David Stovall
Biographic Data
| ID | 757237 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David Stovall |
| GIVEN NAMES | David |
| FAMILY NAME | Stovall |
| SIGNATURE | STOVALL D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Illinois Chicago |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 200 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 32 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
STEM 's Dirty Secret: How Grit and Resilience Mask Systemic Racism
STEM fields perpetuate systemic racism under the guise of meritocracy, forcing Black, Latino, and Indigenous students—particularly women—to endure racialized stress, institutional exclusion, and the psychological toll of weathering and racial battle fatigue. This paper argues that narratives of “grit” and “resilience” individualize these systemic failures, pathologizing rational responses to hostile environments as personal deficits like “imposte…
We are the children of one mother: A cypher on abolition and apocalyptic education
Bang on the System: People’s Praxis and Pedagogy as Humanizing Violence
Bang on the System pairs critical race theory (CRT) with the litany of radical democratic analysis guiding the social practices of various revolutionary movements, proposing a new pedagogical framework that deploys a mutually informed critical race praxis as the basis to engage historically dispossessed youth in their own learning. This lens is utilized to examine an interpretive case study from a corpus of existing qualitative data collected thr…
Why we need Critical Race Theory: Moving toward Critical Race Praxis in P-20 education
Purpose In this paper the co-authors, educators and organizers working together in a liberatory curriculum development organization (People's Education Movement Chicago), put forth a conceptualization of Critical Race Praxis (CRP) in education as it applies to K-12 curriculum and education writ large. They take Yamamoto's (1997) premise seriously in that they need to spend less time with abstract theorizing and more time in communities experienci…
FACTSHEET – Engineered Conflict in Chicago
The Gradual and Immediate Violence of an Engineered Conflict: School Closings, Public Housing, Law Enforcement, and the Future of Black Life in Chicago
Background/Context: This article considers violence, both structurally and interpersonally, in Chicago, a city that moves to isolate and contain many of its Black working-class/low-income/no-income residents. Violence (particularly death by gun violence) should never be understood as a singular social problem that requires unilateral decisions on how to address the issue. Instead, it is critical to understand that homicides and other forms of vio…
We will greet our enemy with rifles and roses: Charles Mills and the perpetual impact of the Racial Contract
The following article positions the work of Charles Mills (1951–2021) as seminal to the development of critical race theory (CRT) in education. His groundbreaking contribution, The Racial Contract, has served as the foundation for understanding the myriad ways that white supremacy is central in the social contract championed by scholars of the Western European Enlightenment period. It is a ‘rifle’ in that it offers an unapologetically Black inter…
The Enemy Said We Will Not Make it Home: Critical Race Theory, Educational Foundations and the Fight Against Precarity
The following article is an edited transcript of the H. Freeman Butts lecture of the American Educational Studies Association that took place on November 5, 2021, in Portland, Oregon. In the address, Stovall provides an assessment of the recent attacks on Critical Race Theory and the work needed to resist the current attacks
“No Trifling Matter”: A Kitchen-Table Talk on Abolition and Fugitivity
Operating within the Black radical tradition, through this kitchen-table talk, we seek to edify and sustain abolitionist ontologies. We begin with poetic and musical offerings that highlight our personal connections to abolition, before exploring the complexities and necessities of relationship building as foundational for this work. We encounter the incommensurability of doing abolitionist work within institutions and systems that have attempted…
Upsetting the (Schooling) set up: Autoethnography as critical race methodology
This manuscript utilizes autoethnography as a critical race methodology. Specifically, the authors use generative autoethnography – a collective spin-story – to illustrate how their past personal experiences are present in their current educational lives. This generative autoethnography fulfills CRT’s tenets of: intercentricity of race and racism; challenging dominant Ideology; the commitment to social justice; the centrality of experiential know…
A Praxis of Critical Race Love: Toward the Abolition of Cisheteropatriarchy and Toxic Masculinity in Educational Justice Formations
Educators of color can often (in)advertently perpetuate gendered oppression against each other to cope with racism and its associated stressors. This occurs in part due to the violence we have endured as (a) minoritized people in a society where our oppression is endemic, (b) scholars of color navigating exclusionary institutions and education spaces, and (c) educators who experience vicarious and complex trauma from pain imposed onto the young p…
