Inquiry into the social construction of whiteness through my own veil of whiteness

• In Event: Rethinking Qualitative Research Methodologies and the Roles of Resistance for Critical Self-Determination

Abstract

Engaging in Culturally Responsive Methodologies (CRM), to learn from and with participants, was pivotal in my doctoral program, and it continues to inform how I move through the world today. In this session I will discuss how my inquiry into the social construction of whiteness, on a personal and familial level, helped me resist the fiction of race, piercing the veil of my own whiteness to reveal subjugated family knowledge and folkways.
Critical Race Theory framed the narrative inquiry of my dissertation, yet it was qualitative research through CRM that enabled epistemological exploration, grappling with researcher ethics in the context of decolonizing models (Smith, 2012). This challenged me to make research accessible in culturally responsive ways. Family anecdotes became practical examples of theoretical concepts, crazy quilting became a metaphor for data collection and sorting through themes, and binding threads on the data quilt, indicated outcomes of analysis.
Through CRM, family vernacular was amplified, storytelling became narrative intervention, and folkways became a pathway out of generic whiteness (Matias, 2016). The threads of marginalization that emerged from each narrative indicated that white privilege cannot cover the harm it perpetuates, even to its beneficiaries (DiAngelo, 2021).
Findings indicated personal experience as a site of knowledge, with whiteness as both situational and contextual (Picower, 2021). The curriculum of family life as gleaned through insider knowledge explored unspoken norms through informal exchanges. Privilege was mitigated (though not erased) by personal experiences of marginalization within their own families and across wider society. Whiteness and racism appeared symptomatic of a larger culture of domination (Fierro, 2022).
The principles of CRM continue to affect my personal and professional choices as an instructional coach. Despite district mandates, I am intentional about inviting teachers to collaborate and I work to respect their professional agency. Likewise, as a district-level equity coordinator, I work with a well-respected Samoan community leader and together with Pacific Island families, we respect culture and community, as personalized, academic services are brokered. As director of the district’s early childhood education program, CRM began by creating intentional spaces for others to be culturally centered (Rigazio-DiGilio & Ivey, 2007). Certificated program leads and classified office staff became an advisory council. Restorative Justice practices were implemented with the help of consultants. In contexts such as these people can speak honestly and openly about fears and concerns, as they collaboratively problem-solve.
The development of these relationships is possible because of the tenets of CRM. Ethical research and professional engagement occur in the context of reciprocal relationships that resist hierarchy, domination, and exploitation with a focus on the agency of participants and colleagues (Authors, 2013; Love, 2019).
The current iteration of global fascism is a clarion call to rise-up and resist hierarchy, marginalization, and dehumanization. To do this we must continue to examine our own behaviors and assumptions. For as we resist the rampant normalization of cruelty and heartlessness and stand together in defiance of the fascist rhetoric and ideology, we must resist our own dehumanization of those who support this agenda.

Author

• Veronica E. Bloomfield, Porch Swing Productions