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Article
Desegregation policy as cultural routine: a critical examination of the Minnesota Desegregation Rule
Journal of Education Policy
(2019)
Abstract
Education policies often result in and/or perpetuate inequitable and marginalizing outcomes. To that point, education policy may be viewed as an act of white supremacy. The purpose of this study was to examine the Minnesota Desegregation Rule (MR 3535.0100-0180) as a cultural artifact of race-related policy in US public education. Critical analyses of these types of policies offer a means to understand and document the status and workings of race and racism within a particular socio-political milieu.
Three tenets from Critical Race Theory (the permanence of racism, the critique of liberalism, and law as a structural determinant) provided analytic tools to understand how the discourses related to race and racism act as cultural routines. The examination revealed nuances, contradictions, and patterns of power and privilege that serve as masked but powerful cultural signifiers. While legal and policy remedies are positioned as a means to reduce social and structural inequality, the Rule emphasizes bureaucracy and procedure and de-emphasizes student equity and racially equitable practices. Ultimately, the Rule relies on and perpetuates cultural routines that prescribe technical fixes to address deep structural, systemic, social, and institutionalized forms of racism.
Keywords
- Desegregation policy,
- integration,
- educational policy,
- race,
- racism,
- Critical Race Theory,
- cultural artifact
Disciplines
Publication Date
May, 2019
DOI
10.1080/02680939.2019.1609092
Citation Information
Sharon Radd, Tanetha J. Grosland and Amanda G Steepleton. "Desegregation policy as cultural routine: a critical examination of the Minnesota Desegregation Rule" Journal of Education Policy (2019) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/tanetha-grosland/16/