Check Our Biases: A Play and Critical Analysis of Whiteness in a Teacher Education Space

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Harmonizing Arts Engagement in Teaching, Research, and Practice (Table 6)

Abstract

“For many Black girls, interactions between the justice system and schools often do not begin, or end, in school" (Morris, 2016, p. 4). This play explores how White educators criminalized a second-grade Black girl by putting her on a behavior plan for having “attitude.” The unchecked White emotionality of the educators became the focus while the criminalization of the Black girl was decentered. The creation of and discussion about plays aim to be operationalized to reimagine schools as spaces centering Black girls’ brilliance. This follows the AERA 2024 Annual Meeting Call for “the simultaneous act of dismantling racial injustice and constructing educational possibilities” (2024 Annual Meeting Call for Paper and Session Submissions, n.d., p. 1).

Author

• Carol Ann Opie, Michigan State University