UUPer Dave Iasevoli was surprised to hear Adirondack natives commonly use phrases like “Hebe” and “chocolate people” to describe individuals who are Jewish and of African decent.

As coordinator of the master’s in education program at SUNY Plattsburgh’s branch campus at Adirondack Community College in Queensbury, Iasevoli wondered: What does race mean to white teachers in rural areas, where it is rare to encounter people of different races and ethnicities?

A fair question, considering his firsthand experiences.

“Back when my wife and I took long weekends or vacations in the Adirondacks, our neighbor shared his sentiments about ‘city people’ and ‘Hebes,’” Iasevoli said. “Once, when my wife and I were visiting the apartment he rented from us, one of his friends asked, ‘So, which f^#@$% Hebe owns this place?’ My wife answered, ‘Well, that would be me.’

“That incident, and those comments, drove home the difficulty of bridging cultural differences.”

He used this and other personal encounters to encourage the teachers-to-be in his Intro to Comparative Education course to examine the racial and cultural biases that exist in the U.S., particularly in New York’s north country region. And, once recognizing biases do exist, he asked his students to consider if people of the dominant culture can fairly and accurately teach children from outside that culture.

The answer: Not yet, but there is hope.

To that end, Iasevoli suggests “that all upcoming teachers, from all backgrounds, be required to complete at least one field-work experience, or student-teaching placement, in a classroom where they are ‘the other.’”

Iasevoli shared the results of his pedagogy in a short essay, published in the fall 2009 issue of the National Education Association’s academic journal, Thought & Action. His essay, “‘A World of White and Snowy Scents:’ Teaching Whiteness,” earned him the NEA Excellence in the Academy/Art of Teaching Award. He received a plaque and a $2,500 honorarium during the recent AFT/NEA Higher Education Joint Conference in San Jose, Calif.

The title of his winning essay comes from a line in Wallace Stevens’ poem: “Still one would want more, one would need more/More than a world of White and snowy scents.”

Go to www.nea.org/home/37170.htm to read the full essay.

“When I first received word of the honor, I was stunned—that my personal and localized essay had been read with such regard,” Iasevoli said. “Then, when I met the Thought & Action review panel and fellow union members at the San Jose conference, the sense of solidarity moved me. I am so proud to belong.”

Iasevoli is currently working on a book on the history of education in New York state prisons. He has begun interviewing 25 incarcerated men to piece together oral histories of their schooling. It is tentatively titled Somewhat More Free: Histories of Prison Education, referencing a line from the Langston Hughes poem “Theme for English B.”

— Karen L. Mattison