Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Whiteness and Education

Publication Date

2-2025

Keywords

Elementary literacy, whiteness, affect, datafication, narrative inquiry

Abstract

Elementary literacy education policy continues to centre intensified use of standardised testing in the early elementary grades across the United States. The increase of datafication in schooling works to establish a surveillance system in schools. Including analysis through the lenses of Foucauldian disciplinary power and critical whiteness studies, this qualitative article examines teacher narratives from five white elementary literacy teachers. Through these narratives, these teachers share their lived experiences in navigating school reforms involving increased datafication. Findings highlight the affective technologies and colonial discursive constructions white teachers employed through this surveillance and how literacy and literacy teaching were shaped through the polic(y)ing of literacy and literacy teaching as something to be administered. Implications include concrete considerations for teaching, teacher/administrator education, research, and policy.

Funding Source

This article was published Open Access thanks to a transformative agreement between Milner Library and Taylor & Francis.

Comments

First published in Whiteness and Education: https://doi.org/10.1080/23793406.2025.2472385

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.

DOI

10.1080/23793406.2025.2472385

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