Foundation of Critical Race Theory

The emergence of Critical Race Theory (CRT) marked an important point in the history of racial politics in the legal academy and the broader conversation about race and racism in the United States. More recently, CRT has proven an important analytic tool in the field of education, offering critical perspectives on race, and the causes, consequences and manifestations of race, racism, inequity, and the dynamics of power and privilege in schooling. This groundbreaking anthology is the first to pull together both the foundational writings in the field and more recent scholarship on the cultural and racial politics of schooling. A comprehensive introduction provides an overview of the history and tenets of CRT in education. Each section then seeks to explicate ideological contestation of race in education and to create new, alternative accounts. In so doing, this landmark publication not only documents the progress to date of the CRT movement, it acts to further spur developments in education.

In this comprehensive anthology, Taylor, Gillborn, and Ladson-Billings bring together the early legal writings which gave birth to Critical Race Theory alongside educational research that has attempted to incorporate, deepen, and reinvent that tradition.  Foundations of Critical Race Theory in Education offers an intertextual history as it takes us from the courtroom to the classroom.  Indeed, it allows us to more fully understand educational debates around race, inequality, and power as part of a longer trajectory of struggle.  Scholars and activists concerned about the racial and cultural politics of schooling will quickly embrace this grounded and groundbreaking book."

-- Kristen L. Buras, Assistant Professor of Multicultural Urban Education and Reform, Division of Educational Studies, Emory University