A Pedagogy of Anticapitalist Antiracism : Whiteness, Neoliberalism, and Resistance in Education

Argues that the economic system itself is culpable in maintaining our oppressive educational status quo. Through an analysis of whiteness, capitalism, and teacher education, A Pedagogy of Anticapitalist Antiracism sheds light on the current conditions of public education in the United States. We have created an environment wherein market-based logics of efficiency, lowering costs, and increasing returns have worked to disadvantage those populations most in need of educational opportunities that work to combat poverty. This book traces the history of whiteness in the United States with an explicit emphasis on the ways in which the economic system of capitalism functions to maintain historical practices that function in racist ways. Practitioners and researchers alike will find important insights into the ways that the history of white racial identity and capitalism in the United States impact our present reality in schools. Casey concludes with a discussion of “revolutionary hope” and possibilities for resistance to the barrage of dehumanizing reforms and privatization engulfing much of the contemporary educational landscape. “This book is groundbreaking. It stands alone in its sophisticated use and explanation of theory, praxis, and their interrelationship in the field of critical whiteness studies.” — Jeremy N. Price, author of Against the Odds: The Meaning of School and Relationships in the Lives of Six Young African-American Men Contents 8 Prologue 10 Acknowledgments 14 Chapter 1. How My Family and I Became White: Introducing the Task at Hand 16 Introduction 16 My Own Whiteness 20 On Pedagogy 23 On Oppression 23 On Theory and Teacher Education 25 Overview of Subsequent Chapters 27 Conclusion 30 Chapter 2. Freirean Critical Study 32 Why Ideology? 35 Democracy, and the Political Nature of Education 38 Framing 41 Pedagogical Theory versus Theorizing Pedagogy— Difficulties and Limitations 43 Chapter 3. Marx, Marxism, and Me 46 On Class(es) 48 On Alienation and Surplus Labor 49 Use Value and Exchange Value 50 On Production, Labor, and What It Means to Be Human 51 On Commodity Fetishism 53 What Marx Offers Us in the Twenty-first Century 55 On Ideology and False Consciousness 58 On Some Common Criticisms of Marx 60 Marxism in Postmodernity 63 Chapter 4. White Racial Identity in the United States: A Conceptual History 66 The Juridical Construction of Whiteness in the United States 68 Sociohistorical White Racial Identity Development 72 The Science of White Supremacy: Nineteenth and Early-twentieth-century Scholarship on Race 76 Other Defining Historical Moments in the Shaping of White Racial Identity 79 Whiteness as Standpoint: White Racial Identity Presently 81 Chapter 5. The Impossibility of Whiteness: On White Privilege and Race Treason 88 Race Treason: Abolishing the White Race 90 White Privilege: Unpack Your Knapsacks, Racists 92 White Privilege and Race Treason: Misunderstanding Oppression 94 A More Generous Account of White Racial Identity 103 Putting It Together: What a Generous Account of White Racial Identity Enables Pedagogically 108 Summing Up 110 Chapter 6. Whiteness, Nationalism, and Neoliberal Capitalism 114 The (Almost Entirely White) Tea Party 117 On Nationalism and the Nationalist Need for Racial Others 118 The Tea Party Movement’s Whiteness and Nationalism 122 The Romney Candidacy: Neoliberalizing Racio-Nationalism 125 White Capitalist Nationalism 128 Chapter 7. Professionalizing the Teaching Force: Neoliberalism and the Complicity of Teacher Education 134 The Holmes Group and the Carnegie Task Force: The Origins of the Professionalization Movement 136 Formal Rationality, Instrumental Reason, and Positivist Science in Education 140 Milton Friedman, Vouchers, and the Origins of Neoliberal Education 144 Neoliberalism in Education: A Brief Summary 147 Neoliberalism in Teacher Education 151 What about Professionalization? 158 Chapter 8. Anticapitalist Antiracist Pedagogy in the Classroom: A Pedagogical Framework 162 For an Anticapitalist Antiracist Theory of Learning 166 For an Anticapitalist Antiracist Theory of Curriculum 170 For an Anticapitalist Antiracist Theory of Consciousness 172 Anti-Oppressive Education: Anticapitalist Antiracism in/with the Postmodern 176 On Resistant Students 180 Chapter 9. Anticapitalist Antiracist Pedagogy as a Programmatic Vision for Teacher Education 184 Anticapitalist Antiracist Aims for Teacher Education 188 Freirean Themes for Teacher Education: Toward an Anticapitalist Antiracist Teacher Education 190 Dialogue Teaching 191 Critical Literacy 193 Situated Pedagogy 194 Ethnography and Cross-Cultural Communication 196 Change-Agency 197 Inequality in School and Society 198 Performing Skills 199 On Anticapitalist Antiracist Teacher Educators 200 On Hope 202 Notes 206 Bibliography 220 Index 232 Winner of the 2018 Outstanding Book Award presented by the Society of Professors of Education Through an analysis of whiteness, capitalism, and teacher education, A Pedagogy of Anticapitalist Antiracism sheds light on the current conditions of public education in the United States. We have created an environment wherein market-based logics of efficiency, lowering costs, and increasing returns have worked to disadvantage those populations most in need of educational opportunities that work to combat poverty. This book traces the history of whiteness in the United States with an explicit emphasis on the ways in which the economic system of capitalism functions to maintain historical practices that function in racist ways. Practitioners and researchers alike will find important insights into the ways that the history of white racial identity and capitalism in the United States impact our present reality in schools. Casey concludes with a discussion of "revolutionary hope" and possibilities for resistance to the barrage of dehumanizing reforms and privatization engulfing much of the contemporary educational landscape. "Through an analysis of whiteness, capitalism, and teacher education, A Pedagogy of Anticapitalist Antiracism sheds light on the current conditions of public education in the United States. We have created an environment wherein market-based logics of efficiency, lowering costs, and increasing returns have worked to disadvantage those populations most in need of educational opportunities that work to combat poverty. This book traces the history of whiteness in the United States with an explicit emphasis on the ways in which the economic system of capitalism functions to maintain historical practices that function in racist ways. Practitioners and researchers alike will find important insights into the ways that the history of white racial identity and capitalism in the United States impact our present reality in schools. Casey concludes with a discussion of?revolutionary hope? and possibilities for resistance to the barrage of dehumanizing reforms and privatization engulfing much of the contemporary educational landscape."--Back cover