An Investigation of How One White Teacher Facilitates Critical Conversations in a Middle School Classroom

Whiteness, ableism, heteronormativity, misogyny, and capitalist ideologies are deeply ingrained in the society in which young people are being raised. Rather than provide shelter from these realities, schools in the United States often perpetuate and maintain social inequities through ideologies and pedagogies which reinforce oppression and “master scripts” (Ladson-Billings, 1998, p. 18). These scripts, which mute and erase nondominant voices while sanitizing discriminatory histories, harm and further disenfranchise students from marginalized communities. One way teachers can disrupt this status quo is by engaging in conversations with students around issues of power, privilege, oppression, and justice, which Vetter et al., (2018) refer to as critical conversations. However, such critical conversations can be incredibly challenging for teachers to facilitate. This qualitative study asks: (1) What does it look like when one teacher facilitates critical conversations in an eighth-grade humanities classroom? (2) What factors influence this teacher’s pedagogical decision-making as he facilitates critical conversations? To answer these questions, I conducted a single, instrumental case study (Yin, 2018) in which I observed one teacher in his private school classroom. Using qualitative methods, and guided by a sociocultural perspective and a critical literacy framework, I documented the critical conversations that occurred during instruction in a middle school humanities classroom and identified the following findings: intentional use of expansive texts that focus on sociopolitical issues; leaning into/following students’ ideas and contributions; sharing instances of own learning; contextualizing students’ evolving positionalities, identities, and knowledge; orienting students toward systems thinking; centering humanity. Findings from this study offer implications for research, teaching, and teacher education.