Theorizing Justice With Preservice Teachers: "Diversity" and "Acceptance" as Proxies for Whiteness

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 10:50 am
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Inquiries Into Teacher Learning: Counter-Narratives, Justice, and Practice (Table 35)

Abstract

Through this study, the researcher explored how 41 future teachers who were enrolled in a mandatory course on diversity and equity theorized justice in relation to pleasure, oppression, and activism. Using a mixture of qualitative methods such as thematic analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis, and content analysis, the researcher found that pre-service teachers’ theories of justice were implicitly rooted in ideologies of whiteness. The data suggest that participants emphasized the appreciation of difference over contention with injustice and positioned diversity in the curriculum through a binary oppositional frame, the result of which maintained cultural imperialism and supremacies of whiteness. Implications for teacher education are discussed.

Author

• Alexandria Hollett, California State University - Northridge