"It's Not the American Boarding School It Was Founded to Be": Whiteness, Gender, and Conservatism

• In Event: Critical Examination of Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender in Education Poster Session

Abstract

In elite independent high schools, which bring together (mostly white) children of affluence from all ideological corners, political tensions run high. Using qualitative items from school climate surveys of nine schools between 2018 and 2019, we explore how white adolescents describe their schools’ racial and political climates and their feelings of belonging. More than 10% of respondents reported that students with conservative views felt silenced or alienated, with some gender variation. In many of these comments, white students conflate conservative and white identities and/or employ the language of diversity and discrimination in their discussion of political belonging. In this way, intense feelings about race accompany white conservative students’ feelings of exclusion based on their political views.

Authors

• Nora Gross, Boston College

• Ellen Bryer, The University of Pennsylvania

• Charlotte E Jacobs, University of Pennsylvania