How Preservice Teachers Flutter in Race Conversations: The Verbal and Emotional Content of White Talk

• In Event: Intersectionality Matters: Educational Perspectives, Paradigms, and Possibilities

Abstract

White talk functions to insulate whites from having to explore their role in the perpetuation of whiteness and racism (Bailey, 2015; McIntyre, 1997). In this study, using a Critical White Studies lens, we explore thirteen preservice teachers’ white talk, including verbal (McIntyre, 1997) and non-verbal communication (Bailey, 2015), distancing strategies (Case & Hemmings, 2005), and semantic and rhetorical moves (Bonilla-Silva, 2018; Hytten & Warren, 2003) that teachers employ to justify racist actions and maintain whiteness in education. Our preliminary findings reveal that every white preservice teacher from this study engaged in all aspects of verbal and non-verbal white talk. We also noted how participants’ emotional responses to racial situations drives verbal aspects of white talk.

Authors

• Elizabeth Marie Allen, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Ja'Bria Barber, North Carolina State University

• Jessica DeCuir-Gunby, North Carolina State University