White Teachers Research Articles

What’s Race Got to Do with It? Relationships Between Racial Match and School Psychologists’ Perceptions in School-Based Consultation

ABSTRACT Multicultural consultee-centered consultation has the potential to improve outcomes for historically marginalized students given its intentional consideration of their unique backgrounds and strengths. However, more research is needed to determine how consultants themselves, as school psychologists, conceptualize student problems, especially when members of the consultation triad differ in their racial identities. The current study analyzed extant data from a larger study examining racial match in consultation (N = 83), in which participants were randomly assigned to view a teacher describing a student referral problem across four conditions: (a) White teacher describing a White student, (b) White teacher describing a Black student, (c) Black teacher describing a White student, and (d) Black teacher describing a Black student. Multiple regression analyses were used to determine the relationships between school psychologists’ perceptions of various aspects of the consultation process, illustrating whether consultants’ representations of the problem differed based on the racial diversity of the consultation triad. Results indicated moderate correlations (r = 0.36 to 0.57; p < .01) among consultants’ perceptions of consultant-consultee collaboration, consultants’ perceptions of teachers’ expectations about students, and consultants’ perceptions of the student-teacher relationship. Participants’ self-reported cultural competence was not significantly correlated with participants’ representation of the problem. Finally, racial match between a White teacher and White student was negatively associated with participants’ perceptions of collaboration (B = - 0.56; p < .001) and positively associated with participants’ perceptions of the student-teacher relationship (B = 0.88; p < .001). Implications for research and practice are provided.

‘I feel like they don’t want us to stay’: identity negotiation and agency of international prospective teachers learning to teach in the United States / ‘Tengo la sensación de que no quieren que nos quedemos’: negociación de identidad y agencia de futuros docentes internacionales que aprenden a enseñar en los Estados Unidos

With the rise in globalization and transnational migration, universities worldwide are experiencing an influx of international students, some of whom choose to pursue teaching as a profession. Despite the growing presence of international prospective teachers (IPTs), they continue to be positioned as outsiders through dominant discourses and teacher preparation practices. Employing narrative inquiry, the study examined how four IPTs navigated learning to teach in a predominantly White teacher education programme at a large public university in the United States. Inspired by the podcast This American Life, the study presented three ‘Acts’ that illustrate the complex stories of how IPTs negotiated multifaceted ascribed outsider identities — linguistically as non-native speakers, socially and culturally as international students, and professionally as foreign employees. The study also discussed situations where IPTs’ sense of agency was achieved, particularly when they embraced identity positions from an asset-based and strength-focused perspective. The study offered recommendations to teacher education researchers, practitioners and policymakers on supporting IPTs and other educators from minoritized backgrounds to join and thrive in the teaching profession.

“It Was Nice To Be Able To Talk to Them Like They Were Family.”: A Mexican American Preservice Teacher’s Testimonio

A large body of scholarship focuses on how to prepare White teachers to teach students of Color and guide them to make sense of their Whiteness. Using testimonio, this article adds diversity to teacher preparation literature and makes space for Kelly, a Mexican American preservice generalist teacher, to share her story. In particular, I highlight how her relationships and language ideology influence her ethnic identity construction while participating in the figured worlds of 1) her family, 2) personal K-12 schooling experience, and 3) pre-service student teaching experiences. Kelly’s testimonio is a call to subvert monoglossic language ideologies, value translanguaging, and ultimately prepare PSTs with the self-reflexive capacity to engage in linguistically responsive and sustaining pedagogy.

What are we inducting teachers of Color into? Disrupting race-evasiveness to create responsive professional development and mentoring policies and practices

Professional development and mentorship are key supports designed to facilitate growth and acclimation to the teaching profession as well as foster the stability and success of new educators. However, both fields of study have been occupied by a normalization of whiteness and white teachers, which often neglects the experiences, perspectives, and needs of teachers of Color. As we attempt to diversify the teaching force, it is important to understand how teacher professional development and mentorship can be responsive to teachers of Color. In this article, we review literature on teacher professional development and teacher mentorship for and by teachers of Color. Through the lens of our analysis, we explore limitations in current policy, and provide case study examples of how to serve teachers of Color. We also offer policy recommendations that can better guide racially literate and culturally sustaining professional development and mentoring practices, so teachers of Color can grow, thrive, and positively impact schools towards the goals for which they are being recruited.

