Checking the Box or Smacking the Water: The White Fragility Dilemma in Professional Development

• In Event: Privilege, Pedagogies, and Professional Development: Teachers' Work Dilemmas and Discourse

Abstract

Professional development (PD) focused on diversity, inclusion, and equity has the potential to cause discomfort. In the current mixed-methods study, we confront the tension between growth and discomfort by exploring the experiences of educators in a culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) PD. Participants (N=29) scored higher on a measure of their CRP self-efficacy, and (n=14) discussed their PD experiences in interviews. Findings illustrate: 1) the comfort of White participants may come at the expense of the comfort of participants of color, and 2) while growth in CRP self-efficacy may be possible without discomfort, some participants may have demonstrated growth while maintaining previously-held beliefs that run counter to social justice progress (e.g., that systemic racism is not a problem in U.S. schools).

Authors

• Christy Suzanne Galletta Horner, Bowling Green State University

• Vernita Glenn-White, University of Central Florida

• Katherine Brodeur, Bowling Green State University

• Bernie Compton, Bowling Green State University

• Tracy Lynn Huziak-Clark, Bowling Green State University

• Oluwatobi Ishola, Bowling Green State University

• Kristina N. LaVenia, Bowling Green State University

• Oluwafisayo Oke, Bowling Green State University