Learning and Teaching While White
Learning and Teaching While White
Antiracist Strategies for School Communities
By Jenna Chandler-Ward and Elizabeth Denevi
We need to name whiteness, in order to move toward antiracism.
For too long, white educators have relied on people of color to make change to a relentlessly racist school system. Racial equity will not come until white educators recognize their role in supporting racist policies and practices, and take responsibility for dismantling them.
Learning and Teaching While White is an accessible guide to help white educators, leaders, students, and parents develop an explicit, skills-based antiracist practice. Through their own experiences working with school communities, and the strategies and tools they have developed, Jenna Chandler-Ward and Elizabeth Denevi share how white educators can gain greater consciousness of their own white racial identity; analyze the role of whiteness in their school systems; rethink pedagogical approaches and curricular topics; address the role of white parents in the pursuit of racial literacy and equity; and much more. Their book will empower white educators to be part of creating a more equitable educational system for all students.
“Learning and Teaching While White is the book educators need right now”
“Learning and Teaching While White is the book educators need right now. As reactionary forces seek to stifle equity efforts in schools and intimidate teachers from discussing race, Jenna Chandler-Ward and Elizabeth Denevi have provided an indispensable and practical guide for teachers who know the importance of this work but are uncertain of how to do it. A must-read for all who care about racial equity, the creation of white antiracist solidarity, and the future of America.”
—Tim Wise, antiracist educator, author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race From A Privileged Son
“This book will equip white educators for their job. If our educators had this outstanding racial literacy toolkit, it would have defogged the racial lies we grew up with and urged us all to reconsider our responsibilities toward each other. It would have altered the trajectory of our time in US K–12 schools.”
—Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi, cofounders of CHOOSE and authors of Tell Me Who You Are
“Yes! A nuanced and accessible resource for white teachers who have consistently asked, ‘What do I do?’”
“What readers find when they open Learning and Teaching While White is a path to becoming a racially aware white educator. The work may be introspectively challenging, but readers will leave personally and professionally fulfilled. This is not a book, it is a critical, personal exploration of self and system that the authors carefully scaffold to enhance the skill of white educators, both as teachers and as humans.”
—Dr. Eddie Moore Jr., Founder, The White Privilege Conference
“Yes! A nuanced and accessible resource for white teachers who have consistently asked, ‘What do I do?’ This excellent resource answers that question, from two highly experienced white teachers who have been engaged in the work of antiracist practice for decades. This is an essential guidebook that needs to be on every white teacher’s shelf.”
—Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility and Nice Racism