Higher education has defined merit largely in terms of speed. It rewards not those who learn the most or the best, but those who report their learning back by the deadline, whether that's the time limit for the test or the end of the semester. Resilient learning takes time. More time spent in study results in longer retention, and elapsed time…

Nearly every country today has universal primary education. But why did governments in the West decide to provide education to all children in the first place? In "Raised to Obey," Agustina Paglayan offers an unsettling answer. The introduction of broadly accessible primary education was not mainly a response to industrialization, or…

This article draws on critical race theory, intersectionality, critical feminism, queer and indigenous paradigms to critique existing approaches to leader/leadership identity development (LID) and to illuminate how people from marginalized and oppressed communities can experience more just and equitable pathways to leadership. It offers…

The pandemic made us hold our breath for a return to "normal." But education in "normal" times involves race-based violence and class-based inequality that the pandemic simply made plainer to see. Reviewing the impacts of the pandemic and action for racial justice over the last two years, I show how the dislocation of the…

Social inequality is a central theme in sociology study plans (both in research and education), but it is often one of the most difficult topics to teach. This article presents an innovative student-centered strategy for teaching social inequality that uses a survey to collect data on students' socioeconomic characteristics and perceptions of…

This chapter provides an introduction to fraternity and sorority recruitment and socialization practices across various councils and discusses how power, privilege, and oppression shape recruitment as an inequitable practice.

Finding and developing talented youth from low-income backgrounds is an ongoing challenge for U.S. gifted education policy. These students face strong headwinds, whereas advantaged students enjoy favorable tailwinds, and these factors accumulate throughout K-12, higher education, and beyond. Jonathan Wai and Frank C. Worrell explain how talented…

Systemic racism is a scientifically tractable phenomenon, urgent for cognitive scientists to address. This tutorial reviews the built-in systems that undermine life opportunities and outcomes by racial category, with a focus on challenges to Black Americans. From American colonial history, explicit practices and policies reinforced disadvantage…

This chapter provides a discussion on elite schools and their students from the current literature and research that has been conducted to date globally and within the South African context, with a particular focus on marginalized students in elite schools -- those who enter these environments from different racial, socioeconomic, cultural and/or…

Adopting Bourdieu's (1986, 1977) concepts of habitus, field, and capital as a framework, I reflect on my multiple fluid identities as I study, teach, and live within two socially, culturally, and politically distinct places (Iraq and the United States). I examine my privileged and/or marginalized self throughout my journey and the way this…

In this paper psychological research is used to develop a framework in which to place notions of class in terms of relative dehumanisation as ingroups and outgroups to understand how opportunities are afforded to some and not to others, with categorical identities set up on the basis of inclusion or exclusion from cultural production. It draws…

Critical theory is one of the predominant schools of thought in the social sciences. Like all theory, it is a framework used for explaining--and examining--something about the world. Critical theory pays special attention to the social world, focusing on the hierarchical nature of social relations and examining how these unequal power…

Courses: Intercultural Communication, Interracial Communication, or an Interpersonal Communication class that covers co-cultural theory. Objectives: Students will be able to demonstrate a practical application of co-cultural theory by creating scenes that illustrate different communicative approaches and desired outcomes based on communication…

This article uses Daniel José Older's Shadowshaper as the core of a unit challenging students and teachers to confront and dismantle systems of oppression.

Courses: Intercultural Communication, Interracial Communication, Gender and Communication, Introduction to Communication Course (within a unit on culture), and any courses encouraging critical analyses of power. Objectives: This activity will: illuminate the ways in which everyday performances of privilege and resulting oppressions connect with…