attracting hostility from neo-conservative commentators. But there is also a critique to be had from the Left. For while the study of whiteness as a social construction – which takes its starting point from Du Bois – has demonstrated more clearly than ever how racism is at the core of US history and society, it has, for the most part, failed to take the issue of class into account. How and why this is is closely analysed here, in an examination of the work, in particular, of Ignatiev, Hale, Roediger and Saxton.
Colonial discourse analysis was initiated as an academic sub‐discipline within literary and cultu... more Colonial discourse analysis was initiated as an academic sub‐discipline within literary and cultural theory by Edward Said's Orientalism (Said, 1978). This is not to suggest that colonialism had not been studied before then, but it was Said who shifted the study of colonialism among cultural critics towards its discursive operations, showing the intimate connection between the language and forms of knowledge developed for the study of cultures and the history of colonialism and imperialism. This meant that the kinds of concepts and representations used in literary texts, travel writings, memoirs and academic studies across a range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, could be analyzed as a means for understanding the diverse ideological practices of colonialism. Said's Foucauldian emphasis on the way in which Orientalism developed as a discursive construc‐ tion, so that its language and conceptual structure determined both what could be said and what recognized as truth, demonstrated that all other perspectives on colonialism share and have to deal with a common discursive medium: the language used to describe or analyze colonialism is not transparent, innocent, ahistori‐ cal or merely instrumental. Colonial discourse analysis therefore looks at the wide variety of texts of colonialism as something more than mere documentation or 'evi‐ dence', and also emphasizes and analyzes the ways in
In this paper we share findings of a textbook analysis in which we explored the treatment of segr... more In this paper we share findings of a textbook analysis in which we explored the treatment of segregated education in eight, widely-used secondary United States history and government textbooks. We positioned our findings within the historiography related to the African American school experience which challenges the notion that the lack of resources allocated to Black schools in many areas of the country necessarily equated to a substandard educational experience for Black children. In our analysis we found textbook coverage to be episodically robust, but generally lacking in sufficient context to promote students' recognition of the complexity and nuance of the development and disintegration of African American education. Using the theoretical lens of critical race theory, we suggest that failure of teachers and teacher educators to include recognition of the African American education experience serves to enshrine an approach to learning about America's segregated education history that may contribute to excessively abstract generalizations and perpetuation of historical racial stereotypes.
Over the last decade or so, the study of whiteness in the US has grown in both cultural and acade... more Over the last decade or so, the study of whiteness in the US has grown in both cultural and academic significance, attracting hostility from neo-conservative commentators. But there is also a critique to be had from the Left. For while the study of whiteness as a social construction – which takes its starting point from Du Bois – has demonstrated more clearly than ever how racism is at the core of US history and society, it has, for the most part, failed to take the issue of class into account. How and why this is is closely analysed here, in an examination of the work, in particular, of Ignatiev, Hale, Roediger and Saxton.