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Whiteness and national identity: teacher discourses in Australian primary schools
journal contribution
posted on 2018-01-01, 00:00 authored by Jessica Walton, N Priest, Emma KowalEmma Kowal, F White, Yin ParadiesYin Paradies, Brandi FoxBrandi FoxThe study examines how white teachers talked to children about national
identity and cultural diversity by drawing on qualitative research with eightto
12-year-old students and their teachers from four Australian primary
schools with different racial, ethnic and cultural demographics. Despite a
range of explicit and implicit approaches that fostered different levels of
critique among students, teachers often communicated Australian national
identity as commensurate to white racial and Anglo-Australian cultural
identity. We identified three main approaches teachers used to talk about
national identity and cultural diversity: cultural essentialism, race elision
and a quasi-critical approach. We conclude that the wider education system
needs to develop a more formal curriculum structure that guides teachers
in developing a better awareness of the power of white normativity, and to
critically and explicitly counter discourse and practice that centres whiteness
as foundational to dominant conceptualisations of national identity.
identity and cultural diversity by drawing on qualitative research with eightto
12-year-old students and their teachers from four Australian primary
schools with different racial, ethnic and cultural demographics. Despite a
range of explicit and implicit approaches that fostered different levels of
critique among students, teachers often communicated Australian national
identity as commensurate to white racial and Anglo-Australian cultural
identity. We identified three main approaches teachers used to talk about
national identity and cultural diversity: cultural essentialism, race elision
and a quasi-critical approach. We conclude that the wider education system
needs to develop a more formal curriculum structure that guides teachers
in developing a better awareness of the power of white normativity, and to
critically and explicitly counter discourse and practice that centres whiteness
as foundational to dominant conceptualisations of national identity.
History
Journal
Race ethnicity and educationVolume
21Issue
1Pagination
132 - 147Publisher
RoutledgeLocation
Abingdon, Eng.Publisher DOI
ISSN
1470-109XeISSN
1470-109XLanguage
engPublication classification
C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2016, Informa UKUsage metrics
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