Unveiling the "White Gaze" in Community-Engaged Inquiry: Preservice Teachers and Communities of Color as Stakeholders

• In Event: Decolonizing the "Critical": Working With Stakeholders to Dismantle Whiteness in Qualitative Education Research

Abstract

Purpose. While critical educators seek to decolonize educational research, the “White gaze” continues to plague extant methods (Patel, 2016). Even in field-studies where participants embody multiple intersectionalities, researchers’ discussions about participants’ pluralities often relegate to White perspectives (Bonilla-Silva, 2018). In this paper, we interrogate the onto-epistemologies of White supremacy in community-engaged teacher inquiry. We ask: How does the “White gaze” inform preservice teachers’ assumptions and perspectives during their community-engaged field-inquiries?

Framework. As two educator-researchers of color (Asian American, African American), we ground our study in Critical Race perspectives (Delgado & Stefanic, 2017). Race is central to one’s intersectionalities, and Whiteness is not only pervasive in U.S. schools (Leonardo, 2009), it is normalized, protected, and reproduced by White supremacy (Bonilla-Silva, 2018). Rather than valuing students’ of color knowledge funds as assets (Paris & Alim, 2016), for instance, teacher-researchers often evaluate students based on the “White gaze” (Yancey, 2016)—perceptions rooted in White supremacy and White privilege. As one kind of stakeholder, teacher-researchers, thus, must learn to participate in communities in which they research and teach (Haddix, 2015) from a place of ongoing “reflexivity” wherein they critically look inward at their Whiteness in order to critically project outward (Madison, 2020) at their actions.

Methods and data sources. This study examines preservice teachers’ perceptions about engaging with communities of color. The majority of participants (n=18) identified as racially White with some-to-minimal experiences with communities of color. The course, which one of us taught and both of us developed, centers on anti-racist education and is required for participants’ teacher education program. Through critical race discourse analysis (Briscoe & Khalifa, 2015) of participants’ discussion-board postings/presentations/essays (collected/analyzed after course ended), we examined participants’ assumptions during their community-engaged field-inquiries, focusing on “positive”/“negative” descriptors about self and others, and race-evasive words/phrases/sentences/omissions in their assignments. We offer two qualitative snapshots illuminating the White gaze in participants’ inquiries.

Results/Significance. Our analyses postulate a normalness of Whiteness, hints of White fragility (DiAngelo, 2018), and fragmented perceptions of intersectionalities wherein race (of self and others) is deemed as one of “multiple identities.” We underline the urgent need for race-conscious practices in teacher inquiry, including collaborations with community stakeholders to help teacher-researchers critically interrogate their “social locations” (Haddix, 2015, p.64).

Authors

• Rossina Zamora Liu, University of Maryland

• Ebony Terrell Shockley, University of Maryland - College Park

• Genevieve D'Cruz, University of Maryland - College Park