A Culture of Nice: How Educators’ Niceness Holds Inequities in Place

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

How, despite a multitude of policy reforms ostensibly aimed at increasing educational equity, do racialized, classed, and gendered inequities persist in U.S. schools? While most educators are well-intentioned individuals, persistent and damaging racial ideologies of colorblindness, white superiority, savior complexes, and deficit perceptions of children and families of color thwart progress toward racial equity (Castagno, 2008; 2014; Pollock, 2001; 2004). A “culture of nice” (Castagno, 2014) in which adults in school settings implicitly agree to focus on the positive, the good, and the pleasant, prevents discussion of issues that are “not nice” —such as institutional racism, sexism, classism, and heteronormativity. This session demonstrates that educators perform, legitimize, and enforce niceness to cover up existing inequities both inside and outside classrooms.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Critical Examination of Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender in Education

Chair

• Jia-Hui Stefanie Wong, Trinity College

Papers

• How Niceness in School Administrators' Talk Elides Discussions of Racialized School Discipline in an Urban School District - Marguerite A. Wilson, Binghamton University - SUNY; Denise G. Yull, Binghamton University - SUNY

• "You Should Be Ashamed of Yourself": Disrupting Niceness in Out-of-School Spaces - Katie Lazdowski

• "It's Better Now": How Midwest Niceness Shapes Social Justice Education - Bailey B. Smolarek, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Giselle Del Carmen Martinez Negrette, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Niceness and the Reproduction of Inequity: The (Im)Perfect Storm of Whiteness, Middle-Classness, and Cis-Femaleness in School Contexts - Joseph C. Wegwert, Northern Arizona University; Aidan/Amanda J Charles, Northern Arizona University

Discussant

• Jia-Hui Stefanie Wong, Trinity College