Making Race: Examining the Power of Local Place in Teacher Discourse in Mauritius

Authors

  • Elsa Wiehe Currently unaffiliated

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18251/ijme.v21i2.1753

Keywords:

context-specific education, racism, place, local, discourse

Abstract

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.

 

Author Biography

Elsa Wiehe, Currently unaffiliated

Elsa Wiehe received a B.A. from Macalester College in Elementary Education and German Studies, an M.A. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Bilingual, ESL, and Multicultural Education, and an Ed.D. in Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies with a concentration in Language, Literacy, and Culture. She was an ESL and French teacher in elementary and secondary schools in Southern Austria and worked as an international educational consultant in the monitoring and evaluation of a large- scale program on gender and education in West and Southern Africa. Dr. Wiehe has conducted research in her home country of Mauritius on teacher discourse, colonial legacies of racism, and place-based education. Her current research interests include critical pedagogy strategies & community exchange methodologies to connect teachers to the contexts they teach in.

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Published

2019-07-08

How to Cite

Wiehe, E. (2019). Making Race: Examining the Power of Local Place in Teacher Discourse in Mauritius. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 21(2), 45–63. https://doi.org/10.18251/ijme.v21i2.1753

Issue

Section

Articles (Peer-reviewed)