The Embodiment of Culture: Race and Class in Schools

By Dorothy Wood

This book is a culmination of life, in prose, in America as a professional black woman. Unabridged in its recounts of racism, culture, and bigotry in education, society and opportunity. It is a timely reminder of what happens when race relations go unattended and undermined in America.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 13, 2017
• ISBN: 9781640822443

Dorothy Wood

Dorothy Wood is a talented and prolific craft author. Since completing a course in Advanced Embroidery and Textiles, she has written over twenty craft books - her first being the best-selling Simple Glass Beading. In her spare time, she contributes to numerous magazines including Crafts Beautiful and Cardmaking & Papercraft.

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The Embodiment of Culture

Race and Class in Schools

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of

Doctor in Education in the Foster B. McGaw Graduate School

National College of Education

National Louis University

December 2016

Dorothy Wood

Doctorate of Educational Leadership

Copyright © 2017 Dorothy Wood

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2017

ISBN 978-1-64082-243-6 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64082-244-3 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Abstract

This auto-ethnographic inquiry into race and culture in public education chronicles the ways in which racism permeates nearly every aspect of schooling. By researching her life and career as a professional educator within a racially charged educational environment, the researcher provides insight into everyday racism through colored lenses. The question this research endeavors to answer is, What can I learn about the impacts of racism on school culture by looking back at and analyzing critical incidents in my professional career as an educator? Her research sheds light on interconnected relationships between teachers, administrators, students, families, school structures, and curriculum. True to the goals and style of auto-ethnography, the researcher renders interpretations of school life through the weaving of lived experience, reflection, poetry, theory, and research that reveal both the author’s consciousness and sensibilities and the highly racialized culture in which she lives and works.

Chapter 1

The Embodiment of Culture

This chapter introduces self and topic. I am the embodiment and the culture represented herein. My reason for starting here is simple. By writing about my experiences, I hope to provide an insight into everyday racism through colored lenses. A mirror, if you will, into my life and career as a professional educator. I believe that race should never be a factor for how one lives, loves, learns, or succeeds; and it should never be a qualifier for equality. The reaches of racism can only be measured by the depth of its influences and benefits. Who it benefits is evidenced in the haves and have nots of society. It can also be evidenced by opportunities in education and employment. To say that this travesty ignites anger and frustration from within me would only serve to trivialize the far-reaching effects of racism while ignoring its existence still. On the contrary, racism is more alive today than ever! It is by way of MY race—yes race—that I will enter this ethnography.

Postmodernist claim that writing is always partial, local, and situational and that our Self is always present, no matter how much we try to suppress it—but only partially present, for in our writing we repress parts of ourselves too (Richardson 1994).

Who Am I?

I am the personification of achievement,

Culture,

Experiences,

Race,

and Womanhood.

I am the subject,

the product,

and

the convention.

My style of thinking, doing, and living is worthy of transcript.

I am the Metaphor.

I am real.

At the cost of modesty,

bear with me

for the simplicity in which my textual wares are exhibited.

Please note that although simple,

the semantics herein are reflexive of deeds and doers

in a world not yet void of

color sensors.

It is a world tantamount only to those who

believe in destiny,

equitable justice,

social reform,

spirituality, and self-truths.

For those who would relish in secrecy

When they know all too well of the social inequities

heaped on those whose only class infringement

is that of

COLOR,

Relax!

There is no condemnation here,

only an attempt to share one’s journey,

a journey that may aid in

demystifying

racism.

So I will begin by extending an early pardon as to my method of entry into this auto-ethnography, for it is, for me, a sensitive revelation that involves family, friends, colleagues (some dear, some estranged), and some, by some inherent quality, have joined the ranks of non-applicable but still remain an indelible part of these writings.

While these narratives are self-reflexive, this ethnography is not exclusive of observations, poetry, short stories, songs, spirituality, personal accountings (indigenous anthropology), and experiential analysis.

My hopes are to explore an age-old phenomenon, which is racism and how it affects teacher pedagogy, student learning, and the cultural preservation of people of color. When I began this research, I thought that I had solidified a previous topic, Namely, School Culture and How It Affects Teaching and Student Learning. It became apparent that every time I brought up the subject of culture and race, the issue of racism came up. As close as both issues were, in some schools, the ensuing problems were approached separately without regard for the other. School cultures (climate) and student cultures, along with the effects of racism, were more pertinent issues. But race and racism were the antagonists that had affected both cultures. It had not only affected the paradigms of pedagogy but had infected the profession, thus having a profound and adverse effect on student behavior and learning, with learning being the afterthought. The dilemmas that I, my students, and parents found ourselves facing could only be reconciled by administrative processes, processes that were neither equitable nor feasible. After far too many years of observing these malfeasances and disparities, I had enough! This is what brought me here to this juncture. This is where my journey of reflection begins.

