The White Papers: Mapping the Journeys of Antiracist White Educators Open Access
Jackson, Taharee Apirom (2011)
Abstract
DISSERTATION ABSTRACT
The White Papers:
Mapping the Journeys of Antiracist White Educators
We must dedicate our best efforts in teacher education to
prepare a ninety percent majority of white educators to meet the
needs of diverse students. As we simultaneously work toward a more
representative teaching force, fundamental to this task is
examining how antiracist white educators come to exist. The aim of
this two-part research study was to examine the racial
conceptualizations, teaching practices, and life experiences of
white teachers, teacher educators, and scholar-activists who are
committed to antiracism, culturally relevant pedagogy, and social
justice. Critical race theory, critical white studies, and theories
of culturally relevant pedagogy undergirded both studies. The first
portion of this research followed a nominated sample of twelve
white urban elementary school teachers. Those data uncovered that
some dominant ideologies regarding whiteness, cultural deficit
theory, and decontextualized racism can coexist even in the psyche
of white teachers who strongly espouse and genuinely demonstrate
commitments to antiracism and culturally relevant pedagogy. The
second study examined the racial understandings of well-known white
teacher educators and scholar-activists who are farther along in
their trajectories toward antiracism. The findings indicated that
antiracist white educators: (a) understand racism as foundational,
institutional, and intersectional; (b) maintain that whites are
mis-educated via Eurocentric curricula; and (c) firmly believe that
whiteness serves only to dehumanize both people of color and
whites. This cadre of scholar-activists cited duping and
dissonance, racial devastation and separation, exemplars and
efficacy, and subordinate-status relationships as origins of their
antiracism. Participants also used conscientious co-optation, white
proxyhood, and a keen understanding of "privilege within privilege"
in their pedagogies with primarily white educators. These
antiracist educators also revealed possibilities for transnational
and global antiracist movements, that we might make significant
headway in the selection, preparation, and professional learning of
a majority white teaching force in education, and in the wider
struggle for social justice writ large.
Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Chapter 1: Why White Teachers? The "Critical" Role of Whites in Education
Chapter 2: "Whites have been given every opportunity to succeed" White Teachers on the Path to Antiracism
Chapter 3: The Making of Antiracists: Understanding White Educators who "Understand" Whiteness in Education
Chapter 4: Being White is like Getting an A on a Paper You Didn't Write: Toward a "Pedagogy for the Oppressor" in Teacher Education
Chapter 5: Which Interests are Served by the Principle of Interest Convergence? Whiteness, Collective Trauma, and the Case for Antiracism
Chapter 6: White Teachers Stay Here…Everyone Else is Dismissed: The Unintended Consequences of Whiteness Research
Research Study I: White Classroom Teachers
Appendix A: Participant Profiles
Appendix B: Methods and Matters of Interpretation
Appendix C: Excerpt from the Audit Trail
Research Study II: White Scholar-Activists
Appendix D: "The Method and the Madness"
Appendix E: The Researcher's Perspective
References
About this Dissertation
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