Race for Education: Gender, White Tone, and Schooling in South Africa by Mark Hunter (review)

My complaints about the volume are relatively minor. The number of figures in the volume is impressive, sitting at fifty-two, but many of them are not printed clearly and the reader is at times left struggling to identify what Lentis highlights in the text and captions. This is especially true for photographs of rooms containing multiple pieces of artwork. I would have also liked to see more direct engagement with the theoretical work of the Comaroffs, Gramsci, and Lomawaima and McCarty throughout the volume rather than largely limiting it to the introduction and conclusion. Overall, I highly recommend the volume and believe it to be essential reading for those studying the Native American boarding school system in the United States. The first three chapters and the appendices serve as excellent references, with Lentis clearly identifying and organizing the primary sources used in her work by state, institution, Indigenous group, and material type. Lentis’s conclusions, reconciling the disconnect between federal policies and local execution, extend well beyond the scope of art education and Native America. The theoretical scope and strong case studies of the volume have relevance to global research on the role played by education systems in colonizing childhoods both historic and contemporary.