"Putting Blinders On": Ethnic-Minority Female Physical Education Teachers' Embodied Racialized Identity Within Predominantly White Schools

• In Event: Social Justice and Cultural Diversity in Health and Physical Education

Abstract

Ethnic minority PE teachers may feel marginalized, unsupported, and experience disconnected cultural codes from the rest of their educational communities, all of which can result in professional penalties, and feeling “singled out because of skin color”. The purpose of this visual narrative inquiry was to examine the embodied identities of ethnic minority female PE teachers who work in predominantly white schools in order to identify how whiteness informs their understanding of their educational contexts and their sense of self. The results indicated that participants negotiated racial inequalities in their daily lives. Additionally, participants often enacted a colorblind perspective and rejected a racialized identity in order to align themselves with the dominant discourses of whiteness within their schools.

Authors

• Mara Simon, Springfield College

• Laura Azzarito, Columbia University