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Teaching Up: Faculty of Color Teaching About Privilege

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Gender, Race, and Class in the Lives of Today’s Teachers

Abstract

In the current political climate, racial, gender, and sexual differences are controversial topics, particularly on college campuses. This illuminates the need for increased focus on these issues in college classes. Although the literature on teaching about privilege is small, it is dominated by the voices of White faculty and almost completely focuses on racial issues. Marginalized faculty are rarely heard in this literature, and academia lacks an intersectional understanding of teaching about oppression and inequality. This chapter is an intersectional exploration of faculty of color and how their gender and sexual orientation affect their teaching about privilege. It expands understanding of impression management among faculty of color and how its significance changes based on age, gender, and other factors. It expands the understanding of issues surrounding teaching about inequity from an intersectional perspective and moves the focus beyond tenure-track faculty. It adds to the literature focusing on the experiences of faculty within the classroom and provides ways to support marginalized faculty in their teaching. Although the faculty interviewed here are sociologists, there are broad implications for teaching across disciplines.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I purposefully capitalize Black as it is my racial identity, therefore throughout this chapter White will also be capitalized as a racial identity.

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Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the sociologists who generously shared their time and experiences with me in this study. I am also grateful to Dr. Regina Deil-Amen, my mentor and advisor, Director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona, Dr. Mary T. Texeira at California State University, San Bernardino, Melody Allan, retired educator, and the editors for their feedback on drafts of this chapter.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Digital Learning, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Celeste Atkins

  2. Pima Community College (Soc), University of Arizona (AED), Tucson, AZ, USA

    Celeste Atkins

  3. Center for the Study of Higher Education, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Celeste Atkins

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  1. Celeste Atkins
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Correspondence to Celeste Atkins .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Sociology, School of Arts and Sciences, Brandman University, Irvine, CA, USA

    Lata Murti

  2. Department of Chicano/Latino Studies, School of Social Sciences, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

    Glenda M. Flores

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Atkins, C. (2021). Teaching Up: Faculty of Color Teaching About Privilege. In: Murti, L., Flores, G.M. (eds) Gender, Race, and Class in the Lives of Today’s Teachers. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73551-7_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73551-7_9

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-73550-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-73551-7

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