Ignite some agency: how teaching assistants engage whiteness at a South African university
Journal cover Society Register, volume 6, no. 1, year 2022
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Keywords

Discourse analysis
whiteness
racism
critical whiteness studies

How to Cite

Conradie, M. S. (2022). Ignite some agency: how teaching assistants engage whiteness at a South African university. Society Register, 6(1), 19–40. https://doi.org/10.14746/sr.2022.6.1.02

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Abstract

Decolonial scholarship, although multifaceted, includes questioning how abstract theorisations could concretely reform department-specific pedagogies. This study builds on the proposition that decolonisation is served, at least partially, by department-specific pedagogies that oppose whiteness. It is grounded in a Department of English at a historically-white South African university. Using critical whiteness studies (CWS), I launch a discourse analysis of the experiential narratives expressed by Teaching Assistants during individual interviews. CWS equips me to examine how these contractually-employed educators manage their intersectional subjectivities as they facilitate small-group discussions among undergraduates in support of professors’ official lectures. I focus on their reactions to the way students explore experiences of subordination.

https://doi.org/10.14746/sr.2022.6.1.02
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