The Role of Whiteness in Teacher Beliefs and Practice

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 7:45 am - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Refusal, Care, and Justice: Educators Challenging Structures in Teaching

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between in-service teachers’ beliefs about whiteness-informed instruction and the frequency with which they report enacting these practices. Using data from 216 U.S.-based teachers who completed the Classroom Whiteness Scale (ClaWS), this study applies multiple linear regression to examine how race, teaching experience, political affiliation, and other variables predict whiteness-informed beliefs. Results indicate that practice frequency is the strongest predictor of belief strength, challenging assumptions that beliefs must precede behavior. White teachers and those with fewer years of experience were also more likely to endorse whiteness-informed beliefs. These findings underscore the dynamic relationship between practice and ideology and have implications for how racial equity is conceptualized and supported in teacher education and professional learning spaces.

Author

• Jaylene Patterson, University of Kentucky