This study uses a poststructural analysis to explicate the social production of Whiteness in a college classroom. Whiteness scholars define Whiteness as reference to a set of locations that are historically, socially, politically, and culturally produced, and intrinsically linked to relations of domination. Using this framework of social production, I analyze a graduate-level college classroom for evidence of Whiteness. More than 50% of the class members were Asian international students. I suggest that Whiteness was operating on multiple levels, which I categorize as: Whiteness as Domination; Resources and the Production of the Other; and the Discourse of Cultural Preference. I argue that Whiteness not only served to deny Asian international students and other students of color an equal opportunity to learn in that classroom, but most pointedly, Whiteness also served to elevate the White students by positioning the students of color as their audience.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AllenD. G. (1996). Knowledge, politics, culture, and gender: A discourse perspective. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, 28, 95—102.
2.
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. (1994). Teacher education pipeline: Schools, colleges, and departments of education. Washington, DC: Author.
3.
BanksJ. A. (1994). Multiethnic education: theory and practice (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
4.
BanksJ. A. (2003). Multicultural education: Characteristics and goals. In BanksJ.A., and BanksC.A. (Eds.), Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives (4th ed.). New York: Wiley.
5.
BanksC. A. M., and BanksJ. A. (1995). Equity pedagogy: An essential component of multicultural education. Theory Into Practice, 34, 152—158.
6.
CastenellL.Jr., and PinarW. (Eds.). (1993). Understanding curriculum as racial text: Representations of identity and difference in education. Albany: State University of New York Press.
7.
DelpitL. (1995). Other people's children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: Norton.
8.
DyerR. (1997). White. New York: Routledge.
9.
FineM. (1997). Witnessing Whiteness. In FineM., PowellL., WeisL., and WongL.M. (Eds.), Off White: Readings on race, power and society (pp. 57—65). New York: Routledge.
10.
FrankenbergR. (1993). White women, race matters: The social construction of Whiteness. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.
11.
FrankenbergR. (1997). Introduction: Local Whitenesses, localizing Whiteness. In and and FrankenbergR. (Ed.), Displacing Whiteness: Essays in social and cultural criticism (pp. 1—33). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
12.
LeeS. (1996). Unraveling the “model-minority” stereotype: Listening to Asian American youth. New York: Teachers College Press.
13.
LiuJ. (2001). Asian students’ classroom communication patterns in U.S. universities: An emic perspective. Hartford, CT: Ablex.
14.
MacedoD., and BartolomeL. (1999). Dancing with bigotry. New York: St. Martin's Press.
15.
McintoshP. (1986, April). White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women's studies. Paper presented at the Virginia Women's Studies Association conference, Richmond, VA.
16.
MorrisonT. (1992). Playing in the dark: Whiteness and the literary imagination. New York: Vintage Books.
17.
NortonB. (2001). Changing perspectives on good language learners. TESOL Quarterly, 35, 307—322.
18.
OlsenL. (1998). Made in America: Immigrant students in our public schools. New York: New Press.
19.
PowellL. (1997). The achievement (k)not: Whiteness and “Black underachievement.” In FineM., PowellL., WeisL., and WongL.M. (Eds.), Off White: Readings on race, power and society (pp. 3—12). New York: Routledge.
20.
RoedigerD. (1998). Black on White: Black writers on what it means to be White. New York: Schocken Books.
21.
SchofieldJ. (2003). The colorblind perspective in schools: Causes and consequences. In BanksJ.A., and BanksC.A.M. (Eds.), Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives (4th ed., pp. 247—267). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
22.
SleeterC. E. (1993). How White teachers construct race. In McCarthyC., and ChrichlowW. (Eds.), Race, identity and representation in education (pp. 157—171). New York: Routledge.
23.
SleeterC. (1996). Preface. In and and LeeS. (Ed.), Unraveling the “model minority” stereotype: Listening to Asian American youth (pp. 5—10). New York: Teachers College Press.
24.
SleeterC. (2001). Preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools: Research and the overwhelming presence of Whiteness. Journal of Teacher Education, 52(2), 94—106.
25.
SnyderT. (1999). Digest of education statistics. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, Department of Education.
26.
TatumB. D. (1992). Talking about race, learning about racism: The application of racial identity development theory in the classroom. Harvard Educational Review, 62, 1—24.
27.
TatumB. D. (1997). Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?” and other conversations about race: A psychologist explains the development of racial identity. New York: Basic Books.
28.
ValenzuelaA. (2001). Subtractive schooling: U.S–Mexican youth and the politics of caring. Albany: State University of New York Press.
