"Some are way left, like this guy, gloria ladson-billings": Resistance, conflict, and perspective taking in teachers' discussions of multicultural education

This study investigated the interactive positions and discourse strategies of participants in a graduate seminar for 18 literacy teachers. Intertextual positions were revealed through written and spoken discourse and demonstrated that participants used a range of discourse strategies for conflict avoidance or avoidance of further examination of tensions. Although participants sometimes expressed doubts, disagreements, or contradictions, these conflicts were seldom dealt with directly. In particular, participants used the following strategies to avoid deeper engagement with issues: (a) doing school, (b) playing the White guilt card, (c) asking a question to make a statement, (d) exaggerating, (e) expressing overconfidence, (f) expressing lack of knowledge, and (g) playing politics.