Is That Racist?: One White Family Interrogating Whiteness
IS THAT RACIST?: ONE WHITE FAMILY INTERROGATING WHITENESS AND CONSTRUCTING ANTIRACIST CURRICULUM A DISSERTATION IN Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Leadership Policy and Foundations Presented to the Faculty of the University of Missouri-Kansas City in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by RHIANNA KAY THOMAS M.A., University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2008 B.A., Avila University, 2003 Kansas City, Missouri 2019 IS THAT RACIST? ONE WHITE FAMILY INTERROGATING WHITENESS AND CONSTRUCTING ANTIRACIST CURRICULUM Rhianna Kay Thomas, Candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2019 ABSTRACT Despite attempts by white teachers and families to avoid talk about race (Apfelbaum, Paulker, Ambady, Sommers, & Norton, 2008; Bartoli, Michael, Bentley- Edwards, Stevenson, Shor, & McClain, 2016; Boutte, López-Robertson, & Powers- Costello, 2011; Lesane-Brown, Brown, Tanner-Smith, & Bruce, 2010; Pahlke, Bigler, & Suizzo, 2012; Vittrup & Holden, 2010), children learn race and racism at a young age (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010; Miller, 2015; Park, 2011; Van Ausdale & Feagin, 2001). While there is a limited body of literature on racial socialization in schools (Park, 2011; Priest, Walton, White, Kowal, Baker, & Paradies, 2016; Van Ausdale & Feagin, 2001) and white racial socialization in the home (Bartoli et al., 2016; Miller, 2015; Vittrup & Holden, 2011), this study examines the ways white children come to understand race in the context of an emergent antiracist home curriculum. Using a critical sociocultural orientation, this study employs parent child autoethnography and poetic inquiry to demonstrate how two white children used race words, metaphor, analogy, and political action to construct understandings of race. iii APPROVAL PAGE The faculty listed below, appointed by the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies, have examined a dissertation entitled “Is That Racist? One White Family Interrogating Whiteness and Constructing Antiracist Curriculum” presented by Rhianna K.
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