Critical Race Theory as a Research Design Framework

by Janet Salmons, PhD, Research Community Manager for SAGE Methodspace

In an earlier stage of my career I ran a program at Cornell University that offered professional development about a wide range of “isms”. Our goals were focused on building self-awareness and changing individual behaviors and cultures in the classroom or workplace. Today, we realize that individual change, while important, is not enough. We need to understand the larger forces that influence attitudes and behaviors, a way of thinking represented by Critical Race Theory.

As Sharon Ravitch noted in an earlier Methodspace post:

Critical Race Theory recognizes that racism transcends individual bias and prejudice, it is embedded in legal, social, and educational policies and practices that uphold racial inequality. Critical Race Theory acknowledges the continuing impacts of slavery and segregation, illuminating how institutionalized racism perpetuates an inherently unequal system.

While press articles and social media posts ascribe other meanings, in fact Critical Race Theory points to the need to move beyond individual feelings of guilt to actions that address issues at a systemic level. How can researchers look at these problems and build new understandings about how to move forward? Christian and Ray (2019) observe:

[S]eeing research as part of a racialized social system means that research design is rarely race-neutral. Selection of an analytical object, measurement of racial groups (Zuberi, 2001), choice of method (Zuberi & Bonilla-Silva, 2008), the theoretical framing of our analysis and findings (Elias & Feagin, 2016), and the choice of empirical foci are inevitably shaped by political concerns. A CRT-based research practice is also in line with classic social science methodological precepts to think carefully about operationalization of concepts, fit of data and method to research question, and the logic of inquiry.

In other words, we should be intentional about how we identify problems, carry out studies, and interpret the results. In this collection of open-access articles, researchers consider ways Critical Race Theory can be used to frame studies that look at the intersection of race and other societal, cultural, economic, and or political factors.

Christian, M., Seamster, L., & Ray, V. (2021). Critical Race Theory and Empirical Sociology. American Behavioral Scientist, 65(8), 1019–1026. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764219859646

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Burrell-Craft, K. (2020). Are (we) going deep enough?: A narrative literature review addressing critical race theory, racial space theory, and black identity development. Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education, 19(4), 2.

Abstract. A narrative literature review was conducted to examine how researchers address the concept of intersectionality using critical race theory, racial space theory, and Black identity development. A Boolean search revealed 18 articles met criteria for consideration. Multiple reviews occurred to isolate the articles that contained all the search criteria and multiple reviews occurred that selected the Boolean phrase or phrases that the researcher was searching for. Thirteen of the 18 articles met one or more search criteria and were included in the review, however, no articles matched 100 percent for inclusion. Thus, indicating we are not going deep enough in our research of Blackness and its complexities and intersectionalities.

Busey, C. L., Duncan, K. E., & Dowie-Chin, T. (2022). Critical What What? A Theoretical Systematic Review of 15 Years of Critical Race Theory Research in Social Studies Education, 2004–2019. Review of Educational Research, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543221105551

Abstract. Since its introduction as an analytic and theoretical tool for the examination of racism in education, CRT scholarship has proliferated as the most visible critical theory of race in educational research. Whereas CRT’s popularity can be viewed as a welcome sign, scholars continually caution against its misappropriation and overuse, which dilute its criticality. We draw from the cautionary ethos of this canon of literature as the impetus for examining CRT’s terrain in social studies education research. Starting from Ladson-Billings’s watershed edited CRT text on race and social studies in 2003, this study provides a comprehensive theoretical review of scholarly literature in the social studies education field pertinent to the nexus of CRT, racialized citizenship, and race(ism). To guide our review, we asked how social studies education scholars have defined and used CRT as an analytic and theoretical framework in social studies education research from 2004 to 2019, as well as how scholars have positioned CRT within social studies education research to foreground the relationship between citizenship and race. Overall, findings from our theoretical review illustrated that contrary to the proliferation of CRT in educational research, CRT was slow to catch on as a theoretical and analytic framework in social studies education, as only seven of the articles in our analysis were published between 2004 and 2010. However, CRT emerged as a viable framework for the examination of race, racism, and racialized citizenship between 2011 and 2019, with a majority of these studies emphasizing (a) the centrality of race as a core tenet of CRT, (b) idealist interrogations of race, (c) the perspectives of teachers of color and White teachers in learning how to teach about race, and (d) the role of race and racism in curricular analyses that serve as counternarrative to the master script of the nation’s linear social progress in social studies education.

Dueñas, M. D., & Crowell, A. R. (2023). Resisting Racist Discourses with Research Methods, Active Learning, and Storytelling. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 9(1), 103–108. https://doi.org/10.1177/23326492221127957

Abstract. This article contributes to building anti-racist teaching resources in the scholarship of teaching and learning in sociology. We developed an active learning-based project in which students conduct and analyze an interview with someone they are close to on how their family discussed racial discourses during their childhoods. Using Latinx Critical Race Theory as a framework and through qualitative analyses of student assignments, we found that the course project developed students’ critical consciousness by helping them evaluate how biographies are shaped by race, racism, and racial discourses and identify how racism and resistance manifest in family life through storytelling.

