Whiteness and national identity: teacher discourses in Australian primary schools. Issue 1 (2nd January 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Walton, Jessica; Priest, Naomi; Kowal, Emma; White, Fiona; Fox, Brandi; Paradies, Yin
• Is Part Of: Race, ethnicity and education. Volume 21:Issue 1(2018)
• Page Start: 132
• Page End: 147
• Publication Date: 2018-01-02
• Subjects: National identity -- whiteness -- cultural essentialism -- race elision -- quasi-critical -- children -- teacher; Minorities -- Education -- Periodicals; Educational equalization -- Periodicals; Multicultural education -- Periodicals; Race relations -- Periodicals; Race awareness -- Periodicals; Black people -- Race identity -- Periodicals; 306.432
• DOI: 10.1080/13613324.2016.1195357
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1361-3324

Abstract

Abstract: The study examines how white teachers talked to children about national identity and cultural diversity by drawing on qualitative research with eight- to 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.