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A Collective Counterstory of Everyday Racism, Whiteness, and Meritocracy in High School Orchestra

School orchestra programs are overwhelmingly concentrated in suburban districts, which are becoming increasingly racially and economically diverse. Diversifying suburbs lie at the crossroads of race, racism, and whiteness and findings drawn from these settings can have implications for racial dynamics in all educational contexts. The purpose of this instrumental case study was to explore how racially underrepresented students perceive race within an urban characteristic high school orchestra program through the lens of critical race theory. I developed a composite counter-story to examine the racialized experience of school orchestra told from the perspective of students of color with a particular interest on competition. Participants were six students and two teachers affiliated with the same high school orchestra program in Texas. Emergent thematic findings examined students' sense of racial belonging, mechanisms upholding the racial status quo, and fulfilling aspects of students' orchestra participation. Though the lens of critical race theory, I discuss how everyday whiteness, property of whiteness, and meritocracy function to maintain white hegemony in school orchestra.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1833548
Date08 1900
CreatorsNussbaum, Kelsey
ContributorsPowell, Sean Robert, Chappell, Elizabeth Whitehead, Gerrard, Crystal Lynn
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formatviii, 219 pages, Text
RightsPublic, Nussbaum, Kelsey, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved.

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