Cheryl Matias - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Cheryl Matias

Toward Critically Analyzing Whiteness in Immigrant Health

Health Education & Behavior, Aug 1, 2023

Assimilation theories dominate immigration scholarship to examine differential life chances, oppo... more Assimilation theories dominate immigration scholarship to examine differential life chances, opportunities, and health of immigrants across three waves of immigrants in the United States. Assimilation theories are widely used in public health to explain the health status of immigrants despite the embedded White supremacist ideology while ignoring the role of whiteness. This article reviews and critiques assimilation theories to propose a critical analysis of whiteness in immigrant health scholarship. Critically analyzing whiteness in immigrant health studies allows us to recognize (a) the problematic framing of assimilation theories because of the theories’ devotion to a White-European vision of upward mobility and a mainstream characterized as elite and White and (b) how a purportedly colorblind immigration law reinforces White supremacy through possessive investment in whiteness. To highlight whiteness in immigrant health, we examine the anti-immigration rhetoric and anti-immigrant policies and surveillance while providing implications for future research in the scholarship of immigrant health.

Interrogating Democracy, Education, and Modern White Supremacy: A (Re)Constitution Toward Racially Just Democratic Teacher Education

Teachers College Record, May 18, 2022

Background/Context: Almost 100 years ago, John Dewey advocated for a democratic U.S. educational ... more Background/Context: Almost 100 years ago, John Dewey advocated for a democratic U.S. educational system, one that echoed the tenets of the U.S. Constitution and achieved an ethical ideal by inviting participation of all students. Yet the U.S. educational system continues to stop short of this goal insofar as students of Color—especially those in urban school districts—disproportionately face obstacles not so encountered by white students. Purpose/Focus of Study: If democracy in the United States is characterized by freedom, equality, and liberty, the inherent question is whether these rights are enjoyed in equivalent degrees among all citizens against the context of white nationalist marches, police brutality, racially targeted mass shootings, and racial bias in education and society. Setting: Despite historical strides in civil rights, today’s United States has become increasingly racialized and—some would argue—indicative of a neo-fascist climate wherein whiteness and white supremacy prevail. Subjects: How does this racial tension manifest in teacher education, a field in which racialized whiteness is already so “overwhelming” and most teacher candidates are white? What is the current state of “democratic” education in the United States given the historical bias against students of Color? Can schools, educators, and advocates achieve Dewey’s democratic ideal? Research Design: Using critical race theory and critical studies of whiteness, we theoretically explore a new “constitution” for the state of education, specifically teacher education, in today’s climate to posit whether democratic education can truly exist in the midst of systemic racism. Conclusion/Recommendations: We consider examples from within both teacher education and U.S. society writ large to show associations among attitudes, dispositions, and ideologies as aligned with racialized whiteness and then offer more just recommendations for educators attempting to resist racism in order to create a more democratic educational space.

Emotionality and Whiteness

BRILL eBooks, Nov 28, 2020

Digital Storytelling as Racial Justice

Journal of Teacher Education, Jan 19, 2016

Teacher education is replete with an overwhelming presence of Whiteness, a presence that if not e... more Teacher education is replete with an overwhelming presence of Whiteness, a presence that if not explicitly interrogated indefinitely recycles hegemonic Whiteness. Needed are pedagogical strategies that expose the hegemonic invisibility of Whiteness. This critical reflection examines the utilization of digital storytelling by teacher educators of color to pedagogically deconstruct Whiteness in a predominately White, urban-focused teacher education course—a necessary deconstruction if these teacher candidates are to effectively teach urban students of color. Particularly, this article deconstructs four academic years of digital stories produced in a mandatory diversity course in an urban teacher education program and illustrates how digital storytelling itself promotes a critical self-revelation that confront Whiteness in White teacher candidates. The preliminary analyses suggest that digital storytelling is a racially just way of having White teacher candidates self-reflect on their own Whiteness in a multitude of ways, by (a) ending emotional distancing, (b) debunking colorblindness, (c) engaging emotions, and (d) sharing the burden of race.

