Uncovering Whiteness in DEI Projects: An Exploration of Teacher Education Policy

• In Event: The "Wicked Flexibility" of Whiteness in Progressive Educational Reform Initiatives

Abstract

Purpose
This paper discusses the reliance on whiteness as a norm in spite of attention to addressing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) within an accreditation policy document for teacher education programs. DEI is a widely used, recognizable set of terms that have come to stand in for anything that addresses race, ethnicity, culture, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, language, religion, or nationality. While many organizations have a renewed interest in addressing issues of DEI, there is the danger of only making changes that portray progress, yet lead to limited systemic changes. Specifically, DEI deals with representation, but can potentially skirt over the oppressive center: issues of racism and white supremacy. This project sought to explore how whiteness may persist regardless of rigorous attention to DEI in teacher education policy.

Theoretical Framework
This work relies on the connection between neoliberalism and race outlined by critical race and whiteness scholars. Specifically, Omi and Winant’s (2014) assertion that the reliance of neoliberal policies on free market and choice suggests everyone begins with the same resources and opportunities. This assumption ignores the long history of disenfranchisement of BIPOC in the United States and instead adopts a colorblind perspective. Whites can avoid responsibility for discrimination or oppression by pointing to the policies, rules and regulations inherent in these systems that often result in discriminatory consequences.
This paper examines California’s Teaching Performance Expectations (TPEs) with vigilant attention to the way whiteness often plays an invisible role in maintaining dominance through its “subtle, institutional, and apparently nonracial” features (Bonilla-Silva, 2003). From a critical whiteness perspective, Lipstiz’s discussion of the political and systemic investment in whiteness provides reasoning for attending closely to the (un)intended consequences of state policy.

Methods
This project considered the areas where the Teaching Performance Expectations could expand to address issues of race, ethnicity, culture, gender, language and more. The TPEs are an accreditation tool used by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, organized by six domains that outline the content and pedagogical knowledge and instructional practices expected of beginning teachers.
Informed by perspectives of Critical Policy Analysis (Apple, 2019), open coding was used to code the data and identity themes and categories (Bhattacharya, 2017) with specific attention to the distribution of power, resources, and knowledge, social stratification and the effect the policy has on relationships of inequality and privilege


Findings and Significance
While there is plenty of evidence in the TPEs that indicates attention to DEI through high expectations of students, culturally relevant pedagogy and the involvement of families and communities, there is no mention of whiteness, white privilege or the ways that education systems have historically relied on tenets of white supremacy. Without explicit acknowledgement of the ways whiteness is structurally woven into our education systems and policies, this omittance reifies whiteness as the default and the norm, thwarting efforts at transformation in teacher education. Pointed attention to the role whiteness and Eurocentricity plays in the TPEs could be a significant step towards encouraging transformative, antiracist Educator Preparation Programs in California.

Author

• Kim Vachon, University of California - Santa Cruz