The Intersections of White Identity and the Instructional Practices of Self-Identified Antiracist Educators

This phenomenological qualitative study, serves to fill a gap in the research surrounding how the multiplicities of identities inform the instructional practices and racial identity of self-identified antiracist educators by answering the following questions: “How do intersections of identity shape the way teachers view themselves in the classroom?” and “How do the varied intersections of white identity inform teacher experiences, philosophical and pedagogical paradigms, and instructional practice amongst self-identified antiracist educators?” Using interpretive phenomenological analysis and employing the theoretical frameworks of critical whiteness (Roediger, 1994), critical whiteness feminism, and double-imagery (Seidl & Hancock, 2011), the following themes were identified as relevant to forming white teachers’ critical consciousness (Freire, 2018), thus supporting an antiracist pedagogical paradigm: gender, religion, proximity to people of color, and education. These intersections in turn shifted their pedagogical paradigm to a student-centered humanizing paradigm, centering student identity, culture, voice, and choice through rigorous and relevant instructional practices.