This research aims to study the potential prevalence of white fragility among educators at Williamston Community Schools (WCS). White fragility is "a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves." While some of these defensive moves are outwardly violent, like the events at the 2017 rally in Charlottesville, others are much more inconspicuous and commonly manifest in school environments. In recent years, members of the social science community have thoroughly labeled and explicated white fragility's six primary psychological factors. These factors include segregation, individualism, racial comfort, arrogance, psychic freedom, and racial belonging (DiAngelo, 2011). However, few studies have investigated to what degree these factors are exhibited in schools and specifically among teachers. Due to the complexity of teaching in its relation to power and cultural authority, it is essential to understand and strengthen what social frailties teachers have regarding race before implementing any racialized pedagogy (Choi, 2008). Racialized pedagogy can be categorized into culturally responsive, non-racist, and anti-racist based on its passiveness level when rejecting forms of racism in the classroom (Knowles & Hawkman 2019). This research aims to investigate WCS teachers' perceived self-efficacy of engaging in racialized teaching practices in addition to exploring the potential pervasiveness of white fragility.
By specifically studying the self-efficacy and exhibition of white fragility, if any, among teachers at WCS, I am anticipating to heighten the awareness of racial fragility and its emotional impact on people of color amongst predominantly white school staff. Additionally, if my data displays a majority of WCS educators having a positively perceived self-efficacy, implementing a racialized pedagogy will be much more plausible. Enacting pedagogy like this would provide students in the Williamston Community School system the opportunity to engage in studies that acknowledge both the unique racial identity of each student and the social and institutional inequalities of our nation.
This research is a cross-sectional study on the potential prevalence of ideological traces of white fragility among WCS teachers and their variance by gender and years of teaching experience. Before collecting any data, consent forms will be sent and signed by all teachers agreeing to participate in the study. To conduct my research, I will use a Google Form survey. The survey will be composed of scale-based questions (acquired from critical quantitative research by Ryan T. Knowles and Andrea M. Hawkman) relating to white fragility and racialized teaching self-efficacy. The white fragility questions will include a statement exemplifying one of the white fragility factors, followed by a scale of 1-5 (Strongly Disagree-Strongly Agree). Participants will mark the level of agreement they feel with the statement. The questions relating to teachers' perceived self-efficacy of implementing a racialized pedagogy will present a teaching practice and then ask participants to indicate on a 1-5 scale (Very Not Confident-Very Confident) how confident they are in their ability to engage in the practice. In total, there will be 25-35 questions, and the survey should take no longer than ten minutes to complete. The survey will also ask each participant to state their gender and years of teaching experience to uncover possible relationships between these variables and their scores. Participants' scores will consist of each question's scale rating score, the averages of scores within the white fragility and self-efficacy categories, and total average scores for the white fragility and self-efficacy sections.
Prior research suggests that because white people in the United States live in a social environment that insulates them from race-based stress, 100% of white Americans possess and exhibit white fragility forms. By way of hypothesis testing, I will compare this proportion with the proportion of WCS teachers who display white fragility (i.e., answer one or more white fragility questions with a score of 4 or 5) to conclude whether or not white fragility exists among WCS educators. Similarly, I will use hypothesis testing to compare the results between male and female educators and new and experienced educators.
