The Continual Centering of Whiteness and Niceness in Social Justice Education

• In Event: 34.047 - Mapping the Contours of Niceness in Education

Abstract

Recently, scholars have explored how Niceness and good intentions have facilitated the persistence of injustice in schools (Castagno, 2014; Lewis & Diamond, 2015). In efforts to be nice, many educators seek to be kind and agreeable, to avoid controversy and uncomfortable situations. Often, this manifests in teachers’ hesitance to discuss issues of inequality (Pollock, 2004). However, not all educators shy away from teaching about injustice. As communities nationwide struggle to address persistent educational inequities, schools that appear to be engaging in social justice education are of particular interest. But are these schools actually enacting transformative policies and practices? This paper explores how Whiteness and niceness persist even when schools are committed to social justice. I examine how educators can challenge systems of power – which is often seen as not-nice behavior – in ways that are still rooted in Whiteness and Niceness. That is, teachers continue to engage in practices that avoid conflict and discomfort in ways that prioritize the needs of White students over students of color. While educators’ explicit desires to challenge inequalities may represent some important first steps in dismantling oppression, I suggest that it is not enough.

This paper draws on participant observation, interviews, and document analysis conducted as part of a 16-month critical school ethnography at a racially and socioeconomically diverse Midwestern high school. I argue that although many of the mostly White middle-class educators were committed to equity, the school continued to operate on a foundation of Whiteness and Niceness. Educators taught about systemic oppression, but did so in a nice way. Injustice was often viewed as disconnected from daily realities of oppressed people, as well as from school policies and practices. Lessons about oppression were largely contained to the classroom and discussed as if it affected other people. Thus, teachers avoided the uncomfortable reality that many students had personal experiences or connections to oppression, while other students were systemically advantaged. I also argue that many students of color were not drawn in by these “nice” social justice lessons, but rather saw that their experiences continued to be marginalized.

This paper draws on critical Whiteness studies (DuBois, 1935; Leonardo, 2009; Lipsitz, 2006). This framework seeks to understand racism by focusing not on how the system disadvantages people of color, but rather on how it benefits Whites. It thus helps to explain how and why racism persists. Niceness is one way in which Whiteness maintains dominance (Castagno, 2014). I also build on literature on multicultural education (e.g., Banks, 2014; Grant & Sleeter, 2011) and social justice education (e.g., Ayers, Quinn & Stovall, 2009).

This paper points to the need to more deeply examine the power of Niceness and Whiteness if we are to better understand how and why inequity persists in schools. It raises questions about how and why Whiteness continues to be centered, even when educators seek to challenge injustice. This paper thus contributes to more nuanced understandings about how to authentically create and sustain schools that actively work against systems of oppression.

Author

• Jia-Hui Stefanie Wong, Trinity College