Revisiting Whiteness Pedagogy: Examining the Discursive Practices of Diverse Students in an Intercultural Communication and Conflict Course

ABSTRACT

Our study explores discourses of whiteness amongst a diverse group of undergraduate students within the context of critical intercultural communication pedagogy. Through a qualitative analysis of two sets of student essays, we look across discourses of students who primarily identify as white and students with nondominant identities to identify convergences and divergences. We found that many white-identifying students used strategic rhetorics to maintain the invisibility of their whiteness and/or enact white privilege even while expressing awareness of it. Many students with nondominant identities expressed tensions in defining those identities within the liminal spaces constructed by whiteness. Some challenged the constraints of whiteness by drawing from complex histories, highlighting the potential of hybridized identities as cultural bridges, and using their privilege towards deeper learning.

KEYWORDS:

• whiteness
• critical intercultural communication pedagogy
• discourse analysis
• hybridity
• undergraduate students

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. We use the term “nondominant” throughout this essay to refer to structural positionings of group-based identities. Alternatively, we use the term “marginalized” when appropriate to describe the feelings or experiences expressed by students with nondominant identities, as in “being marginalized.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anjana Mudambi

Dr. Anjana Mudambi is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. As a critical intercultural communication scholar, much of her research has explored how South Asian Americans have engaged, reproduced, and challenged dominant, hegemonic discourses, with a specific interest in their relationality to other marginalized communities.

Mary Jane Collier

Dr. Mary Jane Collier is Professor Emerita of Communication and Culture at the University of New Mexico and Professor of Veterinary Communication at Colorado State University. Her research and praxis address issues such as justice and diversity in intercultural communication, conflict, and community engagement across educational, professional and public contexts.

Lindsay Scott

Dr. Lindsay Scott received her PhD from the University of New Mexico. She is an Associate Professor of Speech Communication at Lone Star College Tomball. Dr. Scott’s area of research is intercultural communication, with an emphasis in intercultural conflict.

Cleophas Taurai Muneri

Dr. Cleophas Taurai Muneri is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of New Mexico. His research interests focus on media, communication, and democratization. Dr. Muneri is interested in examining media centrality in cultural (re)production and its implications to (re)constitution of cultural identities.