Nice Girls like Us: Confronting White Liberalism in Teacher Education and Ourselves

Author:

White Kristen L.1ORCID,Degener Sophie2ORCID,Tondreau Amy3ORCID,Gardiner Wendy4ORCID,Hinman Tierney B.5ORCID,Dussling Tess M.6,Stevens Elizabeth Y.7,Wilson Nance S.8ORCID

Affiliation:

1. School of Education, Leadership, and Public Service, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI 49855, USA

2. Reading and Language, National Louis University, Chicago, IL 60603, USA

3. Education Department UMBC, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), Baltimore, MD 21250, USA

4. School of Education, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA 98447, USA

5. Department of Curriculum & Teaching, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA

6. Child Study, St. Joseph’s University, Brooklyn, NY 11205, USA

7. Teacher Education, Roberts Wesleyan University, Rochester, NY 14624, USA

8. SUNY Cortland Literacy Department, State University of New York at Cortland, Cortland, NY 10345, USA

Abstract

Niceness includes behaviors such as avoiding conflict or controversial topics, being submissive and people-pleasing, performing teaching as “love” in uncritical ways, accepting deficit perspectives, and upholding patriarchal structures. In the spirit of Niceness, white female teachers often avoid the work of challenging inequitable systems because doing so leaves them vulnerable to being seen as “not nice” or troublemakers. In this article, we interrogate how “niceness” produces and perpetuates inequalities in schooling. In particular, we argue that we, a group of eight white female teacher educators from across the United States, are in positions of leadership, capable of perpetuating or disrupting “niceness” in our pre-service courses. Drawing on scholarship on niceness, femininity, and critical whiteness, we examine our complicity in acts of oppression and how we work to identify and unlearn institutional norms to teach for justice and equity. We share vulnerable moments when we upheld niceness. In doing so, we aim to reveal and explore how socialization into niceness enables our silence, inaction, and misguided action.

Publisher

MDPI AG

Reference40 articles.

1. Castagno, A. (2019). The Price of Nice: How Good Intentions Maintain Educational Inequity, University of Minnesota Press.

2. The trouble with Niceness: How a preference for pleasantry sabotages culturally responsive teacher preparation;Bissonnette;J. Lang. Lit. Educ.,2016

3. Wages of niceness: The folly and futility of educators who strive not to impose;Baptiste;New Horiz. Adult Educ. Hum. Dev.,2008

4. Aggressive and tender navigations: Teacher educators confront whiteness in their practice;Galman;J. Teach. Educ.,2010

5. Equity Advocates Using Equity-Mindedness to Interrupt Faculty Hiring’s Racial Structure;Liera;Teach. Coll. Rec.,2020

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