The paradoxical nature of whiteness-at-work in the daily life of schools and teacher communities

US public schools produce persistent, racially-based inequities in educational opportunity and attainment. These institutional outcomes may be related to the fact that the schooling of low-income students and students of color is shaped, overwhelmingly, by middle-class white women teachers, who have relatively higher levels of privilege than, and certainly wield authority over, their students. In this case study, I follow a teacher study group made up of white women intent on addressing equity issues in their own school and observe what the study group addresses and how it operates. I utilize critical discourse analysis to elaborate ways in which whiteness is enacted in the study group and how that professional culture is also evident in one participating teacher’s classroom. This article focuses on discursive strategies that create paradoxes among teachers’ beliefs, intentions, and actions. I call these discursive paradoxes ‘whiteness-at-work’ and discuss the mechanics and implications of whiteness-at-work in elementary schools and classrooms. Thus, the article offers a look at how whiteness is collectively constructed by multiple players, in real time and despite educators’ best intentions. This construction has implications for students’ learning experiences, a school’s professional culture, and outcomes that reify institutional inequities.