Professional Development for Providing Time and Opportunities for Change in U.S. Teachers’ Ethnic-Racial Identity

ABSTRACT The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe teachers’ perceptions of changes in their ethnic-racial identity after completing professional development designed to support facilitation of a school-based ethnic-racial identity student curriculum – the Identity Project. We analyzed interview data from 11 U.S. high school educators (four Teachers of Color; seven White Teachers) who completed 32 training hours and post-program individual interviews to reflect on the impact of the program on their ethnic-racial identity. Based on reflexive thematic analysis, we found that the program influenced teachers’ ethnic-racial identity by offering them time and opportunities for change through guided self-reflection. This included participating in all aspects of the Identity Project that is designed for students and learning from and sharing with colleagues. The program (a) served as a reminder reinforcing prior learning about one’s ethnic-racial identity, (b) leveraged unique benefits of reflecting in community about issues of ethnicity, race, and identity, and (c) activated curiosity to learn more about one’s ethnic-racial identity and its connections with supporting students. Nevertheless, there was teacher-specific variation in these findings that illustrated nuanced experiences. Our findings illuminate paths forward for fostering teachers’ ongoing ethnic-racial identity development in the service of promoting students’ learning and well-being.

“The Students Led Me Here”: A White Teacher’s Movement Toward Antiracist and Abolitionist Practice

“The Students Led Me Here”: A White Teacher’s Movement Toward Antiracist and Abolitionist Practice

Getting Students to Show Up: Generational Differences in the Effect of Teachers on Black and White Student Absences

We provide the first evidence on the effect of teacher generation on student absences. Using administrative matched student-teacher data, we find that Millennial teachers are more effective at reducing absences compared to teachers from earlier generations. This effect is heterogeneous across Black and White students, with Black students deriving a larger benefit from assignment to a Millennial teacher. Although both Black and White Millennial teachers are more effective at reducing student absences than Baby Boomer teachers, the race-specific improvement of Millennial teachers is driven by White teachers.

“Would you take a pay cut? We're looking for Caucasians”. How whiteness can affect White, Black and Muslim female ‘native-speaker’ English language teachers

This article sets out investigate the interrelationships between native speakerism, Whiteness, ethnicity and appearance in the TESOL context. It explores whether Whiteness plays a part in TESOL teachers' recruitment and job opportunities when employers are seeking to employ ‘native speakers’. It draws its data from focus group interview data with seven female TESOL teachers. Two were White, three were Black and two were White Muslims who wear the hijab. The findings show that when English language teaching job advertisements call for ‘native speaker’ teachers, recruiters are—consciously or unconsciously—looking for White teachers from ex-colonising countries such as the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand whom they perceive as representing Whiteness. In this sense, Whiteness is inextricably linked to the concepts of the ‘native speaker’ and ‘native speakerism’ in English language teaching. The study concludes that native speakerism acts a veiled façade for Whiteness and consequently that White TESOL native speaker teachers are privileged over their Black and Muslim counterparts in a number of areas. These include: pay, objectification, acknowledgement of their professional achievements and visibility in advertising materials aimed at prospective students and their parents. The paper concludes with a call to confront such often-unacknowledged bias in favour of Whiteness by establishing open conversations with recruiters, parents, students and others involved in the TESOL field. It also recommends that countries should follow the European Union's lead and ban any language teaching job criteria that state a ‘native speaker’ requirement.

ReformED: Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods in Research-Based Theatre

This article reports on a research-based theatre piece about teachers leaving education. The data and scene shared in this article examine race and racism (both interpersonal and institutional) and demonstrate how quantitative data illuminated buried and unclear qualitative data. In social science research, surveys have the potential to contextualize interview data and enable researchers to interrogate information such as demographics or percentages of agreement or disagreement. When such quantitative data are compared to qualitative analysis, gaps and silences can be identified—which was the case in this study, where issues of race and racism emerged. This essay shares how quantitative data illuminated silenced issues around race and influenced the writing of a research-based theatre piece. The analysis (both quantitative and qualitative) reveals the tensions of white teachers feeling individually like they are addressing the needs of students of color, while it also shows that white teachers, overall, are not adequately serving the needs of students of color. This complete analysis is shared, and the article demonstrates how it was translated as a piece of research-based theatre.