Are We Ready for ‘School’ Abolition?: Thoughts and Practices of Radical Imaginary in Education
Teaching Toward Democracy 2e: Educators As Agents of Change
Teaching Toward Democracy examines the contested space of schooling and school reform with a focus on the unique challenges and opportunities that teaching in a democratic society provides. Chapters are written in the spirit of notes, conversations and letters the nationally recognized team of authors wish they received in their journeys into teaching. Building on the conversational and accessible approach, this revised edition includes additiona…
Born Out of Struggle: Critical Race Theory, School Creation, and the Politics of Interruption
Out of Adolescence and Into Adulthood: Critical Race Theory, Retrenchment, and the Imperative of Praxis
In commemoration of the germinal 1995 critical race theory (CRT) in education manuscript offered by Gloria Ladson-Billings and William Tate IV, the following account seeks to perform several tasks. As CRT has traveled throughout the myriad of disciplinary foci in education (curriculum, foundations, special education, educational psychology, youth development, etc.), the following pages are an effort to continue to ask deeper questions of ourselve…
Teaching Toward Democracy: Educators as Agents of Change
"Teaching Toward Democracy" examines the contested space of schooling and school reform with a focus on the unique challenges and opportunities that teaching in a democratic society provides. Teaching in and for democracy involves developing particular qualities of mind that teachers explore and work to develop as they become more effective educators. Some chapters open with familiar experiences in the lives of teachers in schools (working with p…
Reimagining Critical Race Theory in Education: Mental Health, Healing, and the Pathway to Liberatory Praxis
Long‐standing theoretical education frameworks and methodologies have failed to provide space for the role mental health can play in mediating educational consequences. To illustrate the need for such space, Ebony McGee and David Stovall highlight the voices of black undergraduates they have served in the capacities of teacher, researcher, and mentor. Building from the theoretical contributions of intellectual giants like Frantz Fanon and W. E. B…
The Waters Stay Troubled: A Dialogue on Race, Education, Researcher Accountability and Black Political Struggle in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
Ten years after the (un)natural disaster and despondent response to Hurricane Katrina by the U.S. federal government, the educational landscape of New Orleans has permanently shifted to one deeply steeped in the current neoliberal turn in K–12 schooling. The New Orleans Recovery District (RSD) currently operates as a district of 43 independent charter networks, which currently include 107 schools. Because RSD is the first of its kind in the natio…
From Education to Incarceration: Dismantling the School-To-Prison Pipeline
Trayvon Martin and the curriculum of tragedy: Critical race lessons for education
In what ways do the tragedies centered on the lives of black youth, particularly black male youth, inform teachers, education policymakers, and teacher educators about what knowledge is most worth knowing? In this counter/story, we will examine the details of the life and death of Trayvon Martin. From these details, we will extract and interpret a curriculum of tragedy that draws from Derrick Bell’s particular contributions to critical race theor…
Proximity and Distance in the Police State: A Short Response to Vargas’ “Taking Back the Land: Police Operations and Sports Megaevents in Rio de Janeiro”
This article compares the neoliberal state sponsored programs such as mass privatization of public goods and divestment in black and brown communities between the two Rio de Janeiro neighborhoods highlighted in Costa Vargas’ work and similar programs in Chicago, USA. The author offers some strategies that move beyond surviving these attacks and poses critical questions to Costa Vargas’ continued work in this area. Keywords: BrazilChicagodevelopme…
Souls, 19 Days and 1600 Dreams: Engaging Critical Race Praxis While Living on the 'Edge' of Race
Because the dynamics of race are wrongly ignored in a current shroud of post-racialism (i.e. re-election of Barack Obama as president of the USA, shifting racial demographics in the USA, etc.), there are still communities in the USA and throughout the world that experience the damaging effects of racism entangled with the realities of class. Many still do not live in a post-racial utopia where ‘things are getting better’. Instead, for some, thing…
Against the politics of desperation: Educational justice, critical race theory, and Chicago school reform
