The Construction and, More Importantly, Deconstruction of Whiteness: A Visual Metaphor Study

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: Criticality and Activism Using Arts-Based Educational Research Methods (Table 9)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to make sense of whiteness and its consequences. In order to do this, I pursued arts-based educational research methods as a means of creating, entangling myself with, and understanding the data. Through this art-as-research method (Wang et al., 2017), I interrogated what I could learn about whiteness through the construction and deconstruction of entanglements made of string. This means of researching whiteness is not one that is universal since art, like everything, is weighted by our racial histories (Kraehe, 2020). However, whiteness leaves permanent marks and makes a severe imprint upon our educational system that could perhaps be better understood through ABER.

Author

• Abby C. Emerson, Providence College