Toward Clarifying Mechanisms of Racism as Fundamental Causes of Educational Inequality

Bibliographic Data

ID9734827
AuthorsD E Rangel (0000-0003-1512-544X, Brown University, Providence, RI, corresponding author), W Carson Byrd (0000-0003-0769-0983, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI)
Year2026
Volume55
Issue1
Pages46-54
Publication date2026-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEducational Researcher (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-189X • E-ISSN: 1935-102X
PublisherAmerican Educational Research Association (AERA) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3102/0013189x251356448
OpenAlexW4412419320
LanguageEN
References cited76

This article proposes adopting fundamental cause theory (FCT) in education research. FCT’s emergence and application in medical sociology can serve as an example of integrating relational theories of inequality with causal designs to propose more effective interventions to address racialized educational disparities. Additionally, despite the many contributions from the expanding scholarship in critical quantitative and computational methods, limited work has clarified and operationalized the causal mechanisms of racism in education. We contend that FCT can sharpen and crystalize this synthesis between critical theoretical frameworks and quantitative methodologies through its premise that racism is a fundamental cause of educational inequality, defining and testing for fundamental causal relations, and focusing on flexible resources that reinforce the durability of racialized educational disparities

Criminology · Economics · Educational research · Epistemology · Inequality · Pedagogy · Positive economics · Racial bias · Racism · Sociology · Critical Race Theory in Education · Gender Studies · Philosophy · Psychology · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research · School Choice and Performance · Social Psychology

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