Contribution to Book
Toward a Framework of Racialized Policymaking in Higher Education
Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research
(2021)
Abstract
From threatening protestors to cutting diversity office funding on college campuses, one contemporary brand of policymaking has overtly sought to undermine social justice efforts in higher education. Current popular policymaking theories, however, are inadequate to understand this phenomenon, as they undertheorize the role of racialized power in policymaking – e.g., the racialized network of policy elites and their core beliefs. In this chapter, we endeavored to bring together existing theory, research, and contemporary policymaking examples to offer a framework of racialized policymaking that explicitly describes the lack of progress for racial equity in higher education. We first frame policymaking in higher education as an unremitting contest between the maintenance or change of the racial status quo. We enumerate specific policy strategies – through either inaction or sanctions – that status quo policymakers use to stymie racial justice projects in higher education, and close with potential future directions for higher education policy research.
Keywords
- Higher Education,
- Education Policy,
- Higher Education Policy,
- Race,
- Ethnicity,
- Whiteness
Publication Date
Winter December 2, 2021
Editor
Laura Perna
Publisher
Springer
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66959-1_2-1
Citation Information
Rodriguez A., Deane K. C., Davis C. H. F. (2021). Towards a framework of racialized policymaking in higher education. In L.W. Perna (eds) Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, vol 37. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66959-1_2-1