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|\n\nSam Tanner, Penn State Altoona  \nErin Miller, University of North Carolina at Charlotte  \nAbstract  \nThis conceptual framework investigates the symbol of the castle in the American imagination as one site of memory that contributes to white supremacy through childhood play. The authors conceive of long-form improvisation in relation to childhood play to imagine new pedagogical installments that might teach children to resist the hegemonic symbol of the castle.  \nKeywords: whiteness, pedagogy, improvisation, pretend play, castles, early childhood  \nConsider the Castle  \nThis conceptual essay aims to theorize the relationship between castles as sign or text with whiteness. Further, it offers a conceptual approach to a radical form of improvisational, anti-racist critical whiteness pedagogy for children, youth, and adults. We admit that this essay, as a framework, is speculative in design. Still, our theorizing of both the castle as a sign and text and improvisational pedagogy is currently being developed through empirical studies cued by our discussion here.  \nWe begin this theoretical discussion where we first began our conversation about castles, whiteness, and anti-racist pedagogy—on a cold evening in the Fall of 2015 at a small meeting of white critical whiteness scholars.  \nThe goal of this meeting was to share our current research projects, and ask and give feedback and suggestions from the group. Around a dining room table, Erin shared her dissertation research to the collective. Sam listened to Erin talk about her dissertation research—this was the first time we met. Erin had designed a critical ethnography to examine the ways in which her children learned to be white (see Miller, 2015) . Although the connections between whiteness and castles were not explicit, Erin felt that castles and castle narratives were having something to do with her young children’s construction of whiteness. Among other data, Erin shared what her daughter Olivia—she was six at the time—had said during her one of her play episodes with a toy castle:  \nOlivia (6 years old): (singing as she sets sail from the castle) I’m going to ride my horse to Africa, because there is land. I’m going to go, go, go across the ocean. I’m going to go, go across the ocean.  \nCritical Questions in Education 9:2 Summer 2018 85  \nOlivia’splay haunted Erin. How had Erin’s daughter come to imagine that she lived inside a castle? What led Olivia to believe that Africa was a distant place, far away from that castle? What provoked her to ride her horse to Africa?  \nIn another data set, Erin shared photographs of pictures on the walls of her children’s doctor’s office. Each poster contained the image of a European castle. Flags flew from the parapets, the stone structure sat atop rolling hills, and the bricks were painted white. Previously , Erin wouldn’t have noticed the seemingly benign artwork on the wall at her doctor’s office. Now she was studying whiteness and she was curious. How was her daughter’s emerging, white American identity being confounded by connections to Western Europe? Indeed, her daughter’s childhood was adorned with images of English castles. These symbols could be found in television shows and movies. Castles provided settings in picture books, backdrops at doctors’ offices, and seemed to be a major source of inspiration for much child’s play.  \nLike any scholar with an interest in critical literacy, Erin became skeptical of the castle asa text or a symbol. How did the castle intersect with the ways that her daughter was becoming white?  \nErin’s questions resonated with Sam’s desire to better understand how white people are made white in America (see Tanner, 2016; 2017). He could not stop thinking about the castle as a text or sign, laden with meaning. He also began to worry about the relationship between castlesand whiteness.  \nSam was in","cbCaidSeZOuQzhFt","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaidSeZOuQzhFt","pdf",253658,16,"English","# Abstract\n# Consider the Castle\n## Critical Questions in Education 9:2 Summer 2018\n## Playing with Castles (Sam)","[{\"question\":\"How does the essay interpret the castle in children’s play?\",\"answer\":\"The castle is treated as a sign or text tied to whiteness, contributing to white supremacy through childhood play and associated narratives.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the role of improvisation in the authors’ pedagogical approach?\",\"answer\":\"Long-form improvisation is positioned alongside childhood pretend play to imagine pedagogical installments that teach children to resist the hegemonic castle symbol.\"},{\"question\":\"Why do the authors focus on childhood experiences with castles?\",\"answer\":\"They connect personal and observed childhood interactions with castles to questions about how children come to imagine and enact whiteness, including through media and play settings.\"}]","Some Strange Magic - The Disruption of the Whiteness of Castle Play through Improvisation | PDF",1792089627]