The Power of Discretionary Spaces in Teaching: Connections Between Systemic Injustice and Everyday Practice

• In Event: Drawing On Histories For the Futures of Culturally Responsive Teaching

Abstract

Teaching is saturated with moments that cannot be determined by policy, administrative requirements, or instructional materials. Using the theoretical construct of “discretionary spaces” (Author, 2018) we identify the interpretive, relational, pedagogical, norm-enforcement, and emotional/reflective arenas where teachers exercise judgment and agency, both tacitly as a function of deeply established habits and intentionally through deliberate choice. Discretionary spaces function both as portals through which white supremacy permeates everyday practice but also the opportunities for its disruption. Drawing on critical race theory, Black educational thought, and scholarship on habit and noticing, we develop a typology to name the kinds of discretion embedded in routine practice. This framework illuminates how injustice operates invisibly in the everyday ordinary work of teaching (Smith, 2016).

Authors

• Deborah Loewenberg Ball, University of Michigan

• Darrius D. Robinson, University of Michigan