Transforming Teaching: Building Inclusive Classrooms Through Critical Inquiry into Whiteness and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy

The U.S. teaching force remains overwhelmingly white, monolingual, and female even though student demographics are more racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse (RELD), creating inequitable expectations and instruction for RELD students. In partnership with Wake County Schools, this transformative multiphase, mixed-method project facilitates professional learning with 30 middle and high school educators, engaging them in critical inquiry and critical reflexivity across three phases of learning about whiteness: self, institutional policies and practices, and instructional, building learning incrementally, and reinforcing and expanding on prior learning. Teachers will fluctuate between micro-level (individual biases and beliefs) and macro-level understanding of inequities (systemic racism) through teacher- and group-driven inquiry, creating new interpretations and understanding of critical issues that lead to exclusionary classroom practices. My project documents how teachers develop a positive white racial identity and increase their critical consciousness, and how this leads to teachers designing more equitable instruction that increases students? sense of belonging and engagement. Working alongside district leadership, teachers will advocate against systemic and individual racism within and beyond their classroom and school spaces, consistently reflecting on personal decisions and practices and making recommendations for changes within policy.

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