Shunted across the tracks? Autoethnography, education research, and my whiteness. Issue 2 (2nd July 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vass, Greg
• Is Part Of: Whiteness and education. Volume 1:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 83
• Page End: 93
• Publication Date: 2016-07-02
• Subjects: Whiteness -- autoethnography -- Indigenous education -- reflexivity -- methodology; Racism in education -- Periodicals; White people -- Education -- Periodicals; White people -- Race identity -- Periodicals; Multicultural education -- Periodicals; 371.829
• DOI: 10.1080/23793406.2016.1260633
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2379-3406

Abstract

Abstract: Likening education to the railway helped reconceptualise my understanding of social justice and contributed to my research on race-making in the classroom. Education and the railway are similar in how they underpin experiences, mobilities, opportunities and limitations in life. For example, boarding a train makes a range of destinations available, but these are limited to where the tracks extend. Similarly, education for many so-called 'marginalised' students, is likewise, limiting. Both rail and education require access and mastery of particular knowledges and practices. Then there are costs, with the currency of some students opening up more diverse and far reaching destinations. For people with/out the 'right' capital then, train travel – like education – can be limiting or privileging. This paper presents a creative account of the shunting I experienced in coming to (re)locate myself in the education system, an undertaking that was part of a critical race insider autoethnographic study.