Gillborn, D. (2015). Intersectionality, Critical Race Theory, and the Primacy of Racism: Race, Class, Gender, and Disability in Education. Qualitative Inquiry, 21(3), 277–287. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800414557827

Abstract. The article explores the utility of intersectionality as an aspect of critical race theory (CRT) in education. Drawing on research with Black middle-class parents in England, the article explores the intersecting roles of race, class, and gender in the construction and deployment of dis/ability in education. The author concludes that intersectionality is a vital aspect of understanding race inequity but that racism retains a primacy for critical race scholars in three key ways: namely, empirical primacy (as a central axis of oppression in the everyday reality of schools), personal/autobiographical primacy (as a vital component in how critical race scholars view themselves and their experience of the world), and political primacy (as a point of group coherence and activism).

Lawrence, S., & Hylton, K. (2022). Critical Race Theory, Methodology, and Semiotics: The Analytical Utility of a “Race” Conscious Approach for Visual Qualitative Research. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 22(3), 255–265. https://doi.org/10.1177/15327086221081829

Abstract. Over the last 30 years, Critical Race Theory (CRT) has been applied successfully as an analytical framework, through which, to explore matters of “race,” racialization, and subordination in numerous fields. For CRT to continue to be relevant, there is a need to reorient it as a guiding analytical framework, to account for the ubiquity of digital technologies across liberal Western democracies and the ways in which they have radically changed social and cultural production. During this article, we wish to extend this argument further and encourage the development of critical race methodologies (CRMs) fit for the (hyper)digital moment, so we are equipped better to challenge the persistence of racialized hierarchies and the emerging cultural circumstances in which they operate. It identifies the philosophical principles that underpin CRMs and concludes by outlining critical race semiotics (CRS) as an analytical tool dedicated to human emancipation, particular to our highly visual culture.

Long, L. J. (2021). The ideal victim: A critical race theory (CRT) approach. International Review of Victimology, 27(3), 344–362. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269758021993339

Abstract. Using a critical race theory (CRT) framework, this paper analyses Black and Black mixed- race people’s experiences of reporting crime. It is based on qualitative interviews with 20 participants. The analysis finds that the process of becoming the (un)victim is mediated through the intersection of race with gender and masculinity, class and migrant status. Ultimately, Black and Black mixed-race men are the ‘ideal offender’ rather than the ‘ideal victim’ (Christie, 1986). The research finds that the (un)victim experiences racial re-victimization and develops an altered perception of the police as a trusted body. The racialized affect of being the (un)victim is greater than the effects of minor crime on the victim. The challenges that this poses to the relationship between Black communities and the police are explored and the implications for future practice discussed.

Matamoros-Fernández, A., & Farkas, J. (2021). Racism, Hate Speech, and Social Media: A Systematic Review and Critique. Television & New Media, 22(2), 205-224. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476420982230

Abstract. Departing from Jessie Daniels’s 2013 review of scholarship on race and racism online, this article maps and discusses recent developments in the study of racism and hate speech in the subfield of social media research. Systematically examining 104 articles, we address three research questions: Which geographical contexts, platforms, and methods do researchers engage with in studies of racism and hate speech on social media? To what extent does scholarship draw on critical race perspectives to interrogate how systemic racism is (re)produced on social media? What are the primary methodological and ethical challenges of the field? The article finds a lack of geographical and platform diversity, an absence of researchers’ reflexive dialogue with their object of study, and little engagement with critical race perspectives to unpack racism on social media. There is a need for more thorough interrogations of how user practices and platform politics co-shape contemporary racisms.

Park, A. S. J., & Bahia, J. (2022). Examining the Experiences of Racialized and Indigenous Graduate Students as Emerging Researchers. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 8(3), 403–417. https://doi.org/10.1177/23326492221098953

Abstract. In this article, we explore the experiences of graduate students as researchers who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) in the social sciences and humanities in Canada. This analysis is based on 22 semistructured qualitative interviews with BIPOC students and explores their experiences using critical race theory and an analysis of color-blind racism. The participants in our study narrate four dimensions of experience in relation to being researchers. (1) Supervision: Participants express positive relationships with supervisors who are intellectually open, engaged in critical scholarship, politically engaged, and who recognize the impact of larger forces on BIPOC students’ lives. (2) Funding: Participants describe unequal access to funding and to grant-writing skills development. (3) Self-tokenization: Some participants confront pressures to carry out voyeuristic, deficit-focused research on their own communities. (4) Responsibilities to community: Some participants want authentically to research their own communities, which entails additional responsibilities to avoid reproducing colonial and racist dynamics. Despite the ways in which racism and colonialism shape BIPOC students’ experiences as researchers, participants are clear that they are not victims of the university. Rather, they find meaning in knowledge creation and offer proactive recommendations on how to improve the experiences of BIPOC graduate student researchers.

Sablan, J. R. (2019). Can you really measure that? Combining critical race theory and quantitative methods. American educational research journal, 56(1), 178-203.

Abstract. Critical race theory (CRT) has been used in educational literature to emphasize the influence of racism on educational opportunity and the assets of students of color. Quantitative methods appear antithetical to CRT tenets according to some, but this article endeavors to show why this is not the case, based on both historical and contemporary notions. To build this argument, the author presents results from an empirical study that used data from a survey of undergraduates and measurement theory to quantify students’ community cultural wealth, a CRT framework that describes the cultural assets of communities of color. The author concludes with recommendations for incorporating quantitative methods into future CRT studies

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