ABSTRACT
This essay by Jane Chi Hyun Park and Sara Tomkins, published in 2021, describes the experiences of two women teachers with different racial and cultural backgrounds, Korean American and white Anglo Australian, involved with teaching a class ‘Representing Race and Gender’ to undergraduate students at the University of Sydney. The class and the essay focus particularly on the challenges of teaching about whiteness and white privilege in relation to the teachers’ own racial backgrounds and that of their students. After giving some context to the course and its development and explaining the relationship between the two authors as educators and colleagues, Park and Tomkins focus on their pedagogy and practices during the week in which they focus on whiteness and their aftermath. In particular, the paper explores affect and embodiment in their classroom experiences, discussions of white guilt and ‘whitesplaining’, and the roles of various students, including students of colour in the classroom, noting the different experiences of students based on their racialised backgrounds, as well as on who their teacher is and their teacher’s pedagogy and background. This article is noteworthy for taking an intersectional approach to the challenges faced in Australia related to race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and other issues, and for its strong narrative style which creatively bends the rules for academic article publication, particularly through its use of a dialogical format.
