Education Commons^™

White Womanhood: Finding Oppositional Epistemologies And Community At The Intersection Of Whiteness And Womanhood, Hannah Joy Fischer

Doctoral Dissertations

White women continue to contribute to the reproduction and maintenance of White supremacy even when they attempt to pursue antiracism. To better understand their antiracist agency, this study analyzed White women’s experiences and comprehension of White womanhood. Using phenomenology and critical autoethnography, this qualitative study invited six self-proclaimed antiracist White women to participate in individual interviews, attend two focus groups, and reflect on five guided prompts on White womanhood and antiracist action. The study revealed antiracist White women’s feelings of responsibility and lack of perceived agency for antiracist action. Participants demonstrated attempts to disengage from whiteness while also expressing desires …

Professionalism In Early Childhood Education, Kimberly R. Thai

Master's Theses

This grounded theory analysis uses participant interviews and document analysis to further understand the lived experiences of teachers and leaders in Early Child Education. The thesis was set out to explore the following research questions: How do ECE leaders and teachers understand teacher professionalism? What is the role of whiteness and gender in teacher professionalism? and What is the relationship between the ideas of professionalism and the local context in ECE? The study finds that insiders have strong notions of professional conduct but that exploring professionalism was a site of contention for the participants. Two responses to issues of professionalism …

Whiteness 101: Racial Identity Work For White Educators To Advance Antiracist Pedagogy, Meghan W. Slan

Master's Projects and Capstones

Whiteness, White privilege, and racial inequality are pervasive in K-12 schools and universities. Recognizing that race is a human invented classification construct that has had and continues to have a direct causal effect on the historical and present inequality of the United States, White educators must reckon with their own racial identities as White people in a White supremacist society. White educators are complicit in reproducing White supremacist societal structures through K-12 schooling and in universities, thus bearing responsibility to disrupt, dismantle and rebuild a more just and equitable education system. This field project incorporates my experiences as facilitator of …

“In The University But Not Of The University”: Examining Institutionalized Counterspaces Through A Staff Perspective, Omar A. Ramirez

Master's Theses

Using a qualitative case study, this thesis examines a university counterspace that serves Students of Color through the perspective of the staff who work in that space. The case study aimed to explore four areas of investigation: the interviewees’ knowledge and perceptions of 1) the history of their counterspace; 2) the purpose of their counterspace; 3) the benefits of their counterspace; and 4) challenges of their counterspace. The counterspace was a program within a large, 4-year, public, R-1 research university. Five staff from the counterspace were interviewed. A thematic analysis of the data suggests that students were an essential part …

Critical Efforts Against White Supremacy: Reflections Of White Women On Anti-Racism Work Within Four-Year Colleges, Jennifer Bosco

Doctoral Dissertations

A disconnect exists between intended outcomes of inclusivity on college campuses and the failure of these institutions to recognize and act against oppressive legacies on campus. Cabrera (2014) asserts that few studies have directly critiqued the policies and procedures of institutions of higher education using a whiteness framework. Aniagolu (2011) states that white women have acted as ‘co-whites’ alongside white men to sustain racialized policy, disparity in civil and social structures, and the hidden agenda of white supremacy. When using a racial and gendered intersectional lens in research, white women are a protected class, saved from the microscope of critical …

Critical Pedagogy And Peace Education In International Service-Learning: A Curriculum Exploring Race, Positionality, Power, And Privilege, Lissette A. Lizárraga

Master's Projects and Capstones

My project is an international service-learning curriculum intended to address the neocolonial implications that are perpetuated when sending predominately white, affluent participants abroad. My curriculum unpacks whiteness, privilege, the white savior complex, and American immigration history. Using race, power, and privilege, I explore how these themes relate to acquiring awareness and understanding of participants' societal positioning. Through this lens, my aim is that students can become aware of how systemic oppression works to disenfranchise certain groups, while others remain in power. With this awareness, students can become more mindful, aware, conscious, and critically engaged with their host communities through an …

Plugging Into Movement Work: White Racial Justice Action In The Era Of Colorblind Racism, Garrett Naiman

Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the practices and consciousness of eight white identified participants, born 1970 or later, who are actively engaged in racial justice action. Although the field of critical whiteness studies has expanded markedly over the past couple of decades, little has been written specifically about white racial justice activists (and activism). This may be serving as a disconnect for white people who are trying to find their way in racial justice movement work.

Participants were involved in one or more of the following: community organizing, education, religious work and cultural arts. Research data was primarily generated/collected through qualitative …