Race Critical Action Research: 8th Grade Global Studies Teachers Move Beyond the Status Quo to Address Issues of Race and Racism in Our Classrooms

Abstract

Research has shown that despite a recent emphasis on issues of race and racism in US society, White teachers struggle to construct adequate learning environments for their students of Color (Epstein, 2009; Martell, 2013; Sleeter, 2017). Further, Milner (2006) posits that when White teachers lose themselves in the “having of good intentions,” their failure to act enshrines the status quo in classrooms. Using race-critical action research, the author presents the work of a group of White female teacher partners (n=6) who collaborated over two years to critically examine the role of race and racism in their teaching practice. Data included transcripts of group meetings, reflective journals and interviews. Building on a framework of sociocultural and race-critical theories, the author explores the role that resistance and appropriation played as the teacher partners worked to improve their anti-racist teaching practice. Specifically, the teacher partners sought to defy deficit-thinking paradigms, redefine power in the classroom, and create a caring classroom climate. Through sociocultural and race-critical analyses, the author finds evidence of what Lensmire (2010) terms an “ambivalent” White racial identity; one that reveals itself to be both race-evasive and race-visible (Jupp and Lensmire, 2016) when enacting anti-racist teacher practice. The author concludes that collaboration and critical reflection are essential conditions for surfacing these paradoxes and deepening anti-racist teacher practice.