Embracing <i>The Both/And</i>: Learning from the Lived Experiences of White Facilitators of Racial Equity Workshops

This study focuses on the lived experiences of seasoned White facilitators of racial equity workshops to understand how they navigate the complexity of occupying a White racial identity while working to challenge the belief systems of white supremacy ingrained in themselves and others. Through applying Critical Race Theory as a framework to grounded theory methodology, this study examined whiteness as a sensitizing concept in micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis, situating this dissertation in the theoretical exploration of the multifaceted and pervasive nature of whiteness. Much of the research on racial equity work examines White participants in nascent stages of engagement, concentrating on the external behavior and impact of White race talk during conversations about race and racism. Applying dimensional analysis to 18 in-depth interviews of White facilitators, whose experience in racial equity work ranged from 7 to over 30 years, this study identified two co-core, interrelated dimensions of engaging on a learning journey to embrace the both/and. In addition to these co-core dimensions, four primary dimensions depicting the phenomenon of whiteness emerged from the findings: colluding with whiteness, stirring whiteness, unraveling whiteness, and interrupting whiteness. Through analysis of these findings, this study presents four theoretical propositions and a theoretical model representing variations of the social processes White facilitators move through to interrupt whiteness in themselves and others. The methodological exploration used in this study provides an opportunity to explore the fullness of what it means to be White and engage in racial equity efforts, potentially contributing to the literature on utilizing grounded theory as a process to explore social justice efforts. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).