In the Context of Whiteness: Investigating White Middle Schoolers' Racial Consciousness Through Critical Race Curriculum

• In Event: 51.081 - Sheraton Roundtable Session Nine - Grand Centre
  In Roundtable Session: 51.081-7 - Critical Issues on Social Justice, Whiteness, Oppression, and Race

Abstract

American public schools have been confronted with an uptick of overt racial bigotry, ever since the 2016 presidential election, referred to as the 'Trump Effect' (Costello, 2016). In reality, such occurrences are nothing new in American education and are reminders of the invincibility and pervasiveness of whiteness (Gillborn, 1992; Sleeter, 2004). In response to the 'Trump Effect,' social studies curriculum utilizing tenets of critical race curriculum was designed and implemented to assist white middle school students to develop their racial consciousness during this political time. The study finds that white middle school students are eager to develop more accurate and sophisticated understandings of their own racial identity and the societal implications of racism and racial color blindness.

Author

• Kelly Deits Cutler, Portland State University