Second-Wave White Teacher Identity Studies

Abstract

In this study of White teacher identity literatures, we historicize, define, and advance second-wave White teacher identity studies in education research and teacher education. First, we provide a discussion of methodology used to conduct this study called the synoptic text. Second, we provide an historical account of White teacher identity studies that situates our review of literatures. Third, using the methodology of the synoptic text, we provide a systematic review of White teacher identity studies between 2004 and 2014. Situated within an account of a developing field, we develop the notion of second-wave White teacher identity studies. In our discussion and conclusion, we articulate the pedagogical implications of second-wave White teacher identity studies for education research and teacher education.

Second-wave white teacher identity studies: toward complexity and reflexivity in the racial conscientization of white teachers

“…That is, a crucial characteristic and contribution of second-wave white teacher identity studies is that its representations of white teacher identity are fashioned in a way that already anticipate their consequences for future work with white preservice and professional teachers. As Jupp, Berry, and Lensmire (2016) put it: 'These representations are already built to recycle back into practice' (p. 44).…”

“…In this account -which James Jupp has been elaborating across a series of publications (see Jupp, 2013;Jupp, Berry, & Lensmire, 2016;Jupp & Slattery, 2010) -white teacher identity studies is seen as building on crucial foundations provided by African-American intellectual traditions, as well as more recent work in critical white studies, in order to respond to the demographic imperative and to confront the pervasive and enduring institutional and individual racism that characterizes policy and practice in US schools.…”

“…The decade since Marx's special issue has seen a proliferation of research and writing within white teacher identity studies, a second wave that has not only explored new aspects of the race-evasive identities of White preservice and professional teachers, but, more significantly, has (1) paid careful attention to the nuances and complexities of white race-visible identities and (2) provided detailed accounts of the actual pedagogies and curricula that form the complex contexts of white teachers' identities (see Jupp et al, 2016, for a review of this research). In other words, the second wave of white teacher identity studies examines the identities of white teachers who, with more and less success, are attempting to come to grips with their own complexity and complicity in a white-supremacist system and seeking to learn how to fight against it.…”

Race-Evasiveness among Camp Staff

“…An active body of White teacher identity research documents the complexities and contradictions of educators' understandings of race (Crowley, 2016;Jupp, Berry, & Lensmire, 2016). This study examined how camp staff's conversations about racism and justice on the job functioned in ways that avoided direct challenges to White supremacy.…”

“…Educational research, though, raises concerns about preparing youth workers to combat racism (Jupp, Berry, & Lensmire, 2016). This study draws on prior school research and critical Whiteness studies to examine race-evasiveness among camp staff.…”