Challenging Whiteness: The Experiences of White Students in a Diversity Class

In the study, I explore – 1) how white students experience space and emotions in a race-based diversity classroom, and 2) how they incorporate the course material into their daily lives outside of the classroom. The study takes a mixed methods approach to studying the experiences of white students in a particular race-based diversity course through observing their interactions and behavior in the classroom and interviewing 11 students, nine of which were white. The results of this study indicated that the racial demographics of the community in which the white students grew up in and white student’s racial identity development affected both their experience in the classroom and how they integrated racial knowledge into their personal lives