Abby as Ally: An Argument for Culturally Disruptive Pedagogy

Abstract

This article re-stories the navigation of one White female student, Abby, enrolled in a 12thgrade ethnic studies course titled Native American literature. Abby reveals tensions, disruptions, and self-discoveries within a course that recentered Indigenous histories and literacies while, concurrently, decentered dominant knowledge systems. Her story addresses this article’s central question: How does Whiteness operate in an ethnic studies course? Eleven vignettes trace Abby’s critical consciousness development within and beyond this course. Relying on Paris and Alim’s (2014, 2017) culturally sustaining pedagogy and McCarty and Lee’s (2014) culturally revitalizing pedagogy, I offer culturally disruptive pedagogy to argue that as educators, researchers, and community members seek ways to sustain and revitalize cultural practices, we must also consider the ways hegemonic norms—as perpetuated by ideologies of whiteness—require a needed disruption.