In this response to Stephen Brookfield's "Why White Instructors Should Explore Their White Racial Identity" (EJ1246146), Edith Gnanadass writes her response from the point of view of an adult educator with a multiplicity of identities in her critique of Brookfield's concept by going beyond his call for reflection of one's own whiteness.…

What is "Creole"? The textbook answer is that the word derives from the Portuguese "crioulo" or Spanish "criollo," from the verb "to create." The term developed out of the colonial experience, and was used as a way to identify those people and things born in the New World from Old World stock. Hence, second generation French or Spanish colonial…

According to the national study conducted by Cochran-Smith & Fries (2005), the majority of teacher candidates in the U.S. are White middle-class women. While those from the U.S. who become TESOL teachers are also primarily White middle-class women, given the global demand for English, there is also a sizable number of TESOL teachers from…

This paper addresses the growing interest among social scientists in studying the experiences of so-called mixed-race (or multiracial, biracial, or mixed heritage) individuals, when the study of multiraciality risks reinforcing the notion of fixed races. Distinguishing mixed-race people as a category assumes that there are pure races to begin with…

Multiracial people of Asian descent, like most marginalized peoples, live along the borders of "passing," and not passing, for White. When Asian American multiracial people can express the full range of their humanity without boundaries of race, the debate about "passing" will become obsolete. (SLD)

This document is taken from a workshop presentation focusing on the identity development of biracial children. The confusion of the academic community concerning this topic is emphasized. Three main aspects are examined: (1) "What is the identity process of any child?"; (2) "What is society?"; and (3) "How does society…