Dismantling My White Savior Mentality as an Educator

Before reading this post on my personal journey, I recommend first reading my previous post, Coaching Out a Teacher’s Savior Mentality, where I explain what a white savior mentality is and tools for leaders and coaches to address it with teachers.  The first step in addressing a teacher’s savior mentality is doing the work on ourselves first, and the previous post includes a number of questions for guiding self-reflection.  Here I share more about my own process to see and dismantle my own white savior complex as a motivation in becoming an educator.  


Why did you become a teacher? 

Recently, in an effort to build connections on a leadership team, a colleague asked a question that she expected all of us to answer: “What motivated you to become a teacher?” My honest answer is that eighteen years ago, I had a tangle of motivations, but one key motivation that I have spent years unraveling was my white savior mentality.  

The savior mentality that I had grew out of American culture that fed me racist and deficient-oriented messages about Black, brown, and poor people and encouraging messages of “kind” white people lending a helping hand.  A few examples: I loved the movie Dangerous Minds when it came out in the 90’s and my college admissions essay was about a short term mission trip I took to Costa Rica in high school.  Both my lived experiences and ones I saw in the media and film reinforced in me a positive image of (most often) white, privileged people helping out the “less well-off.” Once I had a college degree in hand and a spot in Teach for America, every message I had received growing up about white people’s desirable role in helping poor students of color was affirmed in my first job teaching at a school in North Philadelphia. 

How did a savior mentality show up in the classroom?

When I started teaching, I entered the classroom with a number of problematic mindsets (tangled with some positive ones as well, which I mention more below) rooted in a white savior mentality.  First, I saw myself as trying to help or “save” kids who didn’t have much from their communities and poor choices.  One major problem with this thinking is that it was deficient-oriented, which trained me to look for short-comings, lack, and even violence, instead of assets in students, their communities and their cultures. 

Second, I told myself, “Kids everywhere just want to be loved,” assuming that my “love” for a student could change their lives.  This is problematic because it assumes kids aren’t loved in other spaces and completely misses any systemic issues at play, among other issues. 

Finally, I saw myself as wanting to make things better for kids.  Obviously, many of us are in education for this or a similar reason.  But where this thinking goes wrong when tied to a savior mentality is that it centered and empowered myself, not kids.  I saw myself as the answer, not students and the assets they bring to the learning space.  

Each of these ways of thinking are harmful in and of themselves, but they impacted my actions as a teacher in multiple ways: what I celebrated and what I disciplined, what and how I taught (at that point, in such a boring way!), how I graded, my expectations, and so on. 

How my savior mentality was challenged and changed

I don’t have one moment I can point to in my career that pulled out the deep root of my white savior mentality in teaching.  Instead, it has been a long, on-going journey involving many voices and communities.  Two key components of my growth have been learning to see the systems that created and sustain poverty, racism, and terribly inequitable schools in our country, and being in meaningful relationships with people who are different than me, including across race, class, language, and sexual-orientation identity markers. 

I am deeply changed by a number of friends, mentors, colleagues and students who have asked me questions, shared stories, and challenged my thinking to help me both be and do better as an educator.  I also worked (and continue to work) to take on as much of the work of learning, reflecting, and growing as I could through reading, studying, and attending workshops.  While I have a very different view of education and students today than the savior mentality that launched my career, I know my work of learning is never done.  

Intertwined motivations

We all have mixed motivations for getting into education.  For me, my white savior mentality was intertwined with other powerful and good motivations like love, connection, and a desire to learn. My process of growing as an educator has been similar to cultivating a garden.  I needed to be able to identify and root out the weeds (like my savior mentality and deficit-oriented thinking), and learn to cultivate and sustain the flowers and fruit-bearing plants (like asset-oriented thinking about just how amazing students are, commitment, meaningful relationships, and of course, love).