We Teach That the Confederacy Lost: Storybox as a Methodological Tool in Critical Race Spatial Analysis

• In Event: 33.067 - The Search for Justice in Critical Race Spatial Analysis

Abstract

Purpose
This paper explores using storybox (Hamera 2005) as a methodological tool for spatial analysis of race in a study focused on how teachers made sense of race at Lincoln Elementary, a U.S. southern elementary school racially segregated until 1969. Storybox artifacts (pictures, videos, student work, quotes, and vignettes) were collected during the first year of study and narrated the story of place. In response, teachers in small groups provided new narratives about the racialization of Lincoln. The author shares findings about how storybox can be a critical race spatial analysis tool, using this exemplar focused on enduring challenges of racial integration in the south (Lynn & Jennings 2009; Milner & Howard 2008).

Conceptual Framework
To better understand the contemporary impact of school desegregation (Milner & Howard 2004), the researcher explored teachers’ microlevel experiences of the racialization of space (Calmore 1995; Smith 1993). Storybox illuminates Soja’s (2010) assertion that space and social processes are interconnected by highlighting teachers’ divergent perceptions of this primarily White and formerly (until 1969) all-White school. This paper utilizes tenants of critical race theory (Dixson & Rousseau 2006; Solorzano 1997; Vaught 2011; Zamudio et al. 2011) to center the lived experiences of African American teachers and problematize discourses that frame racial integration as emblematic of achieving a multicultural school community.

Methodology
This paper features data collected in four hours of two small group interviews with two African American and three European American teachers during a two-year ethnographic study (Author 2013). To encourage open dialogue about the racialization of space, the researcher invited teachers to join racially homogenous groups. Both groups were presented with the same storybox resulting in unique narratives about the racialization of Lincoln. Here, the researcher uses narrative analysis, comparing the stories and dialogue that resulted specifically from two pictures. One picture is a teacher rally at the state capital building. De-centered in the frame was the confederate flag. The second documented Lincoln class of 1941 where all students appeared European American. The goal of this narrative analysis was to unpack the narrative of desegregation as a symbol of achieving equity in a place with persistent inequities today.

Results
As a data collection tool, storybox added rich data about the racialization of Lincoln and the racial divisions experienced by African American teachers in a school often deemed as “multicultural” based on recent racial demographic shifts. The researcher shares data from small groups to highlight teachers’ diverse narratives about the racialization of space where the illusion of integration choice (Calmore, 1995) is both complex and problematic.

Significance
This paper offers an example of how storybox can be a tool in critical race spatial analysis (Velez, Solorzano, & Pacheco 2009), specifically for examining and analyzing the racialization of space that may not be captured on traditional western conceptualizations of maps (Smith 2012). Storybox is helpful for illuminating the racialization of space that threatens what Calmore (1995) refers to as “integration choices,” (p. 16) and challenges researchers to carefully consider the racialization of non-urban spaces.

Author

• Joy Howard, Heritage University