Research in the Teaching of English Nov 2015

“We Always Talk About Race”: Navigating Race Talk Dilemmas in the Teaching of Literature

Ebony Elizabeth Thomas University of Pennsylvania

Abstract

There is considerable confusion in contemporary society when it comes to talking about race.Because of this confusion, race talk in schools can be fraught with difficulty, leading to problematic conversations, disconnections, and ultimately student disengagement. While studies in psychology, sociology, and linguistics have considered the role of race in discourse, there have been fewer of these investigations in English education, especially research on the teaching of literature. This article looks closely at the classroom talk of two veteran English teachers’ one an African American man, the other a White woman’ in a racially diverse high school, showing how teachers employ different strategies to navigate similarly fraught conversations. Taking an interactional ethnographic approach, I demonstrate ways that conversations about race that emerged from literature units in both classrooms opened up opportunities for some students to participate, while constraining and excluding others. The results of the study revealed that the two teachers navigated these dilemmas through tactical and strategic temporary alignments of actions and discourse, but in both classes, silence and evasion characterized moments of racial tension. As a growing number of researchers and teacher educators provide workshops and materials for teachers interested in classroom discourse studies, supporting new and experienced teachers’ investigations in this area may ultimately prove fruitful not only for teaching and learning, but also for race relations.

Journal
Research in the Teaching of English
Published
2015-11-01
DOI
10.58680/rte201527600
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
discourse analysis teacher development qualitative research race and writing
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Kelly (2025)
    That Which We Have Left Behind: Developing Critical Sociohistorical Literacies …
    Research in the Teaching of English
  2. Chávez-Moreno (2022)
    The Continuum of Racial Literacies: Teacher Practices Countering Whitestream Bi…
    Research in the Teaching of English

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