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The founders and officers of the Virginia Military Institute, one of the few American engineering schools in the antebellum period, embedded a particular engineering culture into the curriculum and discipline of the school. This occurred, in some cases, as a consequence of struggles by the elite of western Virginia to gain a greater share of political power in the commonwealth and by the officers of VMI for authority within the field of higher education. In other cases, the engineering culture was crafted as a deliberate strategy within the above struggles. Among the features embedded was the key feature of requiring the subordination of one’s own local and individual interests and identities (class, regional, denominational, etc.) to the service of the commonwealth and nation. This particular articulation of service meant the performance of “practical” and “useful” work of internal improvements for the development and defense of the commonwealth and the nation. The students learned and were to employ an engineering knowledge derived from fundamental physical and mathematical principles, as opposed to a craft knowledge learned on the job. To carry out such work and to even develop the capacity to subordinate their own interests, the cadets were disciplined into certain necessary traits, including moral character, industriousness, selfrestraint, self-discipline, and subordination to authority. To be an engineer was to be a particular kind of man. The above traits were predicated upon the engineers being white men, who, in a new “imagined fraternity” of equal white men, were innately independent, in contrast to white women and blacks, who were innately dependent. Having acquired a mathematically-intensive engineering education and the character necessary to perform engineering work, the graduates of VMI who became engineers were to enter their field as middle-class professionals who could claim an objective knowledge and a disinterested service to the commonwealth and nation, rather than to just their own career aspirations. / Ph. D.

In the United States, the largest group of educators, historically and presently, are white middle-class women, yet there is a rising population of racially diverse students creating a persistent dissonance and disconnect between the culture of the white teacher and their students. In this study, I sought to discover how the racial identity development of novice white female educators evolved, given their common participation in the Teach for America program. Using the conceptual frameworks of critical race theory, critical feminist theory, and the body of scholarship in critical whiteness studies, I conducted a critical narrative inquiry of eight novice white female educators. From the participants’ stories, three themes emerged: (a) relationships matter; (b) the privilege to want something different; and (c) intersection of whiteness and power. Further analysis was conducted to address the ideas of race-consciousness building through defining moments and sustained connection, and white dominance through an ascription of power and an analysis of gender. This study represents an effort to address the phenomenon of white teacher dominance by listening to the voices of white educators who experienced race-based development. Ultimately, this study aimed to contribute to the scholarship that informs how white educators develop their own racial identities so as to not do additional harm and trauma to racialized communities.

Changing the existing framework for how schools operate and the "deficit frame of reference" for students of color begins with teacher awareness of differing social and cultural norms and values that privilege some and oppress others (Villegas and Lucas, 2002). These normalized cultural values are exacerbated by the fact that they are generally "invisible" to the white teacher majority. Quaye (2012) and Zuniga et al. (2002) use the term "consciousness-raising" to describe the process of developing an awareness of these norms and values. Using a Critical Race Theory lens, this study aimed to capture the process of "consciousness-raising" in a white teacher book club examining ten different African American children's picture books. The study design was supported by an Intergroup Dialogue model, developed by Zuniga et al. (2002) and adapted for white facilitators by Quaye (2012). Data Analysis was guided by a continuum of white racial identity developed by Helms (1990) and modified by Lawrence and Tatum (1998). Transcripts of participant narratives were analyzed for signs of status change along the continuum and each teacher demonstrated varying degrees of socio-cultural awareness. The researcher journal was analyzed to capture reflections on the Intergroup Dialogue Model for facilitation. Principal findings of the study include the replication of themes found in the existing whiteness literature as well as the value and limitations of the continuum of white racial identity as a tool for analysis. / Ph. D.

