Dismantling the "White Racial Army": A Reimagined Critical Whiteness Studies and Feminist of Color Teacher Education

• In Event: Beyond Epiphanies: Critique of Whiteness in Teacher Education and Society by Women of Color

Abstract

Objectives
Teaching is as much gendered as it is racialized, however, through our experiences as Latina teacher educators/scholars, we have noticed that gender is virtually absent from teacher education literature (Galman & Mallozzi, 2012). While there are some examples problematizing the danger of white femininity (Matias, 2020) and the gendered dimensions of teachers (Apple, 2006; Leonardo and Boas, 2013), these conversations are few and far between. Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) has revealed the workings of whiteness and white supremacy in teacher education, yet, gender is not typically included in such analysis.

Theoretical Framework
We draw upon intersectionality as an analytical lens to make sense of teaching at an individual and systemic level (Collins, 1991; Cooper, 1892; Crenshaw, 1991). Feminists of color have long practiced an intellectual tradition of producing knowledge through their lived experiences (Moraga & Anzaldúa, 1983; Lorde, 2007; Anzaldúa, 2007). For feminists of color bodies and experience are entangled with social structures and institutions. From theory in the flesh (Hurtado, 2003; Moraga & Anzaldúa, 1983), to the mythical norm (Lorde, 2007), to the matrix of domination (Collins, 1991), feminists of color have produced theories that make visible how white, Eurocentric, masculinist ways of knowing and being in the world is naturalized as the standard from which everyone is measured. These theories also make visible the social landscape in which all people are differentially positioned in relation to one another and measured up against the mythical norm. It is this epistemological tradition that has produced intersectionality as an analytical lens (Collins & Bilge, 2016; Crenshaw, 1991).

Modes of Inquiry and Evidence
In this conceptual paper we, analyze the field of CWS in teacher education, as well as examine the literature around gender in teacher education to offer a feminist of color critique.

Substantiated Conclusions
These gaps in the field demonstrate that there is a need for holistic race-gendered frameworks and theories about teachers and teaching. We argue that in order to resist the mold of becoming the “traditional” white female teacher, we must engage with intersectionality within teacher education more intentionally.

Scholarly Significance of Work
This conceptual paper calls for intersectionality to be used as as an analytic tool, to not only study how individuals perpetuate and reproduce hierarchies and systems of power and domination, but also reveals how systems sort and mold individuals in the first place (Collins & Bilge, 2016; Crenshaw, 1991). Using this lens, we examine how the teaching profession itself is constructed in racialized, gendered, and classed ways, thereby revealing how and why teachers are mostly white middle class women.

Connection to Theme
The implications of this paper connect to the conference call by reimaging how teacher education might reshape the ways we teach about identities, systems of oppression, etc. Specifically, our work relates to the following question in the conference call: What core intersectional ideas and theoretical lenses about race, racism, privilege, and other -isms (e.g., patriarchy, transphobia, homophobia, sexism, colorism, ageism, etc.) are key to our reimagining of education and schooling?

Authors

• Ganiva Reyes, Miami University (OH)

• Brittany A. Aronson, Pennsylvania State University