As a center for education ‘reform’ in the United States, Chicago sheds light on state apparatuses seeking to end public education and replace it with market-driven ventures, largely by way of public–private partnerships. Critical to this process is the idea of ‘choice’ which has come to operate as a political device providing the illusion that students, parents, and families have options leading to educational improvement. In this article, Stoval…
Critical Literacy for Xenophobia: A Wake‐Up Call
Critical literacy has been on the map of literacy pedagogy internationally since the time of Freire, and more commonplace in the United States in the last few decades. However, in this column the authors argue that the common practices of critical literacy are insufficient for critical engagement with texts. The tools of critical literacy are employed to explore ways in which recent legislation about immigration and ethnicity in Arizona is connec…
The Case for Affirmative Action on Campus: Concepts of Equity, Considerations for Practice
Forging community in race and class: Critical race theory and the quest for social justice in education
Among the communities of critical race theorists and its detractors in education, there is an apparent rift as to what theoretical construct best contributes to the social justice project in education. Conferences and meetings have served as quasi‐battle grounds for theorists, activists and scholars to go back and forth about what theoretical construct has the greatest bearing on educational praxis. Debate notwithstanding, the following document …
Actions Following Words: Critical race theory connects to critical pedagogy
(2004). Actions Following Words: Critical race theory connects to critical pedagogy. Educational Philosophy and Theory: Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 167-182
We can Relate: Hip-Hop Culture, Critical Pedagogy, and the Secondary Classroom
This article seeks to locate hip-hop in the realm of popular culture in education. Through the use of song lyrics, the author suggests the use of rap music to provide context for the humanities and social sciences in secondary curriculum. Using a theoretical and practical lens, the article argues for the use of hip-hop and other elements of popular culture to be utilized to develop relevant curriculum. Although the article highlights one aspect o…
Coming home’ to new homes and new schools: Critical race theory and the new politics of containment
Older cities in the United States have long been trying to ‘bring back’ the middle class in order to increase tax base. The poor quality of schools and the presence of public housing often were cited as deterrents for attracting higher income families. When the 2000 Census data revealed improvements in many cities, some elected officials and scholars attributed the turnaround to policies such as those aimed at transforming public housing and urba…
Against the politics of desperation: Educational justice, critical race theory, and Chicago school reform
As a center for education ‘reform’ in the United States, Chicago sheds light on state apparatuses seeking to end public education and replace it with market-driven ventures, largely by way of public–private partnerships. Critical to this process is the idea of ‘choice’ which has come to operate as a political device providing the illusion that students, parents, and families have options leading to educational improvement. In this article, Stoval…
A challenge to traditional theory: Critical race theory, African-American community organizers, and education
The following article, through the tenets of critical race theory, seeks to investigate the relationship between theory and practice in school–community relationships. By investigating the views, values, and perceptions of three African-American community organizers in Chicago, Illinois, the following account offers a “challenge” to traditional theoretical constructs in addressing the needs of students of color in urban schools. The work of commu…
A Praxis of Critical Race Love: Toward the Abolition of Cisheteropatriarchy and Toxic Masculinity in Educational Justice Formations
Educators of color can often (in)advertently perpetuate gendered oppression against each other to cope with racism and its associated stressors. This occurs in part due to the violence we have endured as (a) minoritized people in a society where our oppression is endemic, (b) scholars of color navigating exclusionary institutions and education spaces, and (c) educators who experience vicarious and complex trauma from pain imposed onto the young p…
Souls, 19 Days and 1600 Dreams: Engaging Critical Race Praxis While Living on the 'Edge' of Race
Because the dynamics of race are wrongly ignored in a current shroud of post-racialism (i.e. re-election of Barack Obama as president of the USA, shifting racial demographics in the USA, etc.), there are still communities in the USA and throughout the world that experience the damaging effects of racism entangled with the realities of class. Many still do not live in a post-racial utopia where ‘things are getting better’. Instead, for some, thing…
Upsetting the (Schooling) set up: Autoethnography as critical race methodology