Not I: The Narcissism of Whiteness

“When Saying You Care Ain’t Really Caring”

In the wake of the not guilty verdict in the U.S. murder trial of Trayvon Martin, Juror B37, a Wh... more In the wake of the not guilty verdict in the U.S. murder trial of Trayvon Martin, Juror B37, a White female, appeared on CNN’s Anderson 360 to describe her thought process during deliberation. Responding to the credibility of the testimony of Rachel Jeantel, an African American teenage female, Juror B37 stated, “I don’t think it was very credible … because of her education and her communication skills. She wasn’t a good witness.”

Dancing with Charles: A man, scholar, legacy

Race Ethnicity and Education, May 4, 2023

“When saying you care is not really caring”: Whiteness and the Role of Disgust

When Racially Just Teaching becomes Your Own Heart

Routledge eBooks, Jun 26, 2023

On whiteness Studies: Hope and Futurity

International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, May 15, 2022

Racial Justice and the Emotional Dichotomy: Reading Emotion in Critical Educators’ Narratives on Politics and Policy amid Protest

Journal of school leadership, Oct 14, 2022

ParentCrit epilog

International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Nov 30, 2017

First used in a 2011 American Educational Research Association paper presentation made by Cheryl ... more First used in a 2011 American Educational Research Association paper presentation made by Cheryl E. Matias, the term motherscholar employed throughout this issue refers to the inseparable identities of being both mother and scholar; both-and and not, either-or. That is, we argue that motherscholars do not engage in scholarship, even specific to ParentCrit, without engaging their roles as mothers inasmuch as they also engage their roles as scholars in parenting. As we, motherscholars ourselves, engage in critical race work and whiteness work in particular, our own children sit at the forefront of our minds, making us rethink how personal our scholarship is to us. As such, in doing our IRBs, research inquiries, pedagogical examinations, and other educational research, we constantly ask ourselves, ‘In the end, do these practices and ideas best support our own children and how can we best prepare our children for a fucked up society that ceaselessly promotes white supremacy?’ In the same vein, we cannot raise our children within this racialized society without the guiding words of scholars like Audre Lorde, Patricia Hill Collins, or Beverly Tatum whispering in our ear. And, for this we are both mother and scholar, simultaneously, not hyphenated. Certainly, the ParentCrit work engaged in this issue is not new. As Diaquoi describes in this issue, ‘the talk’ by Black parents in the US has been core to ParentCrit (as we call it) for generations, serving as survival education for Black youth. Likewise, other Parents of Color have engaged in racial sensemaking with their Children of Color to help them avoid the internalized racism, otherwise characterized as self-hatred by Fanon (2008). Yet, despite generations of engaging in ‘the talk’, the scholarship specific to ParentCrit is relatively new to the scholarly literature, with exceptions from womanist and Black feminist scholars such as Lorde (2007) or Collins (2008). For example, womanists and Black feminists have engaged the topic of mothering in and of itself, and some white feminists have written about mothering in the academy. Many of these white feminist scholars caution women about the patriarchal nuances imbued in the academy that not only stifle motherscholars but also detrimentally impact their careers and livelihood. Yet despite acknowledging that patriarchy infects the academy, female graduate students and faculty members are regularly told it is ‘risky business’ should they become pregnant or even hint that they may want to have children while in the academy. Plainly stated, the message put forth to women in the academy is that to be both women and mothers in the academy doesn’t mix. Since the message delivered to women is that motherhood does not mix with scholarly life, women are expected to create a larger separation between the domestic and public/business-world (Boyd, 1997), while being forced to follow a hidden script, so to say, that if one chooses to be a mother then they are better suited for the domestic world and not the professional one. With respects to white feminist works on mothering, the literature on mothering is, at times, informative. But, at the same time, it is noticeably individualistic and even, at times, seemingly narcissistic with whiteness (see Matias, 2016). For instance, Swanson and Johnston (2003) conducted a study on mothers both academic and nonacademic. In their interviews they suggest that academic mothers share an ‘intensive’ mothering experience that calls for around the clock accessibility, similar to stay-at-home

Re-introducing the Phoenix Within

This chapter draws from my own experiences, stories, and personal narratives to illustrate just h... more This chapter draws from my own experiences, stories, and personal narratives to illustrate just how challenging life is within the academy. Though such stories may initially seem benign, speaking our (as in people of Color, more precisely, women of Color) Truths is a bold move in the academy. Therefore, I do not share these stories without reservations. Indeed, it is with an element of fear of those in power, precisely because those folks are most fearful of being exposed of their bias, bigotry, and thirst for power, rather than to learn from them. And in their fear and abuse of power, they will do anything to silence our stories. These stories, then, are powerful and must be heard.

