Diversity Unit as Racial Project: Lessons About Identity for One BIPOC First-Grader in Rural Appalachia

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 2:15 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Inquiries into Identity, Representation, and Power in Education

Abstract

This study sought to understand how a teacher’s discourse moves and pedagogical decisions may have influenced one multiethnic/multiracial (Latinx and white) student’s perceptions of herself as a “racialized other” (Chávez-Moreno, 2024) during a diversity-focused literacy unit in a remote rural Appalachian elementary school. Using case study and discourse analysis methods, the author analyzed data through a lens that viewed schools as racial projects (Chávez-Moreno, 2025; Omi & Winant, 2015). In this insular community with nearly all residents considered White, diversity instruction steeped in whiteness likely caused confusion for this BIPOC first grader—who was being raised by White grandparents—during her process of racial self-identification. Results indicate the need for quality race-focused curricula and teacher training in rural schools.

Author

• Rachelle Kuehl, Virginia Tech