Dangerous Discourses in Teacher Education: Grappling with Uneasy Silences and Disturbing Dialogues in University Settings

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Dangerous Discourses in Teacher
EducationGrappling with Uneasy Silences
andDisturbing Dialogues in University Settings

• Jorge P. Osterling, Ph.D.Shelley Wong, Ed.D.
• George Mason UniversityNAME 2005

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Problem

• What role does social justice play in a teacher
  education program for predominantly White,
  middle-class students?

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Research Site

• Some of our MME graduate students
• Have never left their own neighborhoods or
  communities
• Have developed a vision of education derived from
  a rather narrow experience of society
• Have never examined their own privileged position
• Most of these students entered the program with a
  superficial understanding of multicultural
  education (cf. Sleeter Grants human
  relations or single group approach Kubotas
  liberal multiculturalism)
• We hope to introduce them to a wider and more
  sensitive understanding of what multiculturalism
  is and can be. One that advocates social justice

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Multiple Perspectives

• What teaching practices may help faculty broaden
  the horizons of pre-service teachers and raise
  their awareness of multiple perspectives?

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Our Approach
Dangerous Discourses in Teacher Education.

• Bigler, E. (1999). American Conversations Puerto
  Ricans, White Ethnics, and Multicultural
  Education.
• Bigler, E. Collins, J. (1995). Dangerous
  Discourses The Politics of Multicultural
  Literature in Community and Classroom.
• Nieto, S. (1999). The Light in Their Eyes
  Creating Multicultural Learning Communities.

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Our Case Study

• We invited Melanie Bush to our campus to discuss
  with our students her 2004 book Breaking The Code
  of Good Intentions Everyday Forms of Whiteness.
• What ensued was disturbing
• First, a long baffling silence,
• Then, the hesitant introduction of rather
  prejudiced views seldom openly expressed on
  campus.

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Student Samples(Please See Handouts)
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Research Questions

• What are the students telling us?
• What are the hidden messages in the student
  responses?
• Why are they now telling us these things?
• How do we reach out to students who remain silent
  about race and whiteness during classroom
  dialogues?
• How do we respond to students who see critical
  theory/pedagogy as being too theoretical and not
  related to day-to-day life?

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Discussion and Questions

• Jorge P. Osterling, Ph.D.
• ltjosterli_at_gmu.edugt
• Shelley Wong, Ed.D.
• ltswong1_at_gmu.edugt

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References

• Bigler, E. (1999). American Conversations Puerto
  Ricans, White Ethnics, and Multicultural
  Education. Philadelphia Temple University.
• Bigler, E. Collins, J. (1995). Dangerous
  Discourses The Politics of Multicultural
  Literature in Community and Classroom. Report
  Series 7(4). Albany, NY The National Research
  Center on English Learning Achievement.
  Retrieved November 2, 2005 from
  http//cela.albany.edu/reports/danger/index.html
• Bush, M.E.L. (2004). Breaking the Code of Good
  Intentions Everyday Forms Of Whiteness. Lanham,
  MD Rowman Littlefield.
• Kubota, R. (2004). Critical multiculturalism and
  second language education. In B. Norton K.
  Toohey (Eds.). Critical Pedagogies and Language
  Learning (pp. 30-52). Cambridge Cambridge
  University Press.
• Nieto, S. (1999). The Light in Their Eyes
  Creating Multicultural Learning Communities.
  Sonia Nieto. New York Teachers College Press.