Challenging the "Default" Whiteness of the Climate Movement

• In Event: Social Movements, Learning Sciences, and Possibilities for Transformation

Abstract

Purpose
This poster investigates the ways social change spaces can be inadvertently constructed as white spaces, where whiteness is the default and students of colour and Indigenous students are othered. Using a case study of a university climate activism group, we conduct a micro-analysis of multi-camera video of the group’s weekly meetings. We describe interactions among white participants that make the space “default” white space where the contributions of students of colour are taken for granted, tokenized, or ignored. We explore how students of colour resist the default space and create alternate spaces, including this research collective, to describe and analyze experiences of marginalization.

Methods and Data
We collected and analyzed video data from twenty meetings over one year. Based on stimulated recall interviews and informal focus groups with students of colour, we developed the notion that meetings were white by default. The idea of a “default space” resonated with students, so we worked to identify what it was about the meetings that made students of colour feel like the space was not theirs. We went through five videos and coded events in the videos where race was made salient. We refined codes and revisited the instances, discussing them and generating shared analysis of how whiteness shaped the space.

Perspectives
Using sociocultural theories of learning, we examine how learning spaces are constructed collaboratively and interrogate the ways in which dominant social relations structure the space in ways that constrain marginalized students’ participation. Building from concepts of situated learning and communities of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991), we extend these theorizations to account for race, racism, and colonialism. We draw from Nasir and Hand, (2006), Lee (2006), and Bang and Medin (2010) to explore the ways students of colour experience this space and imagine other forms of participation that might enable more equitable participation.

Results
The construction of a default white space happened in many ways, including:
1. Taking up space: White, settler men spoke the vast majority of the time and turns. Dominating speaking time allowed them to shape the conversation and limit participation by others.
2. Establishing what is valid: White, settler men often dismissed concerns raised by other students. In particular, several white men dismissed the relevance of climate justice, an approach to climate work that accounts for race and colonialism in the creation of the climate crisis, as well as the disproportionate impacts of climate change on Indigenous peoples and communities of colour.
3. Encouraging masculine, white performances of leadership: In order to be considered a leader, one had to be “quick on your feet”, meaning able and willing to respond to questions authoritatively and without hesitation. Other approaches to participation were described as inadequate.

Significance
This poster complements previous work in learning sciences exploring how race, racism, and colonialism are enacted and how they impact learning. It contributes a microanalysis of the construction of whiteness and opens space for marginalized students to build resistance from their experiences of peripherality.

Authors

• Keara Lightning

• Amil Davis

• Joe Curnow, University of Toronto - OISE