Constructing the color-blind classroom: teachers’ perspectives on race and schooling

Stoll, Laurie Cooper

doi:10.1080/13613324.2014.885425

Cited by 48 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…The results of the current study concur with previous research indicating that engaging in critical dialogue with children about race remains challenging for EC teachers (e.g. Aukrust and Rydland, 2009;Copenhaver-Johnson, 2006;Stoll, 2014;Winograd, 2015). Moreover, the results of this study provide a deeper understanding of literacy practices during shared-book reading in EC classrooms.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Race talk in preschool classrooms: Academic readiness and participation during shared-book reading

Beneke

Cheatham

2017

Journal of Early Childhood Literacy

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Reading literature to engage young children in critical discussions about race-and how it impacts their daily lives-is a promising practice. This study examined how two teachers and eight young children talked about skin colour as they read books about racial diversity, and the extent to which participation structures and conversational topics influenced how teachers and children constructed, resisted, and/or reproduced discourses of race and racial injustice during shared-book readings. We draw on critical perspectives on classroom discourse to understand the identities (i.e. teacher and learner) and discourses (i.e. early childhood literacy) that the children and teachers co-constructed. We suggest that teachers used shared-book reading time to enact a discourse of literacy readiness and treated the activity as an opportunity to teach academic skills (e.g. classification and colour vocabulary) through teacher recitation. During these shared-book reading experiences, we argue that teachers and children constructed skin colour as politically neutral, without acknowledging the word 'race' or its deeply embedded meanings in the U.S. Based on this analysis, we discuss implications for teacher educators in terms of critical literacy practice in early childhood.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Race talk in preschool classrooms: Academic readiness and participation during shared-book reading

Beneke

Cheatham

2017

Journal of Early Childhood Literacy

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“…In racially stratified societies like the United States, colorblind racial ideology is essentially a refusal to "recognize the obstacles facing people of color or to see that … different ethnic and racial groups may have distinct needs and interests" (Thompson, 1999, p. 143), including students of color in schools. This ideology has exhibited remarkable stability, particularly among white teachers (Stoll, 2014), which undermines them recognizing and dismantling the relationship between teaching and institutionalized racism in schools (Case & Hemmings, 2005).…”

Section: Race and Teachingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stories of Garlic, Butter, and Ceviche: Racial-Ideological Micro-Contestation and Microaggressions in Secondary STEM Professional Development

Sengupta-Irving

Tunney

Macias

2020

Cognition and Instruction

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Heterogeneity is fundamental to learning and when leveraged in instruction, can benefit racially minoritized children. However, finding ways to leverage heterogeneity toward disciplinary teaching is a formidable challenge and teachers can benefit from targeted support to recognize heterogeneity in STEM, and its relationship to race and racism in disciplinary teaching. These data draw from a nine-day professional development seminar for secondary teachers to promote heterogeneity in STEM learning (n ¼ 12). Drawing on analyses of lesson plans developed by teachers during the seminar, and subsequent video analyses of small group discussions, we present a case of four teachers debating heterogeneity in science. The exchange is significant because it draws into relief the ideological and emotional terrain of disturbing the racial hierarchy in which Western Modern Science (WMS) is steeped, and its implications for the education of racially minoritized youth. In the focus interaction, a dynamic emerged where three teachers exalted WMS, while the fourth grappled with how cultural heterogeneity has or could matter to her science teaching. Drawing on the constructs of racial-ideological micro-contestation and racial microaggressions, this analysis illustrates three important dimensions to the design of professional learning for STEM teachers that center race: (1) how discipline-specific discussions can uniquely surface the latent racial and ideological meanings teachers associate with STEM; (2) the centrality of teachers' storied knowledge in grappling with heterogeneity; and (3) the interplay of micro-contestation and microaggressions in understanding and anticipating the experiences of minoritized teachers when debating issues of race, disciplinarity, and teaching. Mathematics and science are heterogenous cultural practices learned in and out of school (Bricker & Bell, 2014; Nasir & Hand, 2008). In schools, the standards and policies of math/science learning reflect a normative canon of knowledge, values, and practices shaped by colonial and settler colonial histories (Martin, 2013; Medin & Bang, 2014; Mutegi, 2011). From this perspective, learning becomes a process of enculturation where, in Western Modern Science (WMS) for example, empiricism, objectivity, and rationale seem the only legitimate ways of knowing and being (Sorrel, 2013). The harms of this ideological fundamentalism are numerous: it obscures cultural heterogeneity in math and science, degrades learning into a form of racial ideological combat, disavows the epistemic authority of racially minoritized families, and deems strange practices that seem unlike WMS. As Mutegi (2011) explains in the education of African American youth, "to accept [WMS] … as part of their own intellectual culture, is to indoctrinate them with the very ideas that support their colonization" (p. 305). Of significance to this analysis, the

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“…In addition to negatively impacting student achievement, teacher‐student relationships, and student behavior (Castro Atwater, 2008; Cobb, 2017; Stoll, 2014; Ullucci & Battey, 2011), racial colorblindness may also impact teacher quality. Burden, Hodge, and Harrison (2015) surveyed 239 undergraduate students enrolled in physical education teacher preparation programs across five Northeastern universities.…”

Section: Multicultural Instruction Competencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Working toward equitable gifted programming: The school psychologist's role

Ottwein

2020

Psychology in the Schools

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As culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse students continue to be underrepresented in gifted programs, the beliefs that frame teacher perceptions of giftedness remain an important area of focus. Literature indicates that a lack of gifted-specific coursework in teacher preparation programs may sustain ill-formed preconceptions regarding giftedness, leading new teachers to rely on bias and stereotypic thinking when nominating students for gifted identification. Furthermore, deficit thinking and colorblind racial attitudes may interfere with the implementation of culture-fair identification practices and the implementation of multicultural pedagogy meant to elicit unique strengths and engage culturally diverse students. This article explores these barriers to equitable programming and concludes with broad recommendations for school psychologists in advocating for traditionally underrepresented gifted students. K E Y W O R D S diverse gifted learners, gifted equity, gifted training, multicultural instruction, school psychologist

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Constructing the color-blind classroom: teachers’ perspectives on race and schooling

Cited by 48 publications

References 31 publications

Race talk in preschool classrooms: Academic readiness and participation during shared-book reading

Race talk in preschool classrooms: Academic readiness and participation during shared-book reading

Stories of Garlic, Butter, and Ceviche: Racial-Ideological Micro-Contestation and Microaggressions in Secondary STEM Professional Development

Working toward equitable gifted programming: The school psychologist's role

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