Negotiating Power in the Classroom: A Critical Ethnography of White Teachers' Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Striving for Sustaining and Relevant Pedagogy: Students, Teachers, and Social Justice

Abstract

This paper explores how white teachers negotiate power and knowledge in their racial equity practices. Linking Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and funds of knowledge to Foucault’s notion of “power/knowledge”, we demonstrate how the imbalanced power relations in school are disrupted in practice through teachers’ engagement with race issues. This paper draws on data from a critical ethnographic study of six white teachers in the Midwest in the United States. The findings show that by disrupting notions of teachers’ authority and valuing students’ home cultures, some white teachers developed ways to disconnect the relationship between dominant knowledge and power in educational contexts. This paper contributes to the discussions of creating a more socially just learning environment for/with students of color.

Authors

• Diana Chandara, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Weijian Wang, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Ariana Yang, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Shakita Thomas, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities