The paradox of race evasive language in career and technical education legislation

Racially and ethnically minoritized students continue to experience disparate outcomes throughout educational pathways and into the workforce. For these students, their trajectories are often predetermined by systemic inequities coupled with implicit biases that place them into non-academic pathways at the secondary level. Such inequities has long-term post-secondary educational and employment implications for these students. Couple this with community colleges being a primary and viable point of entry for many racially and ethnically minoritized and other traditionally marginalized student populations and there becomes this need to deeply interrogate the intersubjectivity of policy makers, policy actors, and target populations as it shapes how policy is designed, interpreted and implemented, and ultimately outcomes there within. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the complexities and implications of policy design and implementation processes, with a particular focus on the social construction of special populations, through a critical analysis of career and technical education legislation, particularly at the postsecondary level. Further, this dissertation aims to better understand the intersubjectivity of policymakers, policy implementers, and target populations of the policies through career and technical education legislation. This study informed by racialized affect and social construction and policy design theory, employs a critical discourse analysis which places emphasis on language and text and illuminates how groups use language as a means of power and the implications of such action (van Dijk, 1993). More than 60 documents, including congressional records, legislative texts, congressional hearings, etc. were reviewed and analyzed. Additionally, data were collected via 10 one-on-one semi-structured, open-ended interviews with CTE administrators and representatives from a state community college coordinating board in the Midwest region of the United States. There were four major themes, with eight accompanying patterns. Related to the first theme of CTE administrator perceptions, CTE administrators positively view special populations but there is some variance in how they perceive the framing of special populations in Perkins V. Also, CTE administrator’s identities shape their perceptions of special populations. For the second theme of influences on CTE administrator’s interpretations of Perkins V legislation, language was the primary influences with local community and workforce needs and CTE administrator’s own experiences also influencing how they interpret CTE legislation. The third theme was related to broadening participation in lieu of race-conscious framing of Perkins V. Data disaggregation and Career and Technical Student Organizations emerged as strategies for broadening participation despite the race-evasive nature of Perkins V. Finally, the last theme related to sociopolitical factors not having a significant impact on the ability to be race forward. Findings from this dissertation will aid policy makers and policy implementers in developing policies, practices, and processes that better support students most marginalized in CTE pathways by illuminating policy design processes within context over time and contemporary understanding and implementation of policy and its impact on beneficiaries.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Graham III, Edmund Harville

Contributors dc:contributor

• Zamani-Gallaher, Eboni
• Baber, Lorenzo
• Span, Christopher
• Flores, Osly

• Career And Technical Education
• Racialized Affect
• Special Populations
• Race Evasiveness
• Equity Consciousness
• Critical Discourse Analysis

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Edmund Graham III

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/124384

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F124384