The whiteness agenda: a trans* of color critique for portraiture and autotheory as learning sciences discourse

The world and learning sciences are at a critical point in history, especially in the US. Recent political fascism and discriminations are rooted in the Trump administration’s governance. Colored and Black trans* bodies remain the center of these attacks through executive orders that attempt to erase the history and livingness of these experiences. I present the whiteness agenda to describe a political process in which coloredness, Blackness, and transness are vilified through executive orders that aim to erase and present a skewed narrative of US history. I draw on Gill-Peterson’s and Salas-SantaCruz’s postulations on a trans* of color critique to capture this representation with learning scientists’ discourse on politics and power in learning environments to delineate the hegemony of current US political fascism. I then position two methods as agency and emancipatory discourse for learning scientists engaged in critical work that centers colored and Black trans* bodies: portraiture and autotheory.