White Mothers of Biracial Sons and Daughters in U.S. Schools: Colliding, Colluding, and Contending with White Privilege
Jennifer Little, a Ph.D. candidate in the Leadership for the Advancement of Learning and Service program at Cardinal Stritch University, is looking to build out her list of mothers to interview for her dissertation—which is titled “White Mothers of Biracial Sons and Daughters in U.S. Schools: Colliding, Colluding, and Contending with White Privilege”
The purpose of this study is to collect and examine descriptions and portrayals from White mothers of biracial sons and daughters of their interactions with the teachers and principals who work at the public schools in the United States (US) that their children attend. The research questions are:
- What common discourse components are contained in their descriptions?
- How do the location differences among the mothers play a role? How do mothers who live in locations where the majority of residents self-identify as White compare to locations where the majority of the residents are not White?
- How do the mothers’ depictions of the interactions compare to the teachers’ and principals’ portrayals?
A critical discourse analysis approach is planned for examining the descriptions provided by the study participants. The study will interview White mothers of biracial sons and daughters attending public schools across the US. In order to support triangulation, interviews or focus groups with teachers and principals will also be conducted. All the interviews and focus groups will be video recorded. The analysis of the data collected will be completed by reviewing the videos.
If you or someone you know would like to participate in her study, or if you have questions please contact her via e-mail.
She plans to start the interviewing phase in January 2013. She plans to travel to several metropolitan areas around the United States to conduct the interviews. She also plans to video record the interviews for use in a documentary. Some interviews she may need to do via the internet.