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Whiteness as Property: Innocence and Ability in Teacher Education

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Abstract

In this article, I empirically examined the dispositions of teachers in juvenile justice surrounding young women of color with disabilities to inform what improvements can be made in teacher education. I utilized Critical Race Theory (CRT) and focused on the tenet of whiteness as property as a lens to provide a robust racial analysis of the dispositions of teachers. Findings indicated that instead of a status that elicited support, ability became another thing to surveil, perpetuating a commitment to whiteness as property. An implication that arose directly from these findings was that teachers need training in understanding theories of race, racism, and inequities that recognize the historical legacy of whiteness as property. This training could lead to a change in teacher dispositions and practices that may disrupt the School to Prison Pipeline.

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Notes

  1. Due to overrepresentation of students from non-dominant communities in high-incidence disability categories, also known as judgment categories, in special education, I say “have been identified” or “labeled with a disability” since being identified does not guarantee the student actually has a disability. As Harry and Klingner (2006) note, “many have questioned the accuracy of the professional judgments made in diagnosing" these disabilities.

  2. I recognize that subjective judgments are involved in medically defined disability categories, as well. However, due to page limits, I focus my argument here to the “high incidence” special education labels.

  3. Colorblindness is an ideology where racial inequity is attributed to nonracial dynamics (Bonilla-Silva 2006; Gotanda 1991). Though this is an important ideology to critique, the term “colorblindness” conflates the lack of sight with lack of understanding. In other words, blindness is equated with not knowing or ignorance. However not seeing something is not the same as not knowing something; blind people are knowers. So I put this term in quotes to remind us that we must examine our language. For more on the problems with the term colorblindness and an alternative, color-evasiveness, see Stubblefield, 2005.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to take the time to thank each of the readers who has offered support in the development of this paper. Thank you to Janette Klingner, Christina Paguyo, and Darrell Jackson. Your expertise and feedback strengthened this paper. Additionally, thank you to the guest editors of the Urban Review, Daniella Cook and Rema Reynolds, who organized this needed special issue on CRT & teacher education. I appreciate the time each of you committed in order for to grow the concepts presented in this paper. Finally, thanks to the AERA Minority Fellowship in Education Research Program, which made this research possible through the Minority Dissertation Fellowship Award.

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Annamma, S.A. Whiteness as Property: Innocence and Ability in Teacher Education. Urban Rev 47, 293–316 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-014-0293-6

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