“A Wound That Was Already Festering”: The Burdens of a Racial Justice Program on Teachers of Color

Background: Research that documents the influence of anti-racism programs on teacher practice shows some desired outcomes, including developing critical consciousness to support students of color and educate others about stereotyping; understanding how racial bias affects one’s teaching and relationships with students; and implementing anti-racist approaches in schoolwide policies and practice. At the same time, research on anti-racist professional development (PD) also highlights the challenges of engaging in this work when white teachers, in particular, respond defensively or dismissively. Studies have shown how these responses can reinforce stereotyping behavior among white participants and reinscribe unequal social relationships. Research Questions: This article aims to answer the following questions: (1) How do white educators, if they do at all, display resistance to racial justice work? (2) How does resistance among white educators, if it does so at all, shape the experiences of educators of color? (3) How can schools reduce the potential burden of racial justice work on educators of color? Research Design: This article draws on data from a case study of a New York City elementary school that participated in a yearlong racial justice program. Data sources include semi-structured interviews with school and program leaders; focus groups with members of the racial equity committee and other teachers; observations of professional development sessions, racial equity committee meetings, and other program activities; and artifacts related to the implementation of the program to deepen our understanding of the program’s implementation and responses from multiple stakeholders. Recommendations: Grounded in critical race theory (CRT), the findings from this study paint a complex picture of the behaviors that white teachers may employ that derail racial justice work, the emotional and professional burden of that resistance on educators of color, and promising approaches for confronting resistance in order to advance racial equity. Beyond identifying the potential costs of engaging in racial justice work, our findings also offer schools and educators promising approaches for challenging white resistance while not perpetuating racial harm. We propose an implementation model that intentionally shields educators of color from the remonstrations of white resistors and the additional toll they can take on their time and well-being. Moreover, given what we know about the outsized role school leaders play in shaping school environments and professional cultures, it is essential that school leaders show commitment to organizational transformation, while developing the skills required to confront varying degrees of white resistance.

Family Composition, Race, and Teachers’ Perceptions of Parent-Teacher Alliance

Abstract Both family composition and teachers’ perceptions of parents are important for student success. However, we know little about whether teachers’ perceptions of parents vary by family composition. Using data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, I show that teachers perceive single mothers with multipartner fertility and, to a lesser extent, repartnered mothers with multipartner fertility as less aligned with their school’s goals than parents who have nuclear families. Socioeconomic status, children’s behavior, and parents’ involvement do not explain this association. I also show that white teachers’ perceptions—of both white and black parents—drive this relationship. Further, I show that white teachers perceive black parents as less aligned with their school’s goals than white parents with the same family type. By focusing on mesolevel interactions between the family and school settings, this study expands research on the implications of family composition for students’ and parents’ experiences at school.

What does the phrase “diverse students” mean? An exploration of CS teachers’ ideas of race, culture, and community in their classrooms

ABSTRACT Background and Context Recent research suggests that there is work to be done in overcoming color-evasive ideologies in Computer Science (CS) education. In particular, we have limited insight into how to support white teachers in using Culturally Responsive Computing (CRC) approaches. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by analyzing interviews with white high school CS teachers through the lens of hegemonic whiteness. Objective We ask two questions 1) What are the gaps between these teachers’ views on culture, community, and responsiveness, and how CRC envisions the interplay of these three elements? 2) How can we use teachers’ understandings to reconceptualize presenting CRC to them in a manner that may best benefit their students? Method We use semi-structured interviews of nine teachers until data saturation. We use in-vivo and values coding in the first round and code-weaving in the second round to come up with emergent themes. Findings Our findings show that these teachers did one or more of the following: 1) had dynamic but content-agnostic views about culture in the classroom; 2) focused on community connections with academia, industry, and/or parents; 3) framed the challenges of implementing CRC through a deficit lens; and 4) valued students’ individuality, but were essentialist about student culture. Implications We have implications for practitioners, e.g. to have professional developments that allow teachers to name and challenge white supremacy in CS. We also have implications for researchers, e.g. to investigate ways in which white students and teachers can benefit from anti-racist CS education.

