The Proverbial White Teacher: Whiteness, Student Perceptions, and the Racialized Experience with Teachers

• In Event: Sociology of Education Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 28. Racialization, Power, and Institutions

Abstract

Abstract. Racial mismatch between students and teachers in the US contributes to racial and academic inequality in schools, yet less is known about how students interpret and understand the overrepresentation of white teachers. Leveraging 20 in-depth interviews with students at a Northern California high school with a predominantly white teaching force, I examine how students of color and white students perceive their racial experience having a disproportionate number of white teachers. Findings show that whiteness is normalized through the routine presence of white teachers: white teachers are implicitly normal and typical authority figures. Racially divergent perceptions from experiences with teachers arise where white students tend to view white teachers as supportive and engaging, whereas students of color often view them as domineering and authoritarian. In contrast, students of color and white students perceived the few teachers of color at their high school positively from their experiences. Overall, findings highlight how the lack of teacher diversity reinforces hegemonic whiteness and contributes to unequal socio-academic experiences, offering implications for theories of whiteness and the social reproduction of racial inequality.

Keywords: racial mismatch, whiteness, white teachers, teacher diversity, racial inequality

Author

• Ismael Alejandro Lopez, University of Texas at Austin