Redeeming Whiteness Is Not the Goal: Toward a Black Critical Whiteness Studies in Teacher Education

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This panel examines critical whiteness studies (CWS) in teacher education and the extent to which a CWS focus on white racial innocence in teacher education supports avoidance of institutional transformation or accountability to communities of color. If CWS does not center racial justice as its goal, then it does not challenge white supremacy (Gay, 2018; Hernandez-Sheets, 2000; Sleeter, 2017). Instead, approaches to CWS that focus on redeeming white identities reinforce racial dominance while pretending to challenge it. These presentations call into question equity efforts that recenter whiteness and fail to prioritize racial justice for communities of color. They advocate for teacher education to recognize its role in perpetuating racial oppression and to take responsibility for dismantling white supremacy in education.

Sub Unit

• Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education / Division K - Section 04: The Socio-Cultural and Racial Foundations of Teaching and Teacher Education

Chair

• Cheryl E. Matias, University of Kentucky

Papers

• Avoiding the Knapsack Approach to Critical Whiteness Studies: Toward a Critical Study of Whiteness - Cheryl E. Matias, University of Kentucky

• "Grasping at the Root": A Critical Race Theory Analysis of Whiteness and Leadership in Colleges of Education - Isaura Betzabe Pulido, Northeastern Illinois University

• White Racial Ignorance, Whiteness as Property, and Teacher Education in Wisconsin - Christin A. DePouw, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay