Synonyms
Definition
A social construct used to categorize groups of people based on physical traits, self-identification, and beliefs about ancestry.
Conceptual and Theoretical Frameworks
In an increasingly global society where college campuses are becoming even more diverse, understanding college students’ social identities is necessary to meeting their needs. Several frameworks reviewed here have conceptualized the role of race in higher education to help researchers and practitioners better understand and serve students across different racial and ethnic communities. Although racial identification is a social construct rather than one with biological categories, racial labels have very real effects in most societies around the world (Omi and Winant 1994; Smedley and Smedley 2005).
One theoretical framework that is used to examine the students’ lived experiences is Critical Race Theory (CRT). Though it first emerged in critical legal scholarship (Crenshaw et al. 1995...
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References
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Alvarado, A.R., Hurtado, S. (2017). Race, Ethnicity, and Higher Education. In: Shin, J., Teixeira, P. (eds) Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_45-1
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