Faces of Change: First-Year Master's Students' Journey to Understanding Race, Racism, and Differences

• In Event: 69.037 - Critical Family History and the Novel as Tools of Whiteness Pedagogies: A Theory-to-Practice Symposium

Abstract

Frameworks
The novel, White Bread, by Christine Sleeter was used as an anchor and foundation for intense and difficult conversations in the course SED 406: Induction into Special Education. In addition to frameworks mentioned in the introduction, the “Faces of Change” assignments were grounded in the Kurt Lewin’s (1947) Change Management Model and the ADKAR model (Hiatt, 2003) of change management. Both models were used to help students and the researcher to understand and learn more about race, racism, and differences.

Contexts of teaching and goals
A group of eleven Master’s students engaged in a journey where they learned more about who they are and the cultural differences they have with their current students. The course was comprised of three males and eight females. All students identified themselves as White. While reading the novel, students were instructed to reflect on the content within the book and explain in writing, audio, or video their initial thoughts, how this made them feel, and next steps they would take to further understand themselves and their students. When in class, students would share their feelings and answer additional questions with their peers in literature circles. The researcher debriefed after each session to debunk any misconceptions that may arise and to help students further understand and learn from each other. Once students completed the book a reflective paper was assigned.

Data sources and analyses
The data collected included student reflections, faculty reflections, observations, and final papers. The student and researcher reflections were collected throughout the semester to further understand the growth of students and the researcher. The researcher conducted observations while students were engaged in the literature circles with their peers. Finally, the researcher collected the final reflective paper to analyze students' final thoughts and perceptions. Data analysis from differing data sources identified, coded, and supported patterns (Glesne, 2009) through concepts from Lewin (1947) and Hiatt (2003).

Substanitated observations and scholarly significance
After analyzing the data, the researcher found three common themes that stretched across all data collected: 1) Willingness to learn more about their own culture 2) Hesitation and/or guilty feelings when speaking or discussing race, racism, and differences, 3) An epiphany regarding misconceptions and new level of understanding regarding differences. Throughout the semester, the conversations became easier and students began to become more open-minded, leading to extremely robust and meaningful conversations in the classroom. Overall, this research adds to a growing conversation on whiteness pedagogies, teaching, and learning on race in teacher education.

References

Hiatt, J. M, & Creasey, T. J. (2003). Change Management: The people side of change. Fort Collins, MO: Prosci Research Publications.

Glesne, C. (2010). Becoming qualitative researchers (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Longman.

Lewin, K. (1947). Frontiers in group dynamics: Concept, method and reality in social science; social equilibria and social change. Human Relations, 1, 5-41.

Author

• Stacey Hardin, Illinois State University