Singing and dancing for diversity: Neoliberal multiculturalism and white epistemological ignorance in teacher professional development

Abstract

Singing and dancing for diversity examines a series of professional development workshops ostensibly centred on racial equity designed for secondary school teachers. Using the concept of neoliberal multiculturalism to critique the implementation of the workshops, this article illustrates how superficial multicultural curriculum distorts anti-racism and reproduces whiteness. The analysis focuses on the social and affective dimensions of racialization that emerge and converge during the workshops to instantiate white epistemological ignorance of race. Epistemological ignorance is established through the construction and sequencing of a watered-down curricular approach to multiculturalism in combination with a diversity concert that functions to persuade white teachers to embrace a non-critical definition of racial equity.