In the current era, ideology plays a significant role in shaping the content of elite educational journalism, leading to confusion among audiences about distinguishing between fact and fiction. However, the field of journalism has always aimed to tackle this challenge. The book,
Perspectives on Critical Race Theory and Elite Media (ISBN: 9781668452219), published by IGI Global, takes a critical approach, utilizing tools such as critical theory and critical race theory, to examine how journalism is moving away from factual reporting and towards a new understanding of the complex world we live in.
What was the driving force or motivation for starting this book project?
Prof. Lehner: I think that this book addresses how educational journalism has become meme like and no longer comports to what really happens in New York City schools, and I would argue probably more broadly in other schools. So, for example, with the school segregation idea, that is a meme in New York City, NY City has fewer than 15% of all the citizens are are considered to be white in the school system and all of that 15%, you'll see that a large portion of those are our students who are from the Middle East or or from Eastern Europe. So this idea that school segregation happens in ways that is written about in the New York Times is not quite true.
What specific problems does the book address?
Prof. Lehner: I think the book addresses the idea that journalism has been greatly informed by critical theory or critical race theory. Up until, let's say, last year or yesterday, journalism always strove to report the facts. The who, the what, the why, the when, the where, and the how. I think what you'll see in this book its that educational journalism, particularly the New York Times, but the other elite sources, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, to a lesser degree, the Wall Street Journal, they have a particular vantage point on school segregation on implicit bias training, and on Asian erasure,Which doesn't comport with reality.
What is your professional background that gives you the knowledge needed to lead this publication?
Prof. Lehner: I take on critical theory very thoughtfully. So I think that I'm speaking authoritatively in this book because I'm using primary sources of the The New Yorker of the Atlantic, of the major elite media. When I say "Elite Media", we're really just talking about eight sources.
How unique is Perspectives on Critical Race Theory and Elite Media within its topic coverage?
Prof. Lehner: There's much to be said about critical theory and to some degrees, critical race theory as a very robust philosophy. What I think is unique in Perspectives on Critical Race Theory and Elite Media is, I check the outer limits of critical race theory and that's the idea is that with critical race theory, there are no logical boundaries. It very quickly becomes not only politicized, but it ideologically possesses adherence. So, for example, when you read Carl Young from 100 years ago and Young might say something like, "people don't have ideas. Ideas have people." I think that's what's happened with critical race theory.
What do you think about publishing this book changes the field of study that you're in?
Prof. Lehner: I think that this book, takes a contrarian view of the elite university education and elite university publishing, particularly in the field of education in the field of education, is long as I've been a teacher or a teacher, education, which now has spanning closer to 30 years, there's been a change to the full embrace of critical theory and critical race theory over oncological over ontological facts. And that's a problem.
Prof. Lehner: So for example, in New York City, we'll talk about black students when it, when really what we're looking at is a full African diaspora. And so as I highlight in Chapter 3, Gary Orfield work where he'll highlights school segregation and we'll call a charter schools apartheid schools. That's a level of hyperbole. Parents and students of the African diaspora are readily excited to embrace the charter school education for what it means for their educational opportunities. So you can see how much the work of Gary Orfield or the UCLA civil Rights of reports of 2014 and 2019 take on a politicized nature that doesn't reflect the real desires of, you know, the African diaspora, a.k.a the students in New York City.
About Prof. Lehner
E. Thomas Lehner is an associate professor at the Bronx Community College, City University of New York. In addition to his interest in Critical Race Theory, primarily, Edward abides as a research methodologist, and his training in qualitative and quantitative frameworks has pushed him to pursue a third path. This Habermasian pursuit focuses on deploying data science and critical ethnography, forming a methodological bricolage. In his current pedagogical role, Edward focuses on teacher training. Edward assists aspiring teachers in developing a complex understanding of the legal frameworks for Special Education, including IDEA and Individual Educational Planning (IEP).
Related Critical Theory Books
About IGI Global
Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA with a subsidiary office (IGI Science and Technology, Ltd.) operating out of Beijing, China, IGI Global is a leading medium-sized independent international academic publisher of scholarly reference sources. They are committed to facilitating the discovery of pioneering scientific research that enhances and expands the body of knowledge available to the research community through traditional and open access publishing workflows. Working in close collaboration with more than 150,000+ expert researchers and professionals from leading institutions, IGI Global publishes quality peer-reviewed content in three major academic subject areas:
Learn more about IGI Global
here.