This study is about the group of transnational adoptees, which means adoptions that includes a transfer of children to families who racially and culturally different from them. The Swedish research regarding to this group of adoptees is relatively limited. Especially in relation to the phenomenon like race, whiteness and racism. There is a need for more knowledge about what it means to be Swedish and non-white, something that the group adoptees has experience of.                      The purpose of this study is to examine if, and in that case how, it is possible to discern a pattern of Swedishness boundaries using the adoptees experience, and to find out how notions of race interacts with these experiences. The study is based on a qualitative approach and the empirical material consists of interviews with four adoptees. To understand my empirical data I have chosen to work with several different theoretical perspectives to illustrate the phenomenon as can be seen as border guards of Swedishness concerning to the adoptees. These phenomenon’s are: race and whiteness, and racialization and (everyday) racism. I am also inspired by the American research field of critical race and whiteness studies, but from a Swedish context.                       The results show that the main limit for Swedishness goes at the adoptees non-white bodies. It is also by their non-white bodies as they get their belonging in Sweden questioned and can be considered as almost Swedes. It is also their non-Swedish appearance that allows them to be exposed to racialization and racism in everyday life. Thus, it is possible to argue, on the basis of the adoptees stories, that race as construction exists and that we must speak of it to be able to understand how it, as adopted (Swedish), is to live in a non-white body in Sweden today.

<p>The field of education in the United States is dominated by white educators, many of whom discuss race with their students. Often, white teachers do not know how to discuss race and may shy away from such discussions due to their insecurity with the topic of race. I realized my own ineptitude with racial discussion, and I wanted to find a way to scaffold racial discussions in classrooms, especially classrooms that were mostly white where teachers and students alike may tend to evade the whole discussion of race. I believe that Second Wave Whiteness (SWW) offers a robust theoretical framework to help white teachers discuss race with their white students. Other studies have investigated how white teachers talk about race, but there are few studies that investigate this in the context of a classroom with mostly white students and even fewer that have investigated the efficacy of SWW in practice in this context by directly measuring students’ progress. I conducted a study in which I observed a mostly white class of high school seniors taking an African American literature course that was taught by a white teacher. The teacher and some elements of the study design were influenced by SWW. Throughout the study, I collected and measured students’ responses to journal prompts, discussions, and surveys. Through a quantitative and qualitative analysis, I found that students’ comfort when talking about race increased, students’ change was associated with their beliefs at the beginning of the study, and that students’ politics predicted their engagement. My findings add to a broader body of work that suggests that SWW has a place in practical classroom application and that it may help students and teachers to develop down the path of anti-racism. This study further implies that SWW may have a place in de-radicalization techniques for white students who are resistant to ideas of anti-racism.</p>

The following thesis explores the racialisation of second generation sweden finns in contemporary Sweden. This is done by applying a theoretical framework from critical race and whiteness studies on 8 interviews with second generation sweden finns. Especially the concept of the margins of whiteness has been of importance for the following study, which allows the analysis to consider both marginality and privilege.     The analysis focus on the intersection of the variables of ethnicity, class and race, which allows the racialised position of the 8 informants in the study to be outlined. While the themes of ethnicity and class have ocurred in previous research, the study of race and in particular whiteness, have yet to be applied on sweden finns.     As will be revealed through the analysis, there are good reasons to consider Sweden finns as belonging within the margin of swedish whiteness. While there are signs that sweden finns have a position of marginality within swedish society the informants in this study can pass for swedes thanks to being racialised as white in everyday contexts. / Följande masteruppsats undersöker andra generationens sverigefinnars rasifierade position i den svenska vitheten. Detta görs genom att applicera ett teoretiskt ramverk grundat i kritiska ras och vithetsstudier på 8 intervjuer med andra generationens sverigefinnar. Särskilt begreppet vithetens marginal är av betydelse för studiens analys eftersom det har gett analysen möjlighet att analysera privilegier och marginalitet samtidigt.   I analysen ligger främst fokus på tre variabler i form av etnicitet, klass och ras, vilket gör det möjligt att måla ut den rasifierade position som studiens 8 informanter har i den svenska vitheten. Emedan teman kring etnicitet och klass varit vanliga inom tidigare forskning kring sverigefinnar, har studiet av ras och med detta vithet, varit frånvarande inom forskningsfältet kring sverigefinnar.      Som vi kommer att se i analysen finns det mycket som talar för att sverigefinnar befinner sig i den svenska vithetens marginal. Även om sverigefinnar kan sägas ha en marginell position i det svenska samhället, har de informanter som återfinns i följande studie möjlighet att passera som svenskar eftersom de rasifieras som vita i vardagssammanhang.