“What's the F*#@ing Point of the Garden?” Whiteness at Work in an Activist Learning Space

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 10:50 am
  In Roundtable Session: Elevating Critical Methodologies in Educational Research, Theory, and Praxis (Table 7)

Abstract

We are committed to working the tensions between the present reality of the insidious and pervasive nature of white supremacy toward a vision of liberatory racially just learning spaces. This paper focuses on how white supremacy was reified and resisted in a learning environment the authors designed for a group of emerging activists in Philadelphia. Racialized storytelling shows whiteness-at-work in the learning context we created and provided a way to capture how some remarks and actions shaped later moments and how those moments are ultimately creating possible avenues for the future. Our findings provide insights for designing liberatory learning spaces for emergent activists in a world structured for racialized oppression.

Authors

• Kristen P. Goessling, Pennsylvania State University

• Jonathan McCausland, Iona University