Project Proposal: Case Study

EDUC5354
Rory Leitch

Missing the Mark? White Allies and Anti-Racist Classrooms

For my final project, I am proposing to do a Case Study analysis using a media report that came up on

my Facebook feed earlier this term (see over). The issue is very relevant to me because it revolves

around assessing the failure or success of culturally responsive and/or anti-racist teaching when its

primary agents are white teachers like me and most of my classmates. The issue is profoundly relevant

to me personally and professionally but, at the same time, opens some important critical questions on

the curriculum of B.Ed programs like ours. For my analysis, I will try to identify what I consider to be the

five essential questions raised in this case. I’m going to give my best answers to these questions. I think

that the way that I frame these questions and my answers to them will demonstrate something about

the quality of the thinking I’ve been doing in this class.

Project Proposal: Case Study
EDUC5354
Rory Leitch

Case Study
“I am a white ally,” the 30 something-year-old white teacher declared
emphatically in the diversity and inclusion professional development
session. She snapped her fingers to co-sign a colleague’s comments
about Black Lives Matter, changed her Facebook profile picture to
commemorate Breonna Taylor, and talked at length about brown and
Black lives.

She knew the importance of using “She/her/hers” adjectives at the

beginning of each virtual work session. She joined the book club
where Dr. Kendi’s work was being discussed. By every metric, large or
small, she showed that she was, inevitably and truly, an ally. But
therein, laid the problem. She had characterized herself as an anti-
racist ally. Black and brown educators and children around her would
not label her in the same way.

In the background, students of color—largely Black and Latinx—would

complain to other teachers of color that their voices were not being
heard. They would pushback against the teacher-centric approach in
the classroom and the unilateral way that power and privilege played
out in the school.

When those suggestions and feedback were brought up to the white

leaders, there was pushback: This teacher did not intend to have a
harmful impact. She was leading with good intentions. She
simply forgot to implement the feedback. All and all, this teacher was
protected by the systems of white supremacy and power. Instead of
her being held accountable, the messenger was classified as simply
being uninformed. The messenger had a Ph.D. in culturally responsive
pedagogy.

Source

https://educationpost.org/educators-who-consider-themselves-white-allies-are-dangerous-when-it-
comes-to-developing-anti-racist-classrooms/
Project Proposal: Case Study
EDUC5354
Rory Leitch