The unexamined Whiteness of teaching: how White teachers maintain and enact dominant racial ideologies

Abstract While much research that explores the role of race in education focuses on children of color, this article explores an aspect of the predominately White teaching force that educates them. This article explores findings from a qualitative study that posed questions about the ways in which White pre‐service teachers' life‐experiences influenced understandings of race and difference, and how these pre‐service teachers negotiated the challenges a critical multicultural education course offered those beliefs. In keeping with the tenet of critical race theory that racism is an inherent and normalized aspect of American society, the author found that through previous life‐experiences, the participants gained…