Rethinking race theory in education: Racial Value Theory (RVT)

Race theory in education is locked into a mode of critique that accepts conventional categories of political economy and essentialises race and education as timeless. Attempts to build economic factors into CRT (Critical Race Theory) and recent attempts to combine CRT with theories of racialised social systems to create Racialised Social Systems (RSS) Theory do not enable a negative critique of capitalism. Social Reproduction Theory (SRT) and Marxist theories of racialisation do engage with a negative critique of capitalism but could further consider the contradictions of capitalist society. This requires an understanding of capitalism, class struggle and race that transcends naïve materialism and enables an understanding of education, race and capitalism as locked into permanent crisis. Using metatheoretical critique, a new metatheory, Racial Value Theory (RVT) is presented. This shows how methods of ‘racial organisation’, racial categorisations and racial theories in education become archaic. For educators, RVT shows the redundancy of forms of practice and praxis but also the possibilities for revolutionary education.