Open AccessMaking Race: Examining the Power of Local Place in Teacher Discourse in Mauritius
Author(s) -
Elsa Wiehe
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
international journal of multicultural education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.472
H-Index - 16
ISSN - 1934-5267
DOI - 10.18251/ijme.v21i2.1753
Subject(s) - racialization , sociology , ethnography , race (biology) , power (physics) , power structure , discourse analysis , space (punctuation) , gender studies , critical race theory , critical ethnography , pedagogy , anthropology , linguistics , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics
Teaching to students’ local experiences is a tenet of good teaching in many contexts. This study explores the ways eight educators use local meanings in discourse. Through ethnographic work in an elementary school in the township of Roche-Bois, Mauritius, I examine teachers’ words about students’ localities. Articulating critical discourse analysis with theories of space, I evaluate whether teachers’ place-based meanings perpetuate or transform long-standing historical patterns of racialization associated with the town. The analysis identifies how processes of racialization take shape through place-based discourse. I draw implications for a critical pedagogy of the local to support decolonizing teacher knowledge.