Is That Racist? One White Family Interrogating Whiteness and Constructing Antiracist Curriculum
Abstract
Despite attempts by white teachers and families to avoid talk about race
(Apfelbaum, Paulker, Ambady, Sommers, & Norton, 2008; Bartoli, Michael, Bentley
Edwards, Stevenson, Shor, & McClain, 2016; Boutte, López-Robertson, & Powers
Costello, 2011; Lesane-Brown, Brown, Tanner-Smith, & Bruce, 2010; Pahlke, Bigler, &
Suizzo, 2012; Vittrup & Holden, 2010), children learn race and racism at a young age
(Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010; Miller, 2015; Park, 2011; Van Ausdale & Feagin,
2001). While there is a limited body of literature on racial socialization in schools (Park,
2011; Priest, Walton, White, Kowal, Baker, & Paradies, 2016; Van Ausdale & Feagin,
2001) and white racial socialization in the home (Bartoli et al., 2016; Miller, 2015;
Vittrup & Holden, 2011), this study examines the ways white children come to
understand race in the context of an emergent antiracist home curriculum. Using a critical
sociocultural orientation, this study employs parent child autoethnography and poetic
inquiry to demonstrate how two white children used race words, metaphor, analogy, and
political action to construct understandings of race.
Table of Contents
Introduction to the study -- Review of literature -- Research methodologies -- Poetic transcriptions and memos -- Findings -- Implications
Degree
Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy )