Controlling the Narrative and Feigning Agreement: A Teacher Educator’s Discourse While Coaching Antiracism

• In Event: Confronting Racial Bias and Fostering Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in Teacher Education

Abstract

In this ethnographic case study, the researchers used critical discourse analysis to examine how a white researcher’s talk functioned as she tried to help white teachers at a predominantly white independent primary school to support Black students. Applying a critical whiteness framework, we conclude that while the researcher’s discourse was effective in initiating anti-racist action, at times she undermined anti-racism work by feigning agreement, offering false affirmations, relating, and trying to recenter anti-racism by controlling the narrative. These moves initiated similar discourse patterns from white teachers such that they interrupted and repeated themselves and each other, allowing white teachers to escape their obligations to anti-racism. There are implications for teacher educators’ discourse when engaging white teachers in anti-racism work.

Authors

• Clarence Ball, Fordham University

• Dorcas Boateng Asa-Ntow, Fordham University

• Jane Bolgatz, Fordham University

• Graham Johnson, Fordham University

• Jazlyn Mary Mena, Fordham University

• Lindsay Rosoff, Fordham University

• Shanna Silien, Fordham University

• Siri Unnam, Fordham University