Chapter 3: Multicultural Education and Critical Race Theory in the Academy: An Essential Synthesis

Higher Education institutions have, historically and contemporarily, been sites of both oppression and liberation. Historically, opportunities for higher education were open nearly exclusively to white males of wealthy landowning families. As such, institutions of higher education (IHEs) were developed to serve the needs, perspectives, and worldviews of this specific privileged population. Over the past half-century, significant inroads toward greater inclusion have been made, most often as a result of community and student activism. For example, the percentages of African American¹ and Latinx² students enrolling in degree-granting institutions has increased within this span of time, with African American student enrollment rising from 10 percent to 14 percent and Latinx student enrollment rising from 4 percent to 17 percent (U.S. Department of Education, 2018).