In service of disruption: examining mediators of White racial identity through inservice professional development addressing race and racism

ABSTRACT Research on professional development (PD) with practicing White teachers has traditionally focused on shifting White teachers’ attitudes, whereas more recent research has explored the role of emotions in White teachers’ engagement in such learning. Leveraging theory on culturally disruptive pedagogy and a qualitative phenomenological approach, this article analyses the experiences of a group of White educators across a suburban Mid-Atlantic district, asking, what common elements are associated with ‘disruptions’ White educators may experience in PD addressing race and racism? Building on previous research calling attention to the complex, multifaceted nature of White cultural conditioning and related processes of ‘unlearning’, cognitive, emotional, spatial, and embodied mediating elements are documented and analysed. Implications for future research and PD design and facilitation are discussed.

‘It’s like Freire is haunting me’: the value of study groups for critical teacher professional development

ABSTRACT As part of a larger critical discourse study, I share how engaging with critical texts and discussion was personally and professionally meaningful for participants, despite perceived limitations. To understand how critical pedagogy overlaps and conflicts with contexts of teaching in public schools, I facilitated discussion with teachers in response to Paulo Freire’s text, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Subsequently, I critically analysed teachers’ discourse in study groups, interviews and reflective writing to uncover how ideology functions to support or refute the possibility of critical pedagogy in teachers’ contexts. Implications of the study inform the intersections of critical pedagogy, teacher professional development and Whiteness Studies. While this research validates existing knowledge about professional development design and delivery, it challenges an assertion within professional development studies about the role of teachers as experts. I assert that when it comes to equity-based professional development programmes, groups of predominantly White teachers benefit from an informed facilitator and or colleagues and texts from various ideological stances. I recommend schools of education and professional development organisations doing critical work with teachers consider how teachers’ unexamined beliefs impede the realisation of critical pedagogy, and how these beliefs can be challenged in a professional space framed by institutional norms.

“We aren’t what we say:” discontinuities of teacher beliefs and instructional practice at a “no-excuses” and high-achieving urban charter school

ABSTRACT As ‘no-excuses’ charter schools (NECS) continue to (re)emerge as a discipline-focused approach, there continues to be limited empirical research documenting the beliefs of teachers within these contexts. This ethnographic study explored the beliefs of White teachers who enact the vision of a NECS, with Black and Latinx learners, in one of the largest U.S. cities. Data revealed that teachers had broader educational goals for students that did not concretely manifest in actual instruction in classrooms with students. Instead, teachers’ pedagogical beliefs became suppressed within the organisational context, which translated to repressive practices in ways that demonstrate implicit racial bias.

A critical analysis of course syllabi in teacher preparation: a systems-based approach

ABSTRACT This theoretical paper utilises qualitative research methods to investigate the communication of anti-racist pedagogy in required teacher preparation coursework. Using the two-pronged theoretical framework of Critical Race Theory and White Teacher Identity Studies, the researcher analyses enactments of race-visible pedagogy on course syllabi. The findings report two courses that most clearly communicate anti-racist pedagogical enactments centred on critical thinking about race and power. The discussion evaluates the consistency with which courses across the focus department engage anti-racist instruction, as communicated on curricular materials. The researcher analyses these documents in relation to the focus college’s diversity and inclusion statement and university’s anti-racism statement, exploring critically how anti-racist institutional goals are transformed into substantive action and communicated on course curricula. The researcher argues for a systems-based approach to anti-racist curriculum and offers a critique of course documents as vehicles for reproducing, rather than disrupting, Whiteness in teacher preparation.

