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Thanks Angus, judging by the implications you identified in your resource, there is quite a lot of work still to do to broach this issue in schools.

We hope this Padlet has been of some benefit to you, and that you might be able to move forward in your practice as an inclusive teacher with a greater sense of understanding about the issue of whiteness. For many, whiteness studies strikes at the heart of power in societies like Australia, so we're not going to pretend it's not a controversial or difficult issue of cultural difference to deal with. We've taken the view that the greater your theoretical understanding, the more knowledge you have, and the better you'll be able to confront this issue in schools and with your students. That's why we elected to focus on academic literature above all else.

But, in conclusion, we also understand that the academic literature can be quite heavy.  So we'll leave you with this short news story from America of a white teacher who's taken on the learnings of whiteness studies and applied them in her classroom.  It's difficult work, but this story shows that it can be done with great success.

All the best.

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Emily E. Smith is a fifth-grade social justice and English language arts teacher at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin, Tex. She was just awarded the 2015 Donald H. Graves Excellence in the Teaching of Writing award given at the National Teachers of English Language Arts Convention in Minneapolis. Smith created and founded The Hive Society, a classroom that inspires children to creatively explore literature through critical thinking and socially relevant texts.

In her speech accepting the award, Smith talked about a seminal moment in her career when she realized she needed to change her approach to teaching students of color, one of whom told her that she couldn't understand his problems because she is white. The following is an excerpt of the speech in which she discusses her transformation (and which I am publishing with permission).

From Smith's speech:

I'm white. My classroom is not. Sure, it's been my dream to work at an "urban" school. To work with kids whose challenges I could never even fathom at such a young age. And changing at-risk lives through literature is almost a media cliché by now. These were, however, how I identified myself at the beginning of my teaching career. I was a great teacher. I taught children how to truly write for the first time and share meaningful connections on a cozy carpet. We made podcasts about music lyrics and filled our favorite books so full with annotated sticky notes that they would barely close. We even tiptoed into the alien world of free verse poetry.

But something was missing. If you've already forgotten, I'm white. "White" is kind of an uncomfortable word to announce, and right now people may already be unnerved about where this is going. Roughly 80 percent of teachers in the United States today are white. Yet the population of our students is a palette. That means America's children of color will, for the majority of their school years, not have a teacher who is a reflection of their own image. Most of their school life they will be told what to do and how to do it by someone who is white, and most likely female. Except for a few themed weeks, America's children of color will read books, watch videos, analyze documents and study historical figures who are also not in their image.

I've been guilty of that charge. But things changed for me the day when, during a classroom discussion, one of my kids bluntly told me I "couldn't understand because I was a white lady." I had to agree with him. I sat there and tried to speak openly about how I could never fully understand and went home and cried, because my children knew about white privilege before I did. The closest I could ever come was empathy.

My curriculum from then on shifted. We still did all of the wonderful things that I had already implemented in the classroom, except now the literature, the documents, the videos, the discussions, the images embodied the issues that my children wanted to explore. We studied the works of Sandra Cisneros, Pam Munoz Ryan and Gary Soto, with the intertwined Spanish language and Latino culture - so fluent and deep in the memories of my kids that I saw light in their eyes I had never seen before. We analyzed Langston Hughes's "Let America be America Again" from the lens of both historical and current events and realized that the United States is still the land that has never been. The land that my kids, after reading an excerpt from Ta-Nehisi Coates's letter to his son that connected so deeply to their personal experiences, decided they still wanted to believe in. The land they decided to still hope for. The land that one of my kids quietly said would be changed by her generation. A generation of empathy.

We read about the Syrian crisis, analyzing photographs of war-torn faces at the border and then wrote poetry of hope, despair and compassion from the perspectives of the migrants. Many of my kids asked to write about their own journeys across the border and their [dreams] for a better future. One child cried and told me he never had a teacher who honored the journey his family took to the United States. He told me he was not ashamed anymore, but instead proud of the sacrifice his parents made for him.

