(Dis)lodging Whiteness in Early Childhood Spaces: Using Artmaking to Make Sense of Race and Racism

• In Event: AERA Research-in-Progress Roundtable Session 1
  In Invited Roundtable: Early Childhood Education Research: Student Relationships, Race, Social and Emotional Learning, Development, and Economic Hardship (Table 15)

Abstract

This research uncovers the experiences of white early childhood educators who seek to engage with anti-oppressive pedagogies and practices. Rooted in Critical Whiteness Studies as a critique of white supremacy (Matias et al., 2014), it critiques whiteness in educational spaces while foregrounding the knowledges and lived experiences of communities of Color. In doing so, this work asserts antiracist pedagogies and practices as only effective when in conversation with proBlackness. Using photovoice (Burris & Wang, 1997; Wang et al., 1996), it shares how white educators make sense of race and racism in early childhood spaces. Through analytical artmaking, this work makes visible the complex narratives held within-between-beyond, unearthing co-researchers’ dysconscious racism and pushing us to confront reifications of race, racism, and whiteness↔antiBlackness.

Author

• Molly J. Doherty, University of North Texas