Chapter 10: When One Door Opens, Another One Closes: Experiences and the Contradictions of Centering Race in Ethnographic Research

In this chapter, I explore the contradictory nature of doing ethnographic research when race is at the center of the research undertaking. Drawing from the insights offered by race-centered theories and fieldwork conducted among four White upper-elementary-grade teachers and me—an African American researcher—I consider how race metaphorically opened and closed doors during my interactions with my participants in the field. When choosing to focus on the ways that race operated during my field-work, I gained insights into the various roles participants expected me to play (Hoffmann, 2007). I argue, however, that the larger racial context in which they occurred influenced these roles.