Research at the intersection of English education, social justice, and Whiteness has established that the ways English teachers engage with language, communication, and literacy development have implications for whether and how K-12 students are prepared equitably for academic opportunities. The problem discussed in this research tends to foreground a racial and cultural disjunction between a predominantly White teaching force and an increasingly racially and culturally diverse student population. As such, extant research often centers on how White teachers and teacher candidates "enact" Whiteness, White Discourses, and White privilege in their classrooms. Critical Pedagogy, Critical Whiteness Studies, and Critical English and Literacy Studies in particular have contributed to a deeper understanding of how English teachers and teacher educators are complicit in re/producing racial and socioeconomic inequality in their schools and classrooms. However, extant theories of Whiteness and White privilege seem to focus on a sort of homogeneity about Whiteness, which seems to assume that enactments of Whiteness and White privilege and the re/production of White Discourses begins and ends with the teachers themselves. This dissertation study seeks to challenge two ideas: 1) That Whiteness is Whiteness is Whiteness, and 2) that English teachers' enacted Whiteness emerges from a place of unchecked ignorance, privilege, or even racism. This study thus foregrounds a more multiple and shifting understanding of Whiteness and how it is enacted, and aims to identify new possibilities for theories of Whiteness, teaching, and education research. Drawing on critical education research and qualitative case study methodology, this dissertation explores the following research questions: How do teachers conceptualize their racialized identities as White people and teachers? In what ways do teachers enact Whiteness? How does Whiteness shape English teachers' practices? What stereotypes about the White teachers are perpetuated in the authoritative Discourses of their schools? Where do the teachers resist and/or negotiate authoritative discourses of Whiteness, and what challenges do they face?
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