Norming Suburban: How Teachers Talk About Race Without Using Race Words

This study explores teachers' beliefs about urban students and urban teaching. The author discusses some cultural aspects of these teachers' definitions of urban and points out their highlighting of race as an essential component of urban teaching. Even though race is rarely named, it is often at play in the teachers' descriptions of urban teaching. The author introduces the phenomenon of norming suburban and demonstrates that implicit beliefs about teaching students of color dominate these teachers' definitions and descriptions of urban teaching.