“I Don’t See Color”: French Teachers’ Perceptions of Equitable Dispositions in Parisian Classrooms

• In Event: Considering International Teachers' Perspectives

Abstract

Despite strong commitment to 'egalité' and education specifically, immigrant students in France are often underserved by the system. Equitable educational opportunities for minoritized students depend not only on what teachers do with them, but ultimately who teachers are with them. One issue yet to be clarified is how teacher dispositional virtue develops and operates alongside social and political ideologies, including social, cultural, and racial ideologies. France has traditionally enacted a ‘color blind’ orientation to the integration of immigrant groups emphasizing assimilation with cultural tolerance. This qualitative study uses thematic analysis to explore how teachers who teach non-majority culture students in the Paris region understand equity dispositions in the context of French education and in their own work with these students.

Authors

• Erika Feinauer, Brigham Young University

• Erin Feinauer Whiting, Brigham Young University