Abstract

 
 
 
 We are all girls of colour attending an independent secondary school in downtown Toronto, where we learn from a majority white teaching and guidance staff, despite having a racially diverse student and city population. We used our school as an example of what we view as a widespread problem, both in our personal experiences in Toronto and as researched throughout Canada and the United States: a lack of racial diversity in secondary school faculty. Using youth participatory action research methodologies, we set out to investigate the source of this problem at our school, but instead encountered refusal and evasion by school administration and teachers of colour. They appeared to use various defense tactics to avoid acknowledging racism in our society. We categorized the ways staff refused and evaded our study into three groups: dismissiveness, rationalization, and sugarcoating. Our study became an example of the difficulties of youth research and of trying to subvert constructs like the teacher-student hierarchy.
 
 
 
Highlights
In the fall of 2016, one of the three researchers started the new academic year enrolled in a politics class
A few classes later, she dropped out, telling her guidance counsellor that she did not feel that the course interested her and that she would be too busy during the school year for the extra course anyhow. What she did not feel comfortable mentioning to the white counsellor was the fact that an hour beforehand, her white teacher had refused to let her, a student of colour, express her opinion and perspective on racism in the context of state politics, making her realise the racism of the teacher and lose interest in the class
We discovered the ways white people and people of colour alike avoid talking about racism, which we classified into three strategies: dismissiveness, sugarcoating, and rationalization
Summary
In the fall of 2016, one of the three researchers started the new academic year enrolled in a politics class. We discovered the ways white people and people of colour alike avoid talking about racism, which we classified into three strategies: dismissiveness, sugarcoating, and rationalization. At [our school], there are more white teachers and counsellors than people of colour.
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