Singing and dancing for diversity: Neoliberal multiculturalism and white epistemological ignorance in teacher professional development

Abstract

Singing and dancing for diversity examines a series of professional development workshops ostensibly centred on racial equity designed for secondary school teachers. Using the concept of neoliberal multiculturalism to critique the implementation of the workshops, this article illustrates how superficial multicultural curriculum distorts anti-racism and reproduces whiteness. The analysis focuses on the social and affective dimensions of racialization that emerge and converge during the workshops to instantiate white epistemological ignorance of race. Epistemological ignorance is established through the construction and sequencing of a watered-down curricular approach to multiculturalism in combination with a diversity concert that functions to persuade white teachers to embrace a non-critical definition of racial equity.

Keywords:

• Teacher development
• multicultural/diversity education
• curriculum studies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 All names and places are pseudonyms.

2 Flinging culture is a pseudonym, but the name is synonymous with the original title of the activity.

3 I was not able to determine if the songs were original or covers of other songs. However, I believe most songs were covers since many audience members seemed to be familiar with the music.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Justin Grinage

Justin Grinage is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Minnesota. His research examines processes of racialization in school and classroom spaces with a particular focus on black education, critical whiteness studies, and postcolonial theory. His scholarship has been published in journals such as Harvard Educational Review, English Education, and Journal of Curriculum Theorizing. A former English language arts teacher, he worked in multiracial high school classrooms for over a decade.