In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

23 Critical Race Theory, Latino Critical Theory, and Critical Raced-Gendered Epistemologies Recognizing Students of Color as Holders and Creators of Knowledge Dolores Delgado Bernal University of Utah I have to say that I think my high school was pretty discriminatory because I feel that I wasn’t tracked into a college program and I think I had the potential to be. Except because I was from the other side of the tracks, no one really took the time to inspire me. . . . I had a high school English teacher who had asked us to write an essay. And I had written it about the death of my sister. And when she gave it back to me, she gave me a D. And she said it was all wrong. And I just couldn’t get how she was, first of all, insensitive, and then second of all, criticizing me on an experience she didn’t have and that only I could write about. And so that’s when I think I started to feel the discrimination, almost in the way, I guess in the expectations of what you talk about or what you don’t talk about in school. And what’s academic and what’s not academic. (Angela, a graduating Chicana college student) Actually, after my second semester of my sophomore year, I took my first Chicano studies course, “Chicano Life History” with Ledesma, and that just opened my eyes to everything, a passion. . . . That class helped me a lot . . . y tambien [and also] basically gave me identity ’cause I was lost. . . . So, if the students were exposed to that . . . it would make a huge difference, learning our history y todo [and all]. . . . I wish that somehow I could [teach at] the elementary school ’cause I think it’s important that we start that early, just giving that gift of giving someone their . . . history y todo [and all]. . . . And 389 390 / Delores Delgado Bernal I don’t think it should even be a gift, it’s a right. It’s a right; unfortunately, it’s not happening [in schools]. (Chuy, a graduating Chicano college student) Although students of color are holders and creators of knowledge, they often feel as if their histories, experiences, cultures, and languages are devalued, misinterpreted, or omitted within formal educational settings. The above quotes address how two undergraduate students of color reflect on what counts as valid knowledge in schools and how this has directly affected their lives.1 Angela speaks to how she learned as a young high school student that her real life experiences “from the other side of the tracks” were not considered an acceptable source of knowledge from which to draw on in academic settings. Her personal experience embodied knowledge that her teacher seemed to disregard, perhaps because she did not consider it to be objective or authoritative knowledge. Chuy points to how his cultural and/or ethnic history was omitted from the curriculum until he was in college and how this has motivated him to want to teach younger students. He expresses his disappointment in the schools’ focus on a Eurocentric history that denies the history of students of color. Both students are addressing epistemological questions that deal with power, politics, and survival as well as the need for educators to recognize the knowledge, histories, and experiences of students of color. Epistemology, in general, refers to the nature, status, and production of knowledge (Harding, 1987) and the way one knows and understands the world. However, the concept of epistemology is more than just a “way of knowing” and can be more accurately defined as a “system of knowing” that is linked to worldviews based on the conditions under which people live and learn (Ladson-Billings, 2000). Ladson-Billings argues that “there are well-developed systems of knowledge, or epistemologies, that stand in contrast to the dominant Euro-American epistemology” (p. 258). Indeed, a number of education scholars have begun talking about critical raced and raced-gendered epistemologies that emerge from a social, cultural, and political history different from the dominant race (e.g., Delgado Bernal, 1998; Dillard, 1997, 2000; Gordon, 1990; Ladson-Billings, 1995, 2000; Scheurich & Young, 1997). These raced and raced-gendered epistemologies directly challenge the broad range of currently popular research paradigms, from positivism to constructivism and liberal feminism to postmodernism, which draw from a narrow foundation of knowledge that is based on the social, historical, and cultural experiences of Anglos (Stanfield, 1994). As part of the challenge to popular...

Share