The following autoethnographic study highlights the perceptions of a Southern, White male teacher, at times experiencing bouts of depression and anxiety, in the predominantly White rural high school community he both lives and works. The researcher- teacher utilizes critical reflection, self-imposed transportation theory, and arts-based research to unravel these perceptions and to enhance his autobiographical findings. The intent of this research was to uncover one predominantly White Southern High School community’s actions and thoughts through the eyes of someone not born and established in the community. Another intent was to give a White male further perspectives into his biography, his attitudes of racism, prejudice, and inequality, and further understanding into the underlying causes of depression that bound his experiences in one place. The findings exposed and confirmed hegemonic control of the predominantly White rural high school community and attitudes towards new residents without established ties to the community. It also revealed evidence of isolated acts of racism and inequities within the rural high school community. Furthermore, the study revealed that critical reflection and self-imposed transportation theory, while at times dangerous for the teacher-researcher experiencing depression or anxiety, none-the-less, is effective for unleashing possible ties that bind both depression and anxiety to original perceptions made within the community.

The purpose of this study was to critically explore whiteness and masculinity within the context of public school administration. Using a qualitative research design, this study is broken into two separate articles. The first article is a critical narrative, and deeply examined two White and male public school superintendents’ experiences serving in school districts within California’s Central Valley. Framed within the broad context of critical White theory (CWT), I explored each man’s approach to interpersonal communication while conducting business. Additionally, I applied the urban dictionary’s definition of “Whitesplaining” to consider deeply how each man attempted to control the public narrative being disseminated to his constituency. In the second article, I conducted an autoethnography, and presented my own experiences working as a first-year middle school principal. I too situated my experiences within the broad contexts of White and masculine privilege. This study contends pushes whiteness research forward by using first and second person narration to critique and interrupt White and masculine points of view within the context of public school administration.