This manuscript utilizes autoethnography as a critical race methodology. Specifically, the authors use generative autoethnography – a collective spin-story – to illustrate how their past personal experiences are present in their current educational lives. This generative autoethnography fulfills CRT’s tenets of: intercentricity of race and racism; challenging dominant Ideology; the commitment to social justice; the centrality of experiential know…
Out of Adolescence and Into Adulthood: Critical Race Theory, Retrenchment, and the Imperative of Praxis
In commemoration of the germinal 1995 critical race theory (CRT) in education manuscript offered by Gloria Ladson-Billings and William Tate IV, the following account seeks to perform several tasks. As CRT has traveled throughout the myriad of disciplinary foci in education (curriculum, foundations, special education, educational psychology, youth development, etc.), the following pages are an effort to continue to ask deeper questions of ourselve…
Trayvon Martin and the curriculum of tragedy: Critical race lessons for education
In what ways do the tragedies centered on the lives of black youth, particularly black male youth, inform teachers, education policymakers, and teacher educators about what knowledge is most worth knowing? In this counter/story, we will examine the details of the life and death of Trayvon Martin. From these details, we will extract and interpret a curriculum of tragedy that draws from Derrick Bell’s particular contributions to critical race theor…
The Enemy Said We Will Not Make it Home: Critical Race Theory, Educational Foundations and the Fight Against Precarity
The following article is an edited transcript of the H. Freeman Butts lecture of the American Educational Studies Association that took place on November 5, 2021, in Portland, Oregon. In the address, Stovall provides an assessment of the recent attacks on Critical Race Theory and the work needed to resist the current attacks
Urban Poetics: Poetry, Social Justice and Critical Pedagogy in Education
Bang on the System: People’s Praxis and Pedagogy as Humanizing Violence
Bang on the System pairs critical race theory (CRT) with the litany of radical democratic analysis guiding the social practices of various revolutionary movements, proposing a new pedagogical framework that deploys a mutually informed critical race praxis as the basis to engage historically dispossessed youth in their own learning. This lens is utilized to examine an interpretive case study from a corpus of existing qualitative data collected thr…
Critical race praxis in education
The following collection of articles commemorates the twentieth anniversary of the first critical race theory (CRT) conference in Madison, Wisconsin (US). In the spirit of the collection of graduat
Towards a politics of interruption: High school design as politically relevant pedagogy
The following essay seeks to highlight the use of engaged qualitative community‐based research in education to respond to conditions of structural inequality. As “the politics of interruption”, the process of creating neighborhood public high schools is centred in community accountability. Responsibility in this mode “interrupts” the resurgence of theories of social disorganization, social isolation, social detachment, and culture of poverty used…
We will greet our enemy with rifles and roses: Charles Mills and the perpetual impact of the Racial Contract
The following article positions the work of Charles Mills (1951–2021) as seminal to the development of critical race theory (CRT) in education. His groundbreaking contribution, The Racial Contract, has served as the foundation for understanding the myriad ways that white supremacy is central in the social contract championed by scholars of the Western European Enlightenment period. It is a ‘rifle’ in that it offers an unapologetically Black inter…
The Waters Stay Troubled: A Dialogue on Race, Education, Researcher Accountability and Black Political Struggle in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
Ten years after the (un)natural disaster and despondent response to Hurricane Katrina by the U.S. federal government, the educational landscape of New Orleans has permanently shifted to one deeply steeped in the current neoliberal turn in K–12 schooling. The New Orleans Recovery District (RSD) currently operates as a district of 43 independent charter networks, which currently include 107 schools. Because RSD is the first of its kind in the natio…
Actions Following Words: Critical race theory connects to critical pedagogy
(2004). Actions Following Words: Critical race theory connects to critical pedagogy. Educational Philosophy and Theory: Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 167-182
A challenge to traditional theory: Critical race theory, African-American community organizers, and education
The following article, through the tenets of critical race theory, seeks to investigate the relationship between theory and practice in school–community relationships. By investigating the views, values, and perceptions of three African-American community organizers in Chicago, Illinois, the following account offers a “challenge” to traditional theoretical constructs in addressing the needs of students of color in urban schools. The work of commu…
Forging community in race and class: Critical race theory and the quest for social justice in education
Among the communities of critical race theorists and its detractors in education, there is an apparent rift as to what theoretical construct best contributes to the social justice project in education. Conferences and meetings have served as quasi‐battle grounds for theorists, activists and scholars to go back and forth about what theoretical construct has the greatest bearing on educational praxis. Debate notwithstanding, the following document …
Urban Poetics: Poetry, Social Justice and Critical Pedagogy in Education
We can Relate: Hip-Hop Culture, Critical Pedagogy, and the Secondary Classroom
This article seeks to locate hip-hop in the realm of popular culture in education. Through the use of song lyrics, the author suggests the use of rap music to provide context for the humanities and social sciences in secondary curriculum. Using a theoretical and practical lens, the article argues for the use of hip-hop and other elements of popular culture to be utilized to develop relevant curriculum. Although the article highlights one aspect o…
Towards a politics of interruption: High school design as politically relevant pedagogy
The following essay seeks to highlight the use of engaged qualitative community‐based research in education to respond to conditions of structural inequality. As “the politics of interruption”, the process of creating neighborhood public high schools is centred in community accountability. Responsibility in this mode “interrupts” the resurgence of theories of social disorganization, social isolation, social detachment, and culture of poverty used…
Coming home’ to new homes and new schools: Critical race theory and the new politics of containment
Older cities in the United States have long been trying to ‘bring back’ the middle class in order to increase tax base. The poor quality of schools and the presence of public housing often were cited as deterrents for attracting higher income families. When the 2000 Census data revealed improvements in many cities, some elected officials and scholars attributed the turnaround to policies such as those aimed at transforming public housing and urba…
The Case for Affirmative Action on Campus: Concepts of Equity, Considerations for Practice
Critical race praxis in education
The following collection of articles commemorates the twentieth anniversary of the first critical race theory (CRT) conference in Madison, Wisconsin (US). In the spirit of the collection of graduat
Critical Literacy for Xenophobia: A Wake‐Up Call
Critical literacy has been on the map of literacy pedagogy internationally since the time of Freire, and more commonplace in the United States in the last few decades. However, in this column the authors argue that the common practices of critical literacy are insufficient for critical engagement with texts. The tools of critical literacy are employed to explore ways in which recent legislation about immigration and ethnicity in Arizona is connec…
Against the politics of desperation: Educational justice, critical race theory, and Chicago school reform
As a center for education ‘reform’ in the United States, Chicago sheds light on state apparatuses seeking to end public education and replace it with market-driven ventures, largely by way of public–private partnerships. Critical to this process is the idea of ‘choice’ which has come to operate as a political device providing the illusion that students, parents, and families have options leading to educational improvement. In this article, Stoval…
Trayvon Martin and the curriculum of tragedy: Critical race lessons for education
In what ways do the tragedies centered on the lives of black youth, particularly black male youth, inform teachers, education policymakers, and teacher educators about what knowledge is most worth knowing? In this counter/story, we will examine the details of the life and death of Trayvon Martin. From these details, we will extract and interpret a curriculum of tragedy that draws from Derrick Bell’s particular contributions to critical race theor…
Proximity and Distance in the Police State: A Short Response to Vargas’ “Taking Back the Land: Police Operations and Sports Megaevents in Rio de Janeiro”
This article compares the neoliberal state sponsored programs such as mass privatization of public goods and divestment in black and brown communities between the two Rio de Janeiro neighborhoods highlighted in Costa Vargas’ work and similar programs in Chicago, USA. The author offers some strategies that move beyond surviving these attacks and poses critical questions to Costa Vargas’ continued work in this area. Keywords: BrazilChicagodevelopme…
Souls, 19 Days and 1600 Dreams: Engaging Critical Race Praxis While Living on the 'Edge' of Race
