Making Sense of Racial Identity: Racial Being or Being Racialized? : Learners’ Journeys Towards Identity Development / edited by Victoria Showunmi.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Showunmi, Victoria, editor.

Series:

Critical Storytelling ; 15.

Educational Research E-Books Online, Collection 2026

Critical Storytelling ; 15

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Children Education.

Education Policy & Politics.

Education.

Social justice.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (450 pages) : illustrations.

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Learners’ Journeys Towards Identity Development

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2026.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

What does it mean to learn while navigating race, identity, and belonging? In this striking collection, students from UCL IOE’s Sociology of Race and Education course—led by Dr Victoria Showunmi—share autobiographical essays exploring assimilation, colourism, passing, cultural appropriation, and double consciousness. With storytelling at its heart, and guided by theories like Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, and Whiteness Studies, these essays reveal how education shapes racial identity across time and place. This volume invites leaders, educators, students or curious readers to reflect, question, and engage with the lived realities of racialised education. Contributors are: Joshua Agyepong, Zahra Alomani, Jo Barber, Esha Bhandari, Anna Brown, Evelyne Carlen, Raiesa Choudhury, Jessica Costa, Avili Feese, Amanda Fernando, Eleanor Garrett, Jill Geary, Sharon Gyimah, Stephen Hancock, Rachel Idowu, Samantha Jacob, Viola Kanu, Vijayakymar Kularetnam, Hannah Lynn, Katherine MacLennan, Elodie Mayo, Victoria Moore, Karishma Patel, Tahmid Rahman, Beatriz Ramirez, Julia Spence, LSW, Annalisea Whyte, Miranda Williams and Michah Wyatt.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Acknowledgements

Figures and Tables

Figures

Tables

Notes on Contributors

Introductory Chapter

Part 1: Multiple Perspectives and Hybridized Identities: Understanding

Introduction to Part 1

Dialogue Box

1. Struggles between the Ethnic and National Identities of Second-Generation Immigrants in the UK

1 Introduction

2 Why Do Immigrants Adopt 'Normative Whiteness?' Bourdieu - Habitus, Field and Cultural Capital

3 My Experience

4 Dulith's Experience

5 The Ethnocentric Curriculum and Its Impact on Immigrant Children's Identity Formation

6 Conclusion

2. Two Homes, One World

2 Family: A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with One Long Flight

3 Torn: When Two Worlds Collide

4 Educator: 'Our Greatest Natural Resource Is the Minds of Our Children' (Disney, n.d.)

5 Chasing Dreams: 'We Got Dreams and We Got the Right to Chase 'em' (Cole, 2013)

3. Shia Muslim and British in London

1 Double Consciousness, Twoness, the Vail

2 Whiteness and Islamophobia

3 Intersectionality

4 Context

5 Critical Incidents

5.1 Navigating Our Identities within the 'English' State School and University Context

5.2 Contrasting Experiences of Sectarian Identity

4. Biracial Identity

2 Intersectionality

2.1 My Racial Intersectionality

3 On My Blackness

3.1 Blackness Rooted in History

3.2 My Relationship to Blackness

4 On My Whiteness

4.1 My Relationship to Whiteness

4.2 On Privilege

5 On Being Biracial

5.1 Duality of Blackness and Whiteness: A Brief History

5.2 My Biracial Identity - on Freedom and Celebrating the In-Between

5. 'Passing' and the Intersectionality of 'Race', Gender and Class in Mexico

1 Understanding Racism in Mexico.

1.1 Whiteness, Privilege and Beauty Standards

1.1.1 Personal Background

1.2 Becoming Aware of 'Race', Class and Gender at the International School and 'Passing'

1.3 Different Settings, Different Perspectives of Class, 'Race' and Gender

1.3.1 About 'Passing'

2 Conclusion

Part 2: Critical Reflections on Whiteness and White Identity

Introduction to Part 2

6. Whitewashing the Blues

1.1 Terminology

1.2 Historical Context

2 Phase 1: A Veil of Ignorance

3 Phase 2: WhiteWashing

3.1 Technique

3.2 Desexualisation

3.3 Pedagogy

3.4 Commodification

4 Phase 3: Modern Day Minstrelsy

5 Phase 4: A New Understanding

7. My Letter to E__

2 My Letter to E-

8. 'If You Don't Know Where You Are Coming from, You Won't Know Where You Are Going'

1.1 Storytelling

1.2 Critical Family History

1.2.1 My Colonial Family Heritage

1.3 Colonialism

1.4 Stories, Orientalism and Post-Colonialism

1.4.1 Naïve Curiosity: My Upbringing and Trip to Senegal

1.4.2 White Guilt as Self-Centred Paralysis

1.4.3 Moving beyond Guilt and Stasis, to Anti-Racist Action

Appendix A

Burna Boy: Another Story ft. M.anifest (2019) lyrics

Appendix B

Photos of My Grandfather in Nigeria (1949-1967)

