The practice of whiteness among teacher candidates

Abstract

This article discusses the findings of a study on 35, mostly white teacher candidates at a Canadian university. White racial identity and beliefs about causes of educational inequality are explored in relation to the teacher candidates'; value systems. Inconsistencies are found to be integral to the teacher candidates' positions. Contextualized within the practice of whiteness, the findings raise questions about the interrelationship of inconsistent beliefs, social distance, and how whiteness is effected. The author suggests that contradictory positions are a manifestation of a whiteness striving to sustain its legitimacy against an unstable social network. The denial and resistance so commonly found among white teacher candidates are performative in this sense.