Analysis of Email as a Modality for Disrupting “Color-Blind” Classroom Management Beliefs

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 1:30 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Undergraduates' Beliefs, Mindset, and Learning Focused on Classroom Management (Table 3)

Abstract

This paper examines an approach to disrupt White Education Discourse (WED) in preservice teacher (PST) education through an email dialogue assignment utilized in a classroom management course. A theoretical basis for the assignment in Dialogic approaches is presented. Analysis of PST emails demonstrates that the email modality elicits elements of WED including coded language, silence, and futility. The instructor’s responses illustrate that email afforded several approaches to challenging WED in a context of support unavailable in whole-class dialogues. Examples of support included validation, acknowledging intentions, and sharing personal stories. Examples of challenge included modeling critical Whiteness, translating, and direct confrontation. Findings suggest that dialogic interventions like this can be crucial tools to prepare PSTs to enact culturally responsive practices.

Authors

• Daryl Mortensen Dugas, Northern Illinois University

• Eric R. Junco, Northern Illinois University