Lives Inside a North Georgia Elementary School

228 Pages·2016·1.25 MB·English

Georgia Southern University
Digital
UNTOLD STORIES AND SILENCED VOICES:
LIVES INSIDE A NORTH GEORGIA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

by
DONNA S. TROUPE

(Under the direction of Ming Fang He)
ABSTRACT
This is an inquiry into the lived experiences of Southern, white, female
teachers who teach their overwhelmingly Southern, white student populations in a
rural/suburban North Georgia elementary school. I explore the obstacles and
challenges they face as they experience the negative and crippling effects of the
policies and practices forced upon them in their teaching and learning
environments. Drawing upon the theoretical works of Dyer (1997), McIntosh
(2012), Anderson & Collins (2007), Morrison (1992), Jupp (2013), Sleeter (1993,
2003), Smith (1944,1949), and hooks (1992) on race and critical white studies;
the works of Apple (2001,2008), McLaren (1998), Foucault (1977), Freire (1970),
Ayers (2004, 2006), Giroux (2009, 2010), and Macedo (2006) on critical social
justice in education; and Whitlock (2007, 2013), Weiss (2005), Fine (1992, 2005),
Villaverde (2008), Tochluk (2010), Miller (1980, 1992), Cobb (2005), Hoelseher
(2003), and Walker (1997) on white female identities, Southern identities and
cultures, I narrate the lived reality of the challenges and hindrances in teachers’
and students’ experiences that perpetuate injustices and inequalities in a public
elementary school.
The methodology I utilize in this study is based primarily on school
portraiture (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997). In addition, I embrace the works
of Schubert and Ayers (1992) on teacher lore, Clandinin and Connelly (2000) on
narrative inquiry and storytelling, He and Phillion (2008) on
personal~passionate~participatory inquiry, along with elements of autobiography
and biography (Miller, 2005; Grumet, 1988) and (Barone, 2007; Lather, 1991,
Benson & Anderson, 1989, Spring, 2013, Saye, 2002; Smith, 1944). The
narratives presented use fictionalized composite characters acting out common,
real, autobiographical, and biographical experiences that have been woven into
fictional stories representing everyday concerns and challenges observed and
expressed by teachers and students. The resulting vignettes purposefully aim to
represent the dominant contradictions and constraints that teachers and students at
an elementary school, a rarely viewed venue, express from their perspective.
This inquiry illustrates the common threads of injustices, struggles,
roadblocks, hindrances, and challenges that block teachers and students from
reaching their full potential. Several major meanings have been made out of my
inquiry. Since the current climate of the ever-increasing pressure to raise
achievement and the demand of standardization in schools depreciates teachers
and students and incites their fears, public schools desperately need spaces in
which the root causes of these fears are exposed, the negative effects on students
and teachers is examined, and a more trusting and encouraging alternative is
2
created. The hegemony influenced by Southern cultures and values perpetuates a
patriarchal structure that affects how the female populations in elementary schools
act, how others perceive them, and how they are treated professionally and
personally. Those female students and teachers, particularly those who are praised
for being good, submissive, and quiet, and who do not dare to question the power
structure, are in turn unknowingly pushed to participate in the oppressive
injustices that continue in schools today.
Counterstories of elementary teachers and students challenge the dominant
narratives of power and hegemony, particularly the stereotypical views of
teachers and students experiencing frustrations and injustices perpetuated by
current oppressive policies and practices in our schools and societies. It is of
paramount importance to create spaces for educators, administrators, policy
makers, and the public to listen to the counternarratives from teachers and
students, challenge stereotypical images imposed upon them, hear their voices and
concerns, feel their struggles and frustrations, and recognize the root causes of
narrow, unfair and frustrating policies and practices on the education of our
children in schools and societies. Teachers and students, along with parents, the
community, administrators, other educators, policy makers, and all others
involved in the education of our society, must make a conscientious choice to hear
the voices of the oppressed and question the purposes and aims of education for
our children in today’s schools. They should work together to expose and negate
the forces that are currently destroying opportunities for unlimited possibility and
freedom for creative potential that all children deserve to experience and fight
3
back the evil force of standardization and comodification of schooling and create
inspiring learning environments where our children have equitable opportunities
to reach their highest potential (Siddle Walker, 1996).

INDEX WORDS: School Portraiture, Fictional Narrative, Southern Identity,
Critical Southern Studies, Teacher Lore, Curriculum Studies, White Privilege,
Southern Female Teachers, Counternarratives
4
UNTOLD STORIES AND SILENCED VOICES:
LIVES INSIDE A NORTH GEORGIA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
by
DONNA S. TROUPE

B. S., Middle Tennessee State University, 1982
M. Ed., University of West Georgia, 1989
Ed. S., University of West Georgia, 1994

A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of
Georgia Southern University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Degree

DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
STATESBORO, GEORGIA
2014

5
© 2014
DONNA TROUPE
All Rights Reserved

6
UNTOLD STORIES AND SILENCED VOICES:
LIVES INSIDE A NORTH GEORGIA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

by
DONNA S. TROUPE

Major Professor: Ming Fang He
Committee: Daniel Chapman
James Jupp
William Schubert

Electronic Version Approved:
Fall 2014
7
DEDICATION

To Joseph,
Thank you for learning how to vacuum, clean toilets, do laundry, and generally
fend for yourself. I will forever appreciate the sacrifices you made to help me
achieve my goal. I love you now more than ever, and eternally. You now have
permission to talk again!

To Kathy and Ellen,
Thank you for teaching me how to steer a stubborn luggage cart and how to make
a stationary elevator move. I will forever value our pithy conversations on I-75
and I-16.

To my family and friends,
Thank you for your love, prayers, and understanding during all the times I had to
say, “I can’t. I have to study.” It’s over! I look forward to many fulfilling days
with you A.D.! (After Dissertation!)

8
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To my “Dream Team”
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Ming Fang He. It has been a
great honor to have you as my advisor and committee chair. You have surely
made your father proud. Your unwavering commitment to your students, your
labor of love and learning, and your unending inspiration provided me with the
invaluable encouragement and guidance I needed to complete my studies
successfully. Thank you for being accessible despite your many important
obligations, and taking the time to care. I am forever grateful.

I would like to thank Dr. Daniel Chapman, Dr. James Jupp, and Dr. William
Schubert for their willingness to serve on my committee. I greatly appreciate your
guidance, feedback, inspiration, and encouragement during this academic
endeavor. It was a great honor to work with each of you, and to be in a room with
such vast and diverse experience and expertise. You made this academic journey
an overwhelmingly awesome experience! I appreciate each one of you.

I would also like to thank Dr. William Reynolds for the respect shown to our
cohort during the first eye-opening class in the program. Looking back, I imagine
we must have provided much dinner conversation entertainment that semester!
Thank you for your respect. I will aspire to follow your example of respect
always.
9