Opportunities for White Teacher Critical Consciousness: A Choose-Your-Own Adventure Story

• In Event: Artful Reflections: Reimagining the Teacher as Learner Through Creative Practice

Abstract

Beware. This presentation is different from others. At times, you will be put in the position of a white teacher protagonist and will have choices about your actions. We invite you to come with us on this choose-your-own-adventure (CYOA) journey to experience a semblance of the day-to-day decision-making opportunities described by seven white teachers during a heuristic phenomenological study. We employ CYOA to demonstrate the finding that white teachers developed critical racial literacy through a series of opportunities that allowed them to choose a path toward critical consciousness or race evasion. We conclude that making decisions toward critical racial literacy, while difficult, normalizes self-reflection, courageous conversations, and learning from missteps that might lead to right action in schools.

Authors

• Rhianna K. Thomas, New Mexico State University

• Erin Opara, Kansas City International Academy