"This edited collection incorporates diverse voices to elucidate interactions relating to race within education systems covering early childhood to academia. Discussions are organized and progressively introduce academic terms (e.g., critical race theory, microaggressions) that may be unfamiliar to some readers, while deconstructing key concepts such as privilege to convey their daily and long-term effects. Although topics are varied, the editors offer many contemplative analyses across settings with specific examples of addressing controversies as teachable moments rather than as negative occurrences to be avoided. This philosophical approach grants authors the opportunity to discuss identity, intersectionality, and the detrimental effects of such instances on individuals from diverse backgrounds."

“Despite our nation’s rapidly changing demographics, the subjugation and marginalization of racial and ethnic communities continues. We can seek to address the ongoing barriers that are preventing ethnoracial harmony, or we can ignore the obvious—the visibility and prominence of race and ethnicity throughout our society and the world. It is essential that our nation’s educational institutions centrally value explicit and carefully crafted practices to foment classrooms that address diversity along many dimensions. While some progress clearly has been made since the overt and codified racism of times past, subtle forms of unconscious and implicit racism now hide in the public discourse. As a result, this book is important in the canon because the chapters are a clarion call for educators to stand firm on race and critique and address structural and institutional racism in its various forms. The contributions in this book overcome the theory and practice divide by specifying and advocating for pedagogy and practice that creates the space for all humans to be treated with dignity and provided educational opportunity.”

Julian Vasquez Heilig, Ph.D., Dean of the University of Kentucky College of Education

“In this wonderfully edited volume, Dr. Jessica Heybach and Dr. Sheron Fraser-Burgess pick up and advance one of the most challenging issues in education: talking and teaching about race and racism. Heybach, Fraser-Burgess, and the authors assembled in this text challenge readers to consider the complexities of supporting students in 'speaking race' while also bridging the theory and practice divide. Throughout this brilliant and challenging book, powerful practical experiences regarding teaching race are explored, exposing research and scholarship that encourage all educators to thoughtfully engage dialogue and instruction around race and racism in the one place that encourages rigorous examination of ideas: classrooms.”

Joseph Flynn, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Curriculum and Instruction of the College of Education and Associate Director of Academic Affairs - , Center for Black Studies Division of Academic Affairs for Northern Illinois University

“Making Sense of Race in Education is a true testament to what happens when Critical Race Theory meets real educational practices. Every chapter tells a story of a dedicated critical educator who strives to bring open, reflective, and genuine conversations of race, racism, and racists to their classrooms and beyond. Their narratives are testimonies of their struggles to create open spaces where race is the lens used to look at issues of privilege and oppression.”

Yolanda Medina, Ph.D., Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY, Critical Studies of Latinx in the Americas, Book Series Editor