We listened to StoryCorps podcasts by people from different walks of life, and children shared their own stories of losing pets, saying goodbye to a mother or father in jail, the fear of wearing a hoodie while walking to a 7-Eleven, and thriving under the wing of a single parent who works two jobs.

So as I stand here today I can declare that I am no longer a language arts and social studies teacher, but a self-proclaimed teacher of social justice and the art of communication with words.

Looking back, I think that my prior hesitation to talk about race stemmed from a lack of social education in the classroom. A lack of diversity in my own life that is, by no means, the fault of my progressive parents, but rather a broken and still segregated school system. Now that I'm an educator in that system, I've decided to stand unflinching when it comes to the real issues facing our children today, I've decided to be unafraid to question injustice, unafraid to take risks in the classroom - I am changed. And so has my role as a teacher.

I can't change the color of my skin or where I come from or what the teacher workforce looks like at this moment, but I can change the way I teach. So I am going to soapbox about something after all. Be the teacher your children of color deserve. In fact, even if you don't teach children of color, be the teacher America's children of color deserve, because we, the teachers, are responsible for instilling empathy and understanding in the hearts of all kids. We are responsible for the future of this country.

So teach the texts that paint all the beautiful faces of our children and tell the stories of struggle and victory our nation has faced. Speak openly and freely about the challenges that are taking place in our country at this very moment. Talk about the racial and class stereotypes plaguing our streets, our states, our society. You may agree that black and brown lives matter, but how often do you explore what matters to those lives in your classroom?

Put aside your anxieties and accept your natural biases. Donald Graves once said, "Children need to hang around a teacher who is asking bigger questions of herself than she is asking of them." I know I'm going to continue to ask the bigger questions of myself and seek the answers that sometimes feel impossible, because my kids deserve it ... you're welcome to join me. Thank you.

(Update: removing extraneous word, "even" from this sentence: "The land that my kids, after reading an excerpt from Ta-Nehisi Coates's letter to his son that connected so deeply to their personal experiences, decided they still wanted to believe in."

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Teacher: A student told me I 'couldn't understand because I was a white lady.' Here's what I did then.

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Award-winning educator: 'I've decided to stand unflinching when it comes to the real issues facing our children today, I've decided to be unafraid to question injustice, unafraid to take risks in the classroom - I am changed. And so has my role as a teacher.'

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Hytten, K. & Warren, J. (2003). Engaging whiteness: How racial power gets reified in education, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 16:1, 65-89.

DiAngelo, R. (2011). White Fragility, International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 3:3, 54-70.

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Ken brought up some big ideas in his commentary of Resource #1. Haoling and James are now going to unpack some of these ideas by bringing in another couple of resources. Whereas the first resource was a podcast suited to a more general audience, these next two resources are academic journal articles.  They're pretty heavy going - but they contain a lot of valuable insights into the theoretical side of whiteness studies, and what it all means for teachers in the education context.

Like Ken said, the podcast features an interview with the American academic Robin DiAngelo. She's nicknamed Dr Whiteness because she specialises in whiteness studies. Whiteness studies is actually a significant field of academic enquiry - it emerged in the second half of the twentieth century as a type of sociological study into the social construction of "whiteness" and its attendant power structures. Dr DiAngelo is one of whiteness studies' leading researchers, so we thought it was important to take a closer look at what she has to say.

The topic of Dr DiAngelo's article is "white fragility". Ken introduced us to this concept in his commentary.  It's the phenomenon of defensiveness and dismissiveness that commonly accompanies challenges to white privilege. Dr. DiAngelo didn't just come up with this idea out of nowhere; it actually emerged out of her work as a diversity trainer in workplaces.   She observed that questions of white racial privilege were generally uncomfortably experienced by the white members of her workshops. So she set out to study this phenomenon, or more particularly the defensive tactics white people tend to employ when their racial privilege is brought into question.  This is what she means by “white fragility”.

According to Dr DiAngelo, white fragility can manifest itself in “outward displays of emotions such as anger, fear and guilt, and behaviours such as argumentation, silence and leaving the stress-inducing situation”.  As a result of these practices, she says, the “white racial equilibrium is reinstated”.  White fragility, therefore, serves to reproduce white privilege.