Defining Racism

I will tell my story. I can find no eloquent words to define racism. It is what it is. There is no other way to tell about it other than telling it like it is. However, racism, according to Merriam-Webster dictionary, is a belief that some races are, by nature, superior to others. Discrimination is based on such a belief. It is important to note here that there are two more practices that feed into racism and make up this system—racialism and racialization. Racialism is a theory that race determines human traits and capabilities (abilities) while racialization is a process of establishing a racial profile to a person of color. Racial profiling, a far too common practice often used by some law enforcement agencies, takes into account both racialism and racialization, especially when rendering discipline and justice. In addition, racialism and racialization perpetuate the practice of racism. Racism is often sustained through the confines of institutions, thus, in effect, institutionalizing the practice.

The short and long of this ill, institutionalized racism, is that it appears to be here and has apparently resurfaced bigger and badder than ever! Of importance is the effects that racism has on teaching and student learning, in particular the effects on students of color. How racism plays out in politics, social institutions, health care, and society are equally important when considering the profound and adverse effect of institutionalized racism.

Racism, with its tumultuous past, has remained an indelible foe and continues to be the silent undefeated champion of this world. History tells us that the Civil War was fought to abolish slavery, an evil that personifies racial inequities, bigotry, and plain hatred for a race thought to be inferior to white aristocrats. These evils still exist and, in the professional world, are best defined as conditional, no exceptions, and the only prerequisites for entering are privileged.

Due to the nature of these disclosures, or shall I say observations, some readers may be given the perception that I’m a disgruntled, angry, bitter, and, perhaps, even naïve person, and that may be so. As you read this self-narrative, perhaps you will empathize respectively. But know that it is and will always be your prerogative to do so; just as long as there can be some sort of connection and engagement on this topic, it is the most that I can hope for.

Purpose of the Study

As I unpack my life, I am hoping that, perhaps, I will gain a better understanding of the adversities and discrimination that members of a racialized group face daily, and hopefully, the reader will join me in their own reflective process. I do not wish to alienate my audience, some of whom may have been marginalized and segregated by literacy, disability, poverty, gender, sexual orientation, etc., which will be addressed later in this dissertation as it plays out in public schools. Although the threads of racism will run through the majority of this auto-ethnography, the experiential antecedent spurring my persistence in selecting this topic is its effects on students, learning, school cultures, society, and people of color.

What might the faces of racism look like as I experienced them? Even though I had experienced racism many times throughout my life, the experiences varied with the players, the contexts, the occasions, and where I was in my life at the time of the experience. Often, I am discovering through these reflections that the experiences became more theatrical and the players more disguised. If I wanted to get inside my experiences, then I had to become someone other than a victim of those experiences. By doing so, my self had to change. It proved to be difficult at times. There was the constant reminder that kept me motivated. I thought about the bigger picture, purpose and how others were vicariously experiencing racism through my stories, observations, and analysis. I thought of how my changing might alter the possible outcomes of this research. I had to become my research and my research became my convention. I often felt like I was yielding a double-edged sword during this research process.

I had to become what Tedlock considers a cross-dresser, an outsider wearing insider clothes. But I also had to become an insider wearing outsider clothes. By this, I mean I had to abandon my victim lens in order for me to reflect, in multiple ways, my experiences while remaining faithful and respectful to the victim of racism that I was.

Methodology

As an educator and an African-American, the close relationships that were formed during what could only be described as a lifetime had served to frame, for me, a certain belief system, culture, and professional career that I desperately needed to write about. I was puzzled as to the best method in which to represent my culture, the career that I had worked so diligently to secure, my passions and the obstacles that I faced in all these realms as a woman of color. My writing became a personal mission. I was searching for a way to connect my life experiences to purpose that was so much a part of my spirituality. Writing my auto-ethnography seemed to be the most fitting methodology.

Writing, in and of itself, has many challenges and proved to be equally as challenging for me. Getting started and choosing a topic was/is the most challenging aspect of writing. Once I started, however, the writing seemed to develop a life of its own. Through the pen, I was able to go places where my mind and heart needed to take me. I could take the lead to destinations that were restricted by bodily limitations. I could travel back to my experiences and recall however I wished to. I could put whatever meanings I wanted to those experiences. Once there, where semantics meet genres transcend into a magnificent union of understanding. Is this not worthy of journey?

A beautiful paradox, it (writing) beckons the author like