"It's Just Strange": White Co-Teachers Collaborating to Make Sense of Whiteness and Ableism in a High School Classroom

• In Event: AERA Graduate Student Research-in-Progress Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: Cultural Relevance and Responsiveness in Curriculum and Teaching Practice (Table 2)

Abstract

Co-teaching between general and special education teachers holds promise as a collaborative practice that addresses inclusive practices for students labeled with disabilities. Even more, when teachers dedicated to anti-racism collaborate, there are further opportunities to undo racism and ableism that circulate in all classrooms. This ethnographic study observes two white co-teachers who use culturally relevant teaching practices in a minority-white classrooms. The study follows not only how the co-teachers make sense of their white students resistance to the coursework, but also how the teachers implicitly use whiteness and smartness as classroom commodities, despite being committed to anti-racist work. The findings illuminate areas in which white teachers and administrators can continue the needed work of disrupting ableism and racism.

Author

• Brittany Stahlman, University of Minnesota