Investigating Intersectionality and Uncovering my Niceness as a Student Creates Space to Explore Oppression and Privilege

Investigating the concept of intersectionality by examining how the marginalization or privilege of our identities is essential to multicultural education. This narrative self-study documents the experience of a white, middle-aged female educator and a diverse group of students in a multicultural education class as they unpack their identities, marginalization, and privilege in society. Through reflection, research, and conversations with my critical friend, I found that I was using niceness, a form of white privilege, to justify using my power to shut down uncomfortable conversations and avoid challenging situations in my personal life. I also discovered that I was struggling to work through the effects of gender roles on my educational career. Lastly, I found that through this questioning, the students were role-modeling how to interrogate privilege and marginalization.