White racial ignorance and refusing culpability: how the emotionalities of whiteness ignore race in teacher education

Race Ethnicity and Education, May 1, 2023

The impact of Whiteness on the education of nurses

Journal of Professional Nursing, May 1, 2021

Racism affects the nursing profession by routinely producing an over representation of Whites. Si... more Racism affects the nursing profession by routinely producing an over representation of Whites. Since the Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce (Sullivan, 2004) reported that people of Color (POC) found it difficult to gain admission into health professions schools, regulatory agencies have made recommendations to the nursing profession to create program strategies to increase diversity. Many strategies were implemented to recruit, educate, retain, and graduate POC from university-based nursing programs, but these have had little effect on diversity in nursing. Simply put, these strategies were only band-aids attempting to heal a much larger issue within the profession precisely because programs do not address the underlying problem: the pervasiveness of whiteness. Whiteness has been normalized and influential in the manifestation of racism in nursing practice. The pervasiveness of whiteness has resulted in nursing education being seen through a White lens (Scammell & Olumide, 2011). This paper explores whiteness and its effect on the profession of nursing and nursing education.

Critical Race Parenting in Education

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education, Aug 31, 2021

Conceptualized as early as 2006 via ideas of the motherscholar, the concept of Critical Race Pare... more Conceptualized as early as 2006 via ideas of the motherscholar, the concept of Critical Race Parenting (otherwise ParentCrit) was first identified in 2016 in an open access online journal to discuss pedagogical ways parents and children can coconstruct understanding about race, racism, whiteness, and white supremacy. Since then Critical Race Parenting/ParentCrit has become more popularized in academic circles, from peer-reviewed conference presentations to special issues by journals. The rationale behind ParentCrit definitions, theoretical roots, parallels to education, implications to education, scholarship and literature, and controversies are explicated to describe what ParentCrit is and where it came from. To effectively articulate its epistemological roots in the idea of the motherscholar to its relation to Critical Race Theory, one must delve into the purposes, evolution, and implications of ParentCrit in education.

Decolonizing the Colonial White Mind

White supremacy, enacted through individual and institutionalized racism, is like colonization in... more White supremacy, enacted through individual and institutionalized racism, is like colonization in that it has an overarching oppressive state of coloniality that impacts the relationships and social positions of racial colonizers and the racially colonized.

Fervent Fortitudes: Exploring Emotions and Racial Literacy as Antiracist Pedagogy

Journal of curriculum theorizing, Jan 10, 2018

The emotionality of race in education calls for continual pedagogical reconceptualizations that s... more The emotionality of race in education calls for continual pedagogical reconceptualizations that specifically address emotion. As such, the purpose of this paper is to inform and expand pedagogies related to educational equity in the context of emotionally charged race conversations in postsecondary education classrooms. We do this by first putting forth some theoretical claims about emotions within education and racial literacy. We then share our findings from our study of a job embedded professional-practice graduate course for full-time practicing educators, a course on educational equity called “Culturally Responsive Classroom Management.” We discovered two types of experiential narratives: pity and emotional negativity toward racially-minoritized children. We also found evidence that educational leaders burdened their racially-minoritized colleagues by showing emotional negativity toward the Black/African American children they served. Thus, we asked: can someone who has pity and emotional negativity about race have the competence or “fervent fortitude” needed to address racial inequality and the emotions it promulgates? Such a question is crucial in our complicated world, but the implications lie in a twofold approach that involves engaging both emotions and racial literacy curricularly.

Birthing the Motherscholar and Motherscholarship

Peabody Journal of Education, Mar 15, 2022