Curated Bibliography on Whiteness, Silence and Teaching

Whiteness (M.A Reilly, 2012)

Curated Bibliography on Whiteness, Silence and Teaching

Carter, Stephanie Power. (2007). “Reading All that White Crazy Stuff:” Black Young Women Unpacking Whiteness in a High School British Literature Classroom.  Journal of Classroom Interaction, 41 (2),  42 - 54.

Abstract: The article uses sociolinguistic and ethnographic methods and Black feminist theory to explore the classroom interactions of Pam and Natonya, two Black young females, during one event in a required high school British literature classroom. The event is presented as a telling case to explore gendered and racial complexities facing young Black female students in a British literature class, dominated by literature written from a Eurocentric perspective, primarily by White males. The telling case was analyzed to explore how Whiteness functioned within the British literature curriculum and classroom interactions and how the two Black young women were negatively positioned as a result of classroom interactions around the curriculum. The analysis made visible how Pam and Natonya were constantly negotiating whiteness within the British Literature curriculum. Their experiences are important as they afford educators and educational researchers the opportunity to see some of the challenges faced by historically underrepresented students who may have been marginalized by Whiteness within the curriculum.

Castagno, Angelina E. (2008). “I Don’t Want to Hear That!”: Legitimating Whiteness through Silence in Schools. Anthropology & Education, 39 (3), 314-333.

Abstract: In this article, I examine the ways in which silences around race contribute to the maintenance and legitimation of Whiteness. Drawing on ethnographic data from two demographically different schools, I highlight patterns of racially coded language, teacher silence, silencing students’ race talk, and the conflating of culture with race, equality with equity, and difference with deficit. These silences and acts of silencing create and perpetuate an educational culture in which inequities are ignored, the status quo is maintained, and Whiteness is both protected and entrenched

Cochran-Smith, Marilyn. (2003). The Multiple Meanings of Multicultural Teacher Education: A Conceptual Framework. Teacher Education Quarterly, 7-26.

DeBlase, Gina. (2000). Missing Stories, Missing Lives: Urban Girls (Re)Constructing Race and Gender in the Literacy Classroom.  Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (New Orleans, LA, April 24-28, 2000).

Abstract: This study examined the ways in which eighth grade girls in an urban middle school constructed social identities through their experiences with literary texts. It focused on what sociocultural representations about female identity and gendered expectations emerged in the transactions in the literacy events these girls experienced in English class. It also examined what meanings girls made from these gendered representations and how girls from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds took up and/or resisted the messages. Finally, the study investigated how the girls' transactions with literacy events in English class linked to their perceptions, insights, and understandings of the larger social order. Data were collected via observations, interviews with students and teachers, and collection of classroom artifacts. The seven study findings focused on ideologies of control, power, and cultural uniformity; new criticism and unexamined standpoints of social identity; constructing literature as removed from the lived social experience of girls' lives; silencing, sameness, and missed opportunities for dialogue; girls' lived experiences influencing their transactions with literature; literacy as a tool for socializing girls into culturally mainstream society; and fractured identities and colliding ideologies. Four implications for pedagogy and teacher education are listed.

García, Eugene; Arias, M. Beatriz, Harris, Nancy J. Murri and Carolina Serna. (2010). Developing Responsive Teachers: A Challenge for a Demographic Reality. Journal of Teacher Education 61(1-2) 132–142.

Abstract: In this article, the authors reflect on the preparation of teachers for English learners (ELs) and articulate the importance of enhancing teacher knowledge through contact and collaboration with diverse ethnolinguistic communities. The authors build on recent research on the preparation of teachers for cultural responsiveness and linguistic diversity and recommend a situated preparation within EL communities that fosters the development of teacher knowledge of the dynamics of language in children’s lives and communities. The authors begin their review by summarizing recent demographic developments for ELs. This section is followed by a brief review of the context of education for ELs. The authors summarize the most recent research on culturally and linguistically responsive teacher preparation and focus on a framework that includes developing teacher knowledge through contact, collaboration, and community.

Hayes, Cleveland, Juárez, Brenda & Veronica Escoffrey-Runnels. (2014). We Were There Too: Learning from Black Male Teachers in Mississippi about Successful Teaching of Black Students. Democracy & Education, 22 (1), Article 3.

from Yellow Umbrella

Abstract: Applying culturally relevant and social justice–oriented notions of teaching and learning and a critical race theory (CRT) analysis of teacher preparation in the United States, this study examines the oral life histories of two Black male teachers recognized for their successful teaching of Black students. These histories provide us with a venue for identifying thematic patterns across the two teachers' educational philosophies and pedagogical practices and for analyzing how these teachers' respective personal and professional experiences have influenced their individual and collective approaches to teaching and learning.

Hayes, Cleveland and Brenda Juárez. (2012). There Is No Culturally Responsive Teaching Spoken Here: A Critical Race Perspective.  Democracy & Education, 20 (1), 1-14.