(Haoling and James have highlighted some of the more interesting and relevant passages out of Dr DiAngelo’s article - take a look if you get a chance, it’s very thought-provoking).

I guess you’re all thinking, “this is great, but what does it mean for my practice as a teacher?”  Well,  for starters it means that any conversation you have with students about white privilege is likely to be accompanied by expressions of white fragility.  This is fine - at least now you know what it is you’re looking at, and what function it is attempting to serve.

The second article by Kathy Hytten and John Warren takes a closer look at white fragility in the context of the university classroom. They found that even white students with the best of intentions can revert to defensive manoeuvres when white privilege is called into question.

Ultimately, the two articles point to the fact that the question of whiteness is pretty fraught terrain because it challenges one of the major systems of power in society.

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HAOLING AND JAMES WROTE ABOUT RESOURCE #2

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HAOLING AND JAMES WROTE ABOUT RESOURCE #2

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Engaging whiteness How racial power gets reified in education

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Re-Imagining Asian Religious Identity: Towards a Critical Pedagogy of Religion and Race in Australian Schools

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Re-Imagining Asian Religious Identity: Towards a Critical Pedagogy of Religion and Race in Australian Schools

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Rod, N., Ruth, A., & Michiko, W. (2017). Re-Imagining Asian Religious Identity: Towards a Critical Pedagogy of Religion and Race in Australian Schools. Education Sciences, Vol 7, Iss 2, P 49 (2017), (2), 49. doi:10.3390/educsci7020049

Justification for selection of this resource
When we consider cultural diversity, it can be easy to fixate on race at the expense of other aspects of culture. Accordingly, to reduce the negative impacts of cultural differences in schools, we must consider all aspects of other cultures, and thus this article was chosen.

Overview of article
This article analyses the way that teachers consider and interact with Asian religion and race in Australia. By examining the practice of 5 vignette teachers, it finds that Australian teachers often fail to consider non European perspectives in schools.

Summary of the article

·      The article is motivated by an acknowledgement of Asia's  impact on Australia by a 2016 ACARA document

·      It outlines three main ways in which religious traditions can be incorporated into teaching; through analysis of historical examples of religious difference, through comparison of cultural and religious identities and through the innate knowledge of teachers

·      The article suggests that the connection between religion and ethnic identity is not fixed
·      Religion in Australia is most commonly Christian, and whilst there are number of denominations, the assumed similar teachings have provided a baseline that "inform a shared social order" for Australia. This dominant culture creates a binary that we know as whiteness, and is indicative of not having to think about identity, as James mentioned earlier.
·      The article puts forward that this whiteness causes others people outside of whiteness to be treated as exotics both racially and religiously.
·      This treatment is a symptom of the widening culture gap Chris highlighted

·      It also suggests that the variance of denominations lead to the acceptance of Christian events despite the survey respondents indicating they thought Australia was secular

·      Finally, the article suggests that without considering Asian cultural perspectives, any curriculum movements towards Asia are redundant

Implications of this reading

1)    The author suggests that in order to progress, we need to acknowledge the normalisation of white Christianity in Australian society

2)    Teachers need to move away from considering being white as the norm and anyone else being other

3)    As teachers, we need to avoid overemphasis on white comfort to make meaningful progress

4)    Reflective practice is a powerful tool when considering the religion of people from non-western heritages

5)    Schools should integrate other cultures to build understanding, potentially through festivals and similar activities

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As educators, the learning outcomes of every student are always on the forefront of our minds. Regardless of your current opinion regarding 'whiteness', it is still unequivocally and unfortunately real.

Race is not biological. It is a social construction. So what is whiteness?

- Something we’ve might have never noticed before. Very predictable and recognisable patterns.

- Developed as an idea of a racial category that is at the apex of the racial hierarchy.

Robin DiAngelo
- Introduces the de-centred and arrogant ideology of ‘whiteness’. It becomes a privilege, causes racial inequity, but society is ignorant to it as it is ‘uncomfortable’. Key points made from the podcast include the following:

We need racial equity in a society that claims, ‘whiteness doesn’t mean anything.’

