Layin' it on the line: A duoethnography of anti-racist teachers' praxis-based inquiry

Layin' it on the line: A duoethnography of anti-racist teachers' praxis-based inquiry

Despite the fast-changing education landscape, old and new racisms remain ensconced in school curriculum and pedagogy, concurrently shaping the experiences of both students and teachers, entrenching inequity, and reifying hegemonic dominance. Within the Australian context, such racisms continue to impact First Nations and minority teachers and students alike. In response, this article is a representative case study of the teaching profession, in which two schoolteachers lay claim to undertaking anti-racist work and interrogate critical incidents from their professional praxis. The researchers share Elizabeth Mackinlay’s conceptual struggle to reconcile mixed up personal, professional, political, and pedagogical locations. Their critical interrogation of Australian school-based racialising practices and corresponding antiracist praxis shows relationships between teacher experiences and current education practices and policies. The paper applies duoethnography as method, allowing the researchers to fold in and out of each other’s stories, untangle taken-for-granted assumptions, and disrupt metanarratives. Writing duoethnographically, this article shows an approach to critical and collaborative professional development that is both performative and pedagogical within context-specific exigencies. The researchers identify anti-racist and transformational possibilities of activist and agentic listening, and its pedagogical offerings to inspire ongoing personal, professional, political change both within schools and the academy.