Abstract: In this article, we are concerned with White racial domination as a process that occurs in teacher education and the ways it operates to hinder the preparation of teachers to effectively teach all students. Our purpose is to identify and highlight moments within processes of White racial domination when individuals and groups have and make choices to support rather than to challenge White supremacy. By highlighting and critically examining moments when White racial domination has been instantiated and recreated within our own experiences, we attempt to open up a venue for imagining and re-creating teacher education in ways that are not grounded in and dedicated to perpetuating White supremacy.

hooks, bell. (1991). Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination. Cultural Studies, 338-346.

Hytten, Kathy and Amee Adkins. (2001). Thinking through a Pedagogy of Whiteness. Educational Theory, 51 (4) 433-450.

Kincheloe, Joe L. (1999). The Struggle to Define and Reinvent Whiteness: A Pedagogical Analysis. College Literature 26. 162-194.

Kincheloe, Joe and Shirley Steinberg. (1998) Addressing the Crisis of Whiteness: Reconfiguring White Identity in a Pedagogy of Whiteness. In White Reign: Deploying Whiteness in America. J. Kincheloe, S. Steinberg, N. Rodriguez, and R. Chennault, eds. pp. 3–30. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.

Ladson-Billings, G. (2006). Yes, but how do we do it? In J. Landsman, & C. W. Lewis (Eds).
White teachers, diverse classrooms (pp. 29-42). Sterling: Stylus.

Leonardo, Zeus. (2002). The Souls of White Folk: critical pedagogy, whiteness studies, and
globalization discourse.  Race Ethnicity and Education, (5) 1, 29-50.

Abstract: At the turn of the 1900s, W. E. B. Du Bois argued that the problem of the color line was the twentieth century’s main challenge. The article argues that critical pedagogy beneŽfits from an intersectional understanding of whiteness studies and globalization discourse. Following Du Bois, it suggests that the problem of the twenty-Žfirst century is the global color line. As capitalism stretches across nations, its partnership with race relations also evolves into a formidable force. Appropriating concepts from globalization, the author deŽfines a global approach to race, and in particular whiteness, in order to argue that the problem of white racial privilege transcends the nation state. Using concepts such as multinationalism, fragmentation, and  flexibility, a critical pedagogy of whiteness promotes an expanded notion of race that includes global anti-racist struggles. Finally, the article concludes by suggesting that educators consider seriously the insights of the neo-abolitionist movement.

McIntosh, Peggy. (1988).  White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack.

Rogers, Rebecca & Melissa Mosley. (2006). Racial literacy in a second-grade classroom: Critical race theory, whiteness studies, and literacy research. Reading Research Quarterly, 41 (4), 462-495.

Abstract: There is a pervasive silence in literacy research around matters of race, especially with both young people and white people. In this article we illustrate that young white children can and do talk about race, racism, and anti-racism within the context of the literacy curriculum. Using a reconstructed framework for analyzing "white talk," one that relies on literature in whiteness studies and critical race theory and draws on critical discourse analytic frameworks, we illustrate what talk around race sounds like for white second-grade students and their teachers. This research makes several contributions to the literature. We provide a detailed method for coding interactional data using critical discourse analysis and a lens from critical race theory and whiteness studies. We also illustrate the instability of racial-identity formation and the implications for teachers and students when race is addressed in primary classrooms. Ultimately, we argue that racial-literacy development, like other literate process in the classroom, must be guided.

Rothman, Joshua. (2014). The Origins of “Privilege”. The New Yorker.

Said, Edward. (1978). “Imaginative Geography and Its Representations: Orientalizing the Oriental.” In Orientalism, 49-72. New York: Vintage.

Villegas, Ana María Villegas and Tamara Lucas. (2002). Preparing Culturally Responsive Teachers: Rethinking the Curriculum. Journal of Teacher Education, 53 (1), 20-32.

Abstract: To successfully move the field of teacher education beyond the fragmented and superficial treatment of diversity that currently prevails, teacher educators must articulate a vision of teaching and learning in a diverse society and use that vision to systematically guide the infusion of multicultural issues throughout the preservice curriculum. A vision is offered of culturally responsive teachers that can serve as the starting point for conversations among teacher educators in this process. In this vision, culturally responsive teachers (a) are socioculturally conscious, (b) have affirming views of students from diverse backgrounds, (c) see themselves as responsible for and capable of bringing about change to make schools more equitable, (d) understand how learners construct knowledge and are capable of promoting knowledge construction, (e) know about the lives of their students, and (f) design instruction that builds on what their students already know while stretching them beyond the familiar.

Weilbacher, Gary. (2012). Standardization and Whiteness: One and the Same? Democracy & Education, 20 (2), 1-6.

Abstract: The article “There Is No Culturally Responsive Teaching Spoken Here: A Critical Race Perspective” by Cleveland Hayes and Brenda C. Juarez suggests that the current focus on meeting standards incorporates limited thoughtful discussions related to complex notions of diversity. Our response suggests a strong link between standardization and White dominance and that a focus on standards has helped to make White dominance and the discussion of race, class, gender, and language virtually invisible in teacher preparation.