Intersectionality in Education

This book presents a framework for addressing intersectionality within educational spaces to combat the cumulative effects of systemic marginalization due to race, gender, disability, class, sexual orientation, and other identity-based labels. Readers can use the framework to consider the impact of identities that individuals adopt or are assigned, move beyond discrete subgroup labels, and fully consider how such markers impact how education policy and research are developed, enacted, and experienced. The text presents examples of existing systems (education, law, medicine, and juvenile justice) as experienced by individuals with intersectional social identities. Each chapter provides an innovative framework that highlights diverse ways of knowing, generating insights that can inform more equitable policy analysis, research, and practice.

Book Features:

• A protocol for applying an intersectionality-based analytic (IBA) approach to education policy, research, and practice.
• Case study examples of how IBA can be implemented to improve decision making across disciplines and by various stakeholders.
• Guiding questions that can be used to develop complex research questions and methods that interrupt power differentials within research and policymaking processes.

Wendy Cavendish is a professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at University of Miami, School of Education and Human Development. Jennifer F. Samson is an associate professor of special education at the School of Education, Hunter College, CUNY.

“The nine chapters in this book will have your head reeling with insights that you may never have considered but that, once you have, help you understand how very logical they are when viewed through an intersectional paradigm. Here, there is something for everyone interested in delving more deeply into what it means to use intersectionality as a lens to understand individuals as well as systems.”
—From the Foreword by Sonia Nieto

“With Intersectionality in Education, Cavendish and Samson give us the book we need for the time we are living in. For scholars, leaders, and teachers, this edited collection provides a window into the intersections of theory, law, justice, identity, and education. The editors ensure that readers understand the way that U.S. systems are shaped by racism and injustice, while providing a roadmap for how to dismantle and rebuild anew in ways that foster equity.”
—Marybeth Gasman, Samuel DeWitt Proctor Endowed Chair in Education & Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University

“Jennifer Samson and Wendy Cavendish have brought the power of intersectional analysis to critical questions in education, from legal issues, to school discipline, homelessness, and juvenile justice. This is a much-needed volume at the nexus of policy, practice, and scholarship, providing theoretical as well as community-based perspectives on these critical issues.”
—Richard J. Reddick, associate dean for equity, community engagement, and outreach, College of Education, University of Texas at Austin