“I was taught to treat everyone the same.” This is not humanly possible. We can’t be taught to do that, can be told to do that.

Our society keeps us ignorant and it doesn’t serve us to be ignorant.
Add that with arrogance – all our teachers, heroes and leaders are white. Hard on people with colour.

Reveal the foundation of meaning that’s causing the uncomfortableness:
White fragility –Inability to hold the conversation without getting defensive and hurt. ‘Need to protect my position. To challenge is to question my very identity.’ Stand to benefit from that inequality in society.

Individualism is only granted to white people and therefore becomes a privilege. White people are rarely identified by race. “They are "just an educator," or "just a teacher”. Suggesting that race has meaning is to fundamentally challenge this concept of individualism.

‘Good neighbourhood, good schools’ is a code for ‘white’. Have set the world up to grant objectivity to white people. This is a very limited worldview. People of colour see ‘race’ everywhere.

Most children understand by age 3 that it is better to be ‘white’. “What message does it give you about yourself?” Need to avoid having these internalised messages of superiority and inferiority in children and in schools.

IMPLICATIONS OF RESOURCE FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING IN SCHOOLS
Shines a light on the societal ignorance and arrogance of this issue.

As teachers, we must consider:
“How does ‘whiteness’ manifest in Australian schools?”.
“How is this going this going to shape teacher’s attitudes going forwards?”

It doesn’t serve us a society to be ignorant to this issue.

There are taboos when it comes to talking about race.

‘Whiteness’ is not comfortable a topic but we MUST GET UNCOMFORTABLE.

Our objective is to de-centre ‘whiteness’.
One of the ways it remains centred is by being unnamed and unmarked. Need to NAME and ADMIT things that white people will rarely ever name and admit to. By helping other white people surface that deeply embedded unconscious of implicit bias.

That is, we must name (with teachers, staff, and students) the REALITY,  that this societal inequality is real and it exists.
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So we've introduced and clarified some new terms regarding this uncomfortable but dire issue. Moving on from this podcast resource towards academic journal articles, having this understanding will give us the ability to unearth and dive into addressing 'whiteness' and 'white fragility' within the school and educational contexts.

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Wang, B. (2017 ). Ask Dr. Whiteness, It’s not a Race Series, Radio National, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Broadcast on Thursday 22, June, 2017. Retrieved at : http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/itsnotarace/ask-dr-whiteness/8613954

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https://youtu.be/wz5OrAMNsKY

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Hi there,

We are Angus, Chris, Haoling, James and Ken.

We’ve prepared this Padlet as a resource for pre-service teachers who want to know more about the theory of whiteness as a manifestation of cultural difference in schools.

Our particular focus is how this theory - which essentially sees power in society as a racialisation process - impacts upon teaching and learning in the classroom.

The Padlet works like this:

in the first half of the page, we’re going to introduce two important resources that help explain the terms “whiteness”, “white privilege” and “white fragility”.  It’s important to get these definitions straight from the outset, because they’re going to come up again and again throughout the Padlet.

in the second half of the page, we’re going to look at two other resources that take the theory of whiteness, and apply it to the educational context.  This is where, as they say, the “rubber hits the road” for teachers, so we’ve done our best to spell out as many implications for your practice as an inclusive teacher as possible.

But first, a little context.

So far this semester we’ve looked at how power plays out in schools - how it is distributed, how it is manifested and how it is contested.  With the help of social theorists like Foucault, Bourdieu and Butler, we’ve come to see that power in schools is largely conditioned by hierarchical understandings of gender, race, sexuality and socio-economic status.  This has meant that the “structure” of schooling has traditionally validated and privileged the experience of certain segments of society at the expense of other, more marginal groups.

So where does the theory of whiteness fit in to this picture?  Well, scholars of whiteness studies assert that power in “colonial” societies like the United States and Australia is principally centred around discriminatory notions of racial superiority that stretch back centuries into the past. And guess who benefits from these discriminatory notions?  Yup, that’s right - white people.

