Working through whiteness

^† We have taken this part of the title from Levine-Rasky (2002) who suggests that ‘working through’ best characterises the tensions that necessarily accompany whites engaging in a critical examination of whiteness. Leeds Metropolitan University is now Leeds Beckett University.

, race and (anti) racism in physical education teacher education

Abstract

Background: The persistent gaps between a largely white profession and ethnically diverse school populations have brought renewed calls to support teachers' critical engagement with race. Programmes examining the effects of racism have had limited impact on practice, with student teachers responding with either denial, guilt or fear; they also contribute to a deficit view of racialised students in relation to an accepted white ‘norm’, and position white teachers ‘outside’ of race. Recent calls argue for a shift in focus towards an examination of the workings of the dominant culture through a critical engagement with whiteness, positioning white teachers within the processes of racialisation. Teacher educators' roles are central, and yet, while we routinely expect student teachers to reflect critically on issues of social justice, we have been less willing to engage in such work ourselves. This is particularly the case within physical education teacher education (PETE), an overwhelmingly white, embodied space, and where race and racism as professional issues are largely invisible.

Purpose: This paper examines the operation of whiteness within PETE through a critical reflection on the three co-authors' careers and experiences working for social justice. The research questions were twofold: How are race, (anti) racism and whiteness constructed through everyday experiences of families, schooling and teacher education? How can collective biography be used to excavate discourses of race, racism and whiteness as the first step towards challenging them? In beginning the process of reflecting on what it means for us ‘to do own work’ in relation to (anti) racism, we examine some of the tensions and challenges for teacher educators in PE attempting to work to dismantle whiteness.

Methodology: As co-authors, we engaged in collective biography work – a process in which we reflected upon, wrote about and shared our embodied experiences and memories about race, racism and whiteness as educators working for social justice. Using a critical whiteness lens, these narratives were examined for what they reveal about the collective practices and discourses about whiteness and (anti)racism within PETE.

Results: The narratives reveal the ways in which whiteness operates within PETE through processes of naturalisation, ex-denomination and universalisation. We have been educated, and now work within, teacher education contexts where professional discourse about race at best focuses on understanding the racialised ‘other’, and at worse is invisible. By drawing on a ‘racialised other’, deficit discourse in our pedagogy, and by ignoring race in own research on inequalities in PETE, we have failed to disrupt universalised discourses of ‘white-as-norm’, or addressed our own privileged racialised positioning. Reflecting critically on our biographies and careers has been the first step in recognising how whiteness works in order that we can begin to work to disrupt it.

Conclusion: The study highlights some of the challenges of addressing (anti)racism within PETE and argues that a focus on whiteness might offer a productive starting point. White teacher educators must critically examine their own role within these processes if they are to expect student teachers to engage seriously in doing the same.

Keywords:

• whiteness
• teacher educators
• physical education
• racism
• narrative

Notes

^† We have taken this part of the title from Levine-Rasky (2002) who suggests that ‘working through’ best characterises the tensions that necessarily accompany whites engaging in a critical examination of whiteness. Leeds Metropolitan University is now Leeds Beckett University.

1 All names in the paper are pseudonyms.

2 Teaching placement or school practicum.

3 We have different biographies and routes into PE/TE. Two of us were educated as secondary PE teachers albeit through different routes, in the late 1970s/early 1980s; the other studied Leisure Studies at university, before moving into community sports development. We are all now teaching and researching in universities in the broad area of PE with a particular focus on issues of social justice.

4 We include insights drawn from critical race theory, black feminism and critical whiteness studies.

5 We are not denying other, useful perspectives on race and racism, e.g. multiculturalism.

6 As Levine-Rasky (2002, p. 3) we use ‘racialised other’ here rather than terms such as ‘black and minority ethnic’ or ‘non-white’, for example, to refer to those groups that have been regarded as distinct from white. This ensures a link between racialisation and racism, and draws attention to the ‘very processes of reifying what should be regarded as social difference  … ’ However, like the use of whiteness, it does risk generalisation that social inequality can be solely attributed to race.

7 Ken Loach is an English film and TV director, best known for his critical portrayal of working class lives, including the 1970s film, Kes, about a young working class boy and his kestrel.

8 The equalities legislation covers the whole of the UK yet ITE policy is specific to England.

9 Anne and Fiona have recently been awarded a British Academy research grant to support this work, on which we hope to report in the future.