The Effect of Capitulation as a Pedagogical Tool: A Misuse of a Solidarity Narrative in an Urban Classroom

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Whiteness and the "Workforce"

Abstract

This paper uses data from a larger ethnographic case study of White teachers in solidarity with their African American students (Author, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018). While the other participants showed dimensions of solidarity, Joe Nelson believed he was in solidarity with his students but was in fact, deeply embedded in deficit models that blocked his ability to live and work in solidarity with his students. Instead, he used capitulation as a strategy in the classroom. This capitulation took the form of low expectations for academics and behaviors. It also played out in his relationships with students with high absentee rates and low percentages of work turned in. He perceived his students as volatile and confrontational unless plied with non-confrontational tolerance.

Author

• Michael L. Boucher, Texas A&M University - San Antonio