Counternarrative as strategy: embedding critical race theory to develop an antiracist school identity

Abstract

This article examines the purposeful use of counternarrative to develop an antiracist school identity. Based on a seven-year ethnographic project at an elementary school in the southeast U.S., it illustrates how counternarrative can be employed as strategy to embed Critical Race Theory (CRT) into school equity discourse and, in doing so, help public schools disrupt majoritarian narratives that deny the salience of race. It argues that by developing counternarratives rooted in the perspectives and knowledge of teachers of color, and then using those counternarratives specifically for the purposes of strategizing, schools and researchers can help CRT achieve its activist function in K-12 school contexts.

Keywords:

• Counternarrative
• white supremacy
• critical race theory
• antiracism

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Dr. Manny Madriaga, Senior Lecturer in Education Studies, Sheffield Institute of Education, Sheffield Hallam University, for his valuable feedback and support during the drafting of this article.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 All participant and specific place names are pseudonyms.

2 I explain more about counternarrative as methodology and on my white positionality in sections below.

3 I capitalize Black and Brown when referring to Black and Brown people. However, in direct quotes from the cited material, I maintain the original style used in that material.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Benjamin Blaisdell

Dr. Benjamin Blaisdell is an Assistant Professor in the College of Education at East Carolina University. His scholarship uses Critical Race Theory (CRT) and racial spaces analysis to examine how white supremacy and antiblackness are normalized in schools. He engages in a collaborative form of research and professional development called equity coaching, which uses CRT to foster racial literacy and critical race praxis with teachers, administrators, and other school personnel. This approach helps educators to sustain racial equity efforts beyond trainings and professional development sessions and to develop the capacity to be racial equity leaders.