Everyday race-making pedagogies in the classroom

Abstract

In this paper I examine the ‘pedagogies of positioning’ performatively played out within the Australian high school classrooms I observed. The study aimed to develop a better understanding of how teachers pedagogically racialise the classroom in and through discursive encounters with students. The social analysis of these data accepts that teachers and students (and the researcher) performatively do race in ways that locate, construct, and negotiate racialised identities and relationships. A collection of ‘chronicles’ are presented that help reveal the ‘everyday’ discursive practices of both teachers and students that continue to rely on racially stereotypical social scripts that sustain discriminatory racialised hierarchies. The article aims to (re)emphasise why the classroom remains a valuable location to interrupt the reiterative power of Whiteness, in addition to gesturing to potential ways forward with opening up alternative ‘lines of flight’ for young learners.

Keywords:

• race
• performativity
• White racial praxis
• positioning
• chronicles

Notes

1. In this paper I use Price's (2012) ‘definition' of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and Indigenous peoples. However, I acknowledge that these terms remain contested, and my use attempts to be sensitive and appropriate to the textual context. Price (2012, 193) explains that an ‘Aboriginal person is someone who is of Aboriginal descent, identifies as being Aboriginal and is accepted as such by an Aboriginal community.' She explains that ‘Indigenous' is used to refer to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

2. As a caveat, I acknowledge concerns regarding the dangers of essentialising racialised identities such as ‘Aboriginality’ and Whiteness, and to be wary of equating the performative operation of these identities; however, I agree with Moreton-Robinson and Langton in seeking to further scrutinise the relationship they share – albeit from the perspective of being White and male.

3. All names are pseudonyms.

4. Centrelink is the name of the government agency that provides social welfare benefits.

5. Echoeing concerns raised by Matthews and Aberdeen (2004), who found that non-Indigenous students maintained stereotypical perceptions of Indigenous people regarding receiving more financial assistance and legal leniency than other sections of society.

6. Angry Boys screened on the national broadcasting free-to-air network ABC on 11 May 2011. The programme follows the lives of six characters, all played by creator/writer Chris Lilley. Problematically, the characters involve Lilley, who is White (and male), taking on the role of an African-American aspiring musician, the Japanese mother of an aspiring skate boarder, and the matriarch of a youth detention centre.