Because the dynamics of race are wrongly ignored in a current shroud of post-racialism (i.e. re-election of Barack Obama as president of the USA, shifting racial demographics in the USA, etc.), there are still communities in the USA and throughout the world that experience the damaging effects of racism entangled with the realities of class. Many still do not live in a post-racial utopia where ‘things are getting better’. Instead, for some, thing…
From Education to Incarceration: Dismantling the School-To-Prison Pipeline
Teaching Toward Democracy: Educators as Agents of Change
"Teaching Toward Democracy" examines the contested space of schooling and school reform with a focus on the unique challenges and opportunities that teaching in a democratic society provides. Teaching in and for democracy involves developing particular qualities of mind that teachers explore and work to develop as they become more effective educators. Some chapters open with familiar experiences in the lives of teachers in schools (working with p…
Reimagining Critical Race Theory in Education: Mental Health, Healing, and the Pathway to Liberatory Praxis
Long‐standing theoretical education frameworks and methodologies have failed to provide space for the role mental health can play in mediating educational consequences. To illustrate the need for such space, Ebony McGee and David Stovall highlight the voices of black undergraduates they have served in the capacities of teacher, researcher, and mentor. Building from the theoretical contributions of intellectual giants like Frantz Fanon and W. E. B…
The Waters Stay Troubled: A Dialogue on Race, Education, Researcher Accountability and Black Political Struggle in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
Ten years after the (un)natural disaster and despondent response to Hurricane Katrina by the U.S. federal government, the educational landscape of New Orleans has permanently shifted to one deeply steeped in the current neoliberal turn in K–12 schooling. The New Orleans Recovery District (RSD) currently operates as a district of 43 independent charter networks, which currently include 107 schools. Because RSD is the first of its kind in the natio…
Teaching Toward Democracy 2e: Educators As Agents of Change
Teaching Toward Democracy examines the contested space of schooling and school reform with a focus on the unique challenges and opportunities that teaching in a democratic society provides. Chapters are written in the spirit of notes, conversations and letters the nationally recognized team of authors wish they received in their journeys into teaching. Building on the conversational and accessible approach, this revised edition includes additiona…
Born Out of Struggle: Critical Race Theory, School Creation, and the Politics of Interruption
Out of Adolescence and Into Adulthood: Critical Race Theory, Retrenchment, and the Imperative of Praxis
In commemoration of the germinal 1995 critical race theory (CRT) in education manuscript offered by Gloria Ladson-Billings and William Tate IV, the following account seeks to perform several tasks. As CRT has traveled throughout the myriad of disciplinary foci in education (curriculum, foundations, special education, educational psychology, youth development, etc.), the following pages are an effort to continue to ask deeper questions of ourselve…
Are We Ready for ‘School’ Abolition?: Thoughts and Practices of Radical Imaginary in Education
“No Trifling Matter”: A Kitchen-Table Talk on Abolition and Fugitivity
Operating within the Black radical tradition, through this kitchen-table talk, we seek to edify and sustain abolitionist ontologies. We begin with poetic and musical offerings that highlight our personal connections to abolition, before exploring the complexities and necessities of relationship building as foundational for this work. We encounter the incommensurability of doing abolitionist work within institutions and systems that have attempted…
Upsetting the (Schooling) set up: Autoethnography as critical race methodology
This manuscript utilizes autoethnography as a critical race methodology. Specifically, the authors use generative autoethnography – a collective spin-story – to illustrate how their past personal experiences are present in their current educational lives. This generative autoethnography fulfills CRT’s tenets of: intercentricity of race and racism; challenging dominant Ideology; the commitment to social justice; the centrality of experiential know…
A Praxis of Critical Race Love: Toward the Abolition of Cisheteropatriarchy and Toxic Masculinity in Educational Justice Formations
Educators of color can often (in)advertently perpetuate gendered oppression against each other to cope with racism and its associated stressors. This occurs in part due to the violence we have endured as (a) minoritized people in a society where our oppression is endemic, (b) scholars of color navigating exclusionary institutions and education spaces, and (c) educators who experience vicarious and complex trauma from pain imposed onto the young p…
Sociology (31 works) · Political science (28 works) · Gender Studies (21 works) · Law (21 works) · Critical Race Theory in Education (20 works) · Critical race theory (17 works) · Critical theory (14 works) · Politics (14 works) · Gender Studies (13 works) · Pedagogy (13 works)