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Wayne Au

Wayne Au

Professor, School of Educational Studies, University of Washington Bothell
Google Scholar Profile

About Wayne Au

Wayne Au is a Professor in the School of Educational Studies at the University of Washington Bothell. He is an editor for the social justice teaching magazine Rethinking Schools and a prominent voice in critical education studies, Asian American education, and the intersection of curriculum, race, and social justice. Au's work focuses on how educational policies and practices impact marginalized communities, and he is a leading advocate for culturally responsive teaching and anti-racist education. He earned his PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Major Contributions

  • Unequal by Design: High-Stakes Testing and the Standardization of Inequality (2009): Critical analysis of how standardized testing perpetuates racial and economic inequality.
  • Rethinking Schools magazine: As an editor, helped produce leading progressive educational resources for teachers.
  • Critical curriculum studies: Examined how curriculum and assessment policies impact students of color and low-income communities.
  • Social justice teaching: Advanced frameworks for teaching for social justice in K-12 and higher education settings.
  • Asian American education: Pioneered research on the educational experiences of Asian American students.

Key Ideas

Unequal by Design: High-stakes testing systems are not neutral but are designed in ways that systematically disadvantage marginalized students.
Teaching for Social Justice: Education must be explicitly connected to movements for racial, economic, and social justice.
Critical Assessment: Standardized tests serve as tools of social sorting rather than genuine measures of student learning.
Culturally Responsive Teaching: Curriculum must reflect the cultural backgrounds and experiences of all students.
Corporate School Reform: Market-based reforms undermine democratic control of public education and increase inequality.

“Public education is a public good, not a private commodity. We must fight for schools that serve all students, not just those with privilege.”

Selected Publications

View on Google Scholar
Unequal by Design: High-Stakes Testing and the Standardization of Inequality (2009): Routledge.
Rethinking Multicultural Education: Teaching for Racial and Cultural Justice (2nd edition, 2014): Rethinking Schools.
Teaching for Black Lives (2018, co-editor): Rethinking Schools.
A Marxist Analysis of the Corporate School Reform Movement (2018): In The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Education.

Suggested Reading

Unequal by Design by Wayne Au
Rethinking Multicultural Education edited by Wayne Au
Rethinking Schools magazine

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