As you’ll soon learn, white people enjoy the privilege of not having to think too much about the nature of their racial identity, at least not in the same way that people of colour are forced to each time they are pulled over by the police in the United States.  That's what the meme at the start of the page is getting at - it's almost as if whiteness carries no meaning, is neutral.  For instance, no one ever talks about a “White” historian in the same way as they might talk about an “hispanic” historian.  Whiteness, in this sense, is less to do with the racial characteristics of a white person, and more to do with the ideology that supports the social construction of racial hierarchies.

And because schools are embedded within society, they cannot escape the "practices" and "discourses" of whiteness.  What follows is a series of resources that will show you how to spot these practices and discourses in schools, as well as providing you with some hints as to how you might - as an inclusive practitioner of diverse students - destabilise their influence.

Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide if you agree with the theory of whiteness - whether you see it as offering a compelling and accurate account of social life. We’re not going to tell you what to think.  But research has repeatedly shown that structural forms of inequality - particularly those grounded in race - have a direct impact on the learning outcomes of students.  As a future educator, we think that is definitely something you should care about.

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PREPARING TEACHERS FOR CULTURALLY DIVERSE SCHOOLS

Sleeter, C. E. (2001). Preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools: Research and the overwhelming presence of whiteness. Journal of teacher education, 52(2), 94-106.

Justification for selection of this Resource

This article contextualizes the issues schools face around culturally diverse student bases with majority White teacher bases. Our group sees this as a critical issue within reducing cultural differences in schools.

Overview of Article

This article draws on and reviews 80 studies on preservice teacher strategies to enter culturally diverse schools in the United States.

It concludes the research on strategies to address White teacher pedagogy systems and the multicultural student base remains disputed, with additional research needed to establish which strategies are the most effective, and highlights the need to populate schools with culturally responsive teachers.

Summary of the Article

·      This article focuses on the examination of evidence on how preservice teachers are prepared to enter and succeed in schools with significant multicultural student populations.

·      It outlines how the “culture gap” between students and quality teachers is widening and the impact that has on student success, specifically learning outcomes, disengagement and dropping out.

·      Teachers anticipate teaching diverse student groups, yet bring little cross-cultural backgrounds, knowledge or experience. Suggesting preservice teachers are naïve and have stereotypical beliefs. They have little understanding of discrimination.

·      Research suggests teacher of color are more committed to multicultural teaching, social justice and providing challenging curriculum to suit all students.

·      (Those)Teacher education programs are not designed to extend preservice teachers knowledge or prepare them for multicultural classrooms.

·      Promotes a more inclusive recruitment of teachers with culturally diverse backgrounds and experiences.

·      Concludes with acknowledgement that if we continue in a business as usual approach to the issue, the gap will continue to widen.

Implications of this reading

1)    While this article discusses the gaps between preservice teacher training and student’s cultural diversity, many of the principles are relevant to how schools approach the issues of Whiteness and White pedagogy, and gaps between teachers preparedness to address culturally diverse pedagogy, as opposed paying it superficial attention.

2)    Teachers develop an understanding of the issues associated with having predominantly White teachers and White-centric pedagogical styles throughout multicultural schools.

3)    Author describes/promotes the goal for preservice teachers to shift their pedagogy “from teaching as telling to teaching as engaging students with subject matter, using culturally relevant knowledge”.

4)    Teachers can develop an awareness of the distinction between inclusive multicultural teaching and what the author terms a “colorblindness” approach to equity and diversity which comes from a position of “fear and ignorance”.

5)    Students become critical of teachers who pay superficial attention to diversity, leading to futher disengagement.

6)    Recommends “community-based cross-cultural immersion” or activities/experiences to enhance new teachers knowledge, disposition and understanding of real world experiences of minority cultures, thus supporting students to “match” with teachers who understand their perspectives.

7)    The author comments, “This way of framing the issue (of cultural differences in schools) draws attention to what actually happens in classrooms when graduates of teacher programs begin to teach.