White teachers' perceptions about their students of color and themselves as white educators

This research is a qualitative study involving eight experienced white teachers who teach in an elementary school located in a large urban district. The student population of the school consists predominantly of students of color and students living in poverty. The purpose of the study was to understand the perceptions these white teachers hold about their students of color and themselves as white educators and the relationship between how the teachers see their students of color and how they see their own racial identity.; The method of inquiry was participatory action research (Whitehead, 111993; McIntyre, 1997) that included initial unstructured teacher interviews (Fontana & Frey, 1994) and six group sessions with the teachers. The themes revealed in the research included (1) denying the significance of race, (2) blaming the students, their families, and community for the teachers' perceptions of the students' inadequacies, (3) norming the dissenting voice, (4) employing avoiding “the gaze” as surveillance and control (Foucault, 1980), and (5) incorporating and rationalizing abuse as a mechanism of control.; This study offers implications for policy, research, and practice. The implication for policy is that the disruption of a discourse cannot be legislated, it must occur at the level of individuals. The implication for researchers is to continue to expose and map out points of leverage so that those practitioners who are “in the battlefield” can penetrate and disrupt the current hegemonic discourse so that an anti-racist discourse can emerge. Lastly, the implications for practice are that within our schools we must have leaders who are vigilant in their efforts to create spaces for democratic discussions that challenge the current discourse and through the participation of multifarious voices offer examples of alternative discourses.