<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>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/9961952 |
| Date | 17 October 2019 |
| Creators | Kevin L Ryan (7481810) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/White_Teachers_Racial_Topics_Practical_Applications_of_Second_Wave_Whiteness/9961952 |
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