Teaching While White: Addressing the Intersections of Race and Immigration in the Classroom

by Laura A Roy

Immigrant and refugee students often get punished for using their home language while affluent schools promote the value of bilingual and foreign language education for White students.

The teacher was right; they were using it like “hey, buddy.” There were no disruptions, no resistance to instruction, only children engaging in the linguistic practices of their community and a student teacher who was uncomfortable. The cooperating teacher did not prevent the children from using the word in this way because she grew up in the same neighborhood as the children. She didn’t see it as an impediment to the learning process; rather, she valued how students were building community in small-group conversations. The White student teacher, however, saw the use of the N-word, under any circumstance, as a roadblock to her teaching. She believed the students should be punished for using it and chose to focus on the students’ use of the word instead of good teaching practices.

“Restorative Justice is a process whereby those most directly affected by wrongdoing come together to determine what needs to be done to repair the harm and prevent a reoccurrence.” IIRP suggests that “restorative practices are about working with people rather than doing things to or for them.”

The banking concept positions teachers as the authority and holders of knowledge and students as empty vessels that need to be controlled and deposited with information.

Critical literacy requires recognition “that our world—geographically, environmentally, politically and socially—is not neutral or natural. It has been formed by history and shaped by humanity”