9. Day by Day Dismantling of Racism

2 Me and White Supremacy

3 Whiteness

4 Helms' White Racial Identity Development (WRID) Model

5 Contact: Increasing Awareness

6 Disintegration: Acknowledgment of Whiteness

7 Reintegration/Pseudo-Independent: Embracing Whiteness/Recognizing Racism

8 Immersion/Emersion: Critical Examination

9 Autonomy: Racial Self-Actualization

10 Reflection

10. Lifting the Weight of Water

2 Background: Race in Malaysia

3 Theoretical Overview.

4 Being Me: Colourless but White

5 Being Me: Becoming 'Indian'

6 Being Me: Becoming Angry &amp

Becoming Informed

7 Being Me: Racing to a New Personhood

Part 3: Navigating and Exploring Whiteness in Life and Schools

Introduction to Part 3

11. Art as a Critical Pedagogy for Anti-Racist Discourse

2 Perspectives from Critical Race Theory and Critical White Studies

3 The Problematics with Whiteness, Gender and Identity

4 Unveiling and Deconstructing Whiteness

5 The Case for Art as a Critical and Anti-racist Pedagogical Tool

6 Artists in the Frame of Anti-racism

7 Conclusion

Appendix 1

Firelei Baez

Appendix 2

Peggy Diggs "Being White"

Appendix 3

Ebony Patterson

Appendix 4

JR

12. The Miseducation of Success

2 Theoretical Framework: Navigating Whiteness

2.1 Critical Race Theory

2.2 Neoliberalism in Education

2.3 Nigrescence Model of Racial Identity Development

2.4 Case Study: Social and Geographical Context - The 'Upper Working Class' Black Family

2.5 Case Study: Educational Success and Racial Identity Development

2.5.1 Pre-encounter at Primary School

2.5.1 Continued Pre-Encounter and "Success" Strategies at Secondary School

3 Encounter and Immersion/Emersion - The Value of Blackness

4 Conclusion

4.1 The Future: Internalisation and Internalisation-Commitment

13. Swiss Pupil/US Student, Swiss Teacher/UK Parent

2 Educational Institution's Eurocentric Curriculum Is Falsely Depicting People of Colour as a Problem for Society

3 Teacher's Unconscious Bias toward Children of Colour May Adversely Affect Their Educational Attainment

4 Disrupting Negative Portrayals of People of Colour and Creating Spaces for Multiple Perspectives in Education

5 Conclusion.

14. Breaking the Silence, Filling the Void

2 Race and Whiteness

3 Being Bangladeshi: The Brown Experience

4 Being Muslim: The Post-9/11 Experience

5 Conclusion

15. Timecodes through Time Zones

2 Timecode - June 25, 1997

3 Race and Survival

4 Timecode - August, 2015

5 Linking: Critical Race Theory, Sophisticated Racism, and White Identity

6 Timecode - September, 2017

7 Who Studies Abroad? Linking Privilege and Accessibility

8 Timecode - September, 2021

9 Whiteness in Japan and "Race" in Japanese Education

10 Timecode - July, 2023

11 Critical Whiteness Studies and Thinking Forward

Part 4: From Resistance to Resilience: Deconstructing Structural Racism

Introduction to Part 4

1 Voices of Resilience: A Tapestry of Resistance

16. Taking off the Mask, I Wear

2 Fake It until You Make It

2.1 Being Black and Poor

2.2 Strategic Assimilation and Code Switching

2.3 Racial Identity-Based Impression Management

3 Work Wig

3.1 Slavery, 'Good Hair' and Resistance

3.2 Optimal Distinctiveness Theory and My Work Wig

17. I am More Than Just "The Black Girl"

1 Invisibility

2 Resilience

3 Lost Identity

18. Afternoons with Super Girl

2 Critical Race Theory and Critical Race Feminism in Education

3 Identity Memos

3.1 Identity - Identity Memo #1

4 Identifying Super-Girl

4.1 White-Positionality - Identity Memo #2

4.2 Negotiating Power in the Classroom

4.3 Transitions, Safety and Power - Identity Memo #3

4.4 Afternoons with Super Girl - Identity Memo #4

19. An Autobiographical Narrative on White Supremacy and Capitalism

2 Theoretical Framework

3 Contextualisation

4 Autoethnography

4.1 Miseducation.

4.2 Primary School Encounters

4.3 Secondary School Marginalisation

4.4 University Emersion

20. Racialised Me

2 Theoretical Framework: Intersectionality

3 Black Feminism

4 Critical Race Theory (CRT)

5 School Context

5.1 Critical Incident One

5.2 Critical Incident Two

5.3 Critical Incident Three

21. A Critical Reflection on How Teacher Training Affected My Racial Identity

1 A Critical Lens

1.1 Whiteness and the Other

1.2 Stereotyped Model Minority

1.3 School Placement

1.4 Withdrawal

2 Institutionalised Issue

3 Challenging Racism through Teacher Training

4 Concluding Thoughts-My Current Teaching Practice

Part 5: Decolonising the Curriculum and Re-educating Mindsets

Introduction to Part 5

Development Questions

22. A Reflection on Race and Education

1.1 The Quasi-Market

2 Self-reflection

3 Parental Involvement

4 Theoretical Framework

5 The Latch-Key Kids: A Culture Which Shapes Perceptions of Black Boys

6 Reflection Questions

23. Navigating My Way through a White Educational Setting from a Young Black Girl

1 Critical Race Theory and Other approaches

2 Colourism Conflict: Early Childhood to Late Teens

3 Black European? Black African? Black Other

4 Race in My Career and the Curriculum

5 Current Affairs

6 Concluding Thoughts

24. To What Extent Do School Uniforms Contribute to the Sexual

1 Parameters

2 Terminology

2.1 Theoretical Frameworks

3 Social Constructionism

4 Black Feminism

5 An Overview of Contemporary Understandings of Black Girls' Experiences of Sexual Harassment

6 The Gendered Pedagogy of School Uniforms

7 Racialised Sexualisation of School Uniforms.

8 Assessing the Impact of Normalised Racial, Sexual Harassment during Formative Years.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

90-04-75135-1

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004751354 DOI