Sources, Conceptualizations, and Mechanisms of Racism/Oppression for Academic and Mental Health Outcomes

Interpersonal and systemic racism and discrimination persist in our educational system—from primary and secondary institutions through college, despite the forward strides of desegregation, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Black Lives Matter movement. This special topic collection identifies and applies empirically and theoretically grounded conceptualizations of racism to improve our understanding of the experience of racism, interventions to mitigate it, and protective factors. The papers in this collection reflect two themes: 1) racial and religious identities in classrooms, schools, and universities, focusing on how educators mitigate and perpetuate systemic racism, including how White teachers understand the impact of race, how inclusive and antiracism curricula are received and rejected by future educators and clinicians, and the impact of exclusionary social networks in the hiring of teachers of color and 2) school belonging and climate, including documenting that students of color feel less safe, are disproportionately exposed to harsh discipline, question their belonging, and question commitments to diversity. The negative sequelae are concurrent and last into adulthood. In addition, there are several advances in theory and measurement, including assessing gendered and racial biases in teachers’ attributions about students’ abilities, frameworks for mitigating colonial and racialized trauma, and domains of antiracist activism to bring racial justice and equity to schools.

Early childhood teachers’ dispositions, knowledge, and skills related to diversity, inclusion, equity, and justice

All children deserve quality early care and education (ECE) experiences that value them and lay a foundation for positive life trajectories. Unfortunately, many minoritized children in ECE experience inequities including a greater likelihood of exclusion and far fewer opportunities to see their identities affirmed or centered. These early experiences impact children's development, and the dispositions, knowledge, and skills (DKSs) of ECE teachers are key drivers of these experiences. Accordingly, our study sought to understand ECE teachers’ current DKSs related to diversity, inclusion, equity, and justice (DIEJ) through a critical culturally relevant pedagogy framework. To do so, we analyzed data from four focus groups with 15 center-based infant, toddler, and preschool teachers using Reflexive Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2022). Key DKSs, including teachers’ attitudes about children and teaching, their perspectives about DIEJ, and their understanding of positionality and context as well as their perception of DIEJ as an age-appropriate topic, occurred across groups. Minoritized teachers and teachers working with diverse groups of children tended to demonstrate a deeper and more critical engagement with DIEJ than White teachers working primarily with White children. Furthermore, we also found evidence that this engagement may be influenced by teachers’ DKSs. Policy and practice implications are discussed with respect to ensuring that all children have the experiences they deserve to thrive.

Breaking the cycle of couscous pedagogy: Are future teachers empowered to teach in multicultural societies?

ABSTRACT Despite the increasing racial diversity within British and Spanish societies, teacher education and school curricula continue to be Eurocentric and taught by predominantly White teachers. This quantitative research sought to explore the perceptions of student teachers in relation to their attitudes and preparedness to teach in ethnically diverse school contexts. Data were gathered at two universities, one in Southern Spain and the other in Northwest England. The article employs critical race theory and critical whiteness studies as frames to understand outcomes of an online questionnaire. The majority White student teacher sample across both countries register an acceptance of racial diversity and report the need for better preservice teacher education in this respect. Despite preservice teachers’ positive responses to racial diversity, teacher education in both countries fails to equip them for increasingly diverse classrooms. This failure serves to replicate the enactment of whiteness and, does not develop student teachers’ stated commitment to racial diversity.

Peer Victimization among Black Preschoolers: Roles of Emotion Knowledge, Teacher-Child Relationships, and Gender

This study examined whether varying dimensions of teacher-child relationship quality and gender moderated associations between knowledge of negative emotion-eliciting situations and peer victimization among Black preschoolers (60 boys, 54 girls) who ranged in age from 35 to 65 months. Fifty-one children had a Black teacher, 46 had a White teacher, and 17 had a Latine teacher. All teachers were female. Knowledge of negative emotion-eliciting situations was assessed directly in the fall. Lead teachers reported on teacher-child relationship quality between September and December. A second teacher completed peer victimization ratings in the spring of the following year. When teacher-child closeness was high, there was a positive association between knowledge of negative emotion-eliciting situations and physical victimization, but a negative association emerged when teacher-child closeness was low. In accord with the victim schema model that undergirded this study, knowledge of negative emotion-eliciting situations was negatively related to physical victimization for children who experienced high teacher-child conflict and dependency. Black teachers perceived more relational victimization. Our findings highlight the need for further examination of peer victimization among young Black children and suggest that identifying the individual and ecological correlates of peer victimization should be a priority for school psychologists working in early educational contexts.