Framing Whiteness: Working through the tensions in introducing whiteness to educators

Working through whiteness, race and (anti) racism in physical education teacher education

“…We are interested in our research to understand the processes of selving rather than to discover particular details about individual selves (Davies and Gannon, 2006, 7) In adopting such an approach, we aimed to avoid one of the tensions faced by educators 'working through' whiteness, noted above -conflating whiteness with whites and white identity (Rasky-Levine, 2000). So whilst drawing on our different biographies and experiences (for example, we differ in age, length of experience, and the countries in which we have worked), our aim was to analyse these narratives for what they tell us about the operation of whiteness, rather than the specifics of our individual lives.…”

“…Although more prevalent in North America (e.g. Leonardo 2009;Levine-Rasky 2000), critical engagement in whiteness vi is still a relatively new perspective for educationalists in Europe (but see Gillborn 2006;Gillborn 2008;Lander 2011;Pearce 2003;Preston, 2013). Such engagement is not without tensions, not least that in focusing on whiteness we risk simply re-centring white people rather examining the social effects and 7 processes of whiteness, in order that they can be dismantled.…”

Reconsidering the Underground Railroad: Slavery and Racialization in the Making of the Canadian State

“…Alternatively, the Canadian state has been identified as a sovereign, advanced capitalist power, with an expansionist and imperialist dynamic. Another body of literature similarly presumes the capitalist and imperialist nature of the Canadian state but places emphasis on the centrality of racism in the maintenance and reproduction of elite hegemony (Abu-Laban, 2005;Abu-Laban and Gabriel, 2002;Bakan and Stasiulis, 997;Bakan, 2008;Bannerji, 993;995;Bolaria and Li, 988;Bristow et al, 994;Cooper, 2006;Clarke, 2006;Galabuzi, 2005;Henry et al, 995;Henry and Tator, 2002;Iacovetta and Das Gupta, 2000;Lee and Cardinal, 998;Levine-Rasky, 2000;Li, 999;Lawrence, 2004;McKittrick, 2006;Mensah, 2002;Razack, 998;Thobani, 2007;Tennyson, 990a).…”

Compiling the White Inventory: The practice of whiteness in a British primary school

“…Wright, 1992;Basit, 1997;Haw, 1998) that suggest that white teachers sometimes adversely affect the education of ethnic minority students as a result of the practice of whiteness. The issues are immensely complex, and Levine-Rasky (2000a) fears that elitist theoreticians of whiteness are moving too fast for white educators, and that it is asking too much to expect them to 'change with inadequate exploration of the implications for their perspective, their practice, or indeed their formative consciousness about whiteness ' (2000a, p. 273). She advocates that theoretical work on whiteness be integrated with work on teacher education, and this is beginning, though the work on both sides of the Atlantic has focused on trainee teachers, and, again, work in Britain appears very limited (see Gaine, 2001).…”