Abstract
This chapter describes a critical self-study conducted by teacher educators as they taught and learned with their students about race and its impact on education. Responding to calls for more research on social justice-focused pedagogy, the chapter seeks to help teacher educators consider how to build racial literacy in their teacher candidates. Despite the enduring significance of race and the disparities that exist between the experiences of white students and those of racially minoritized students, teacher candidates are often under-prepared for understanding the impact of race and racism or for knowing how to address it in their future classrooms. The responsibility for building skills and understanding related to race and education falls squarely on the shoulders of teacher educators, and this self-study shows one model for centering that work.
TopIntroduction
Teacher preparation programs that embrace social justice can help narrow the achievement gap (Irvine, 2003) and can develop a teaching force that advocates for equity and works alongside the diverse communities in which they practice (Cochran-Smith, 2004). But there are many facets to social justice, and race and racism—and their impact on education—need sustained attention if teacher candidates are to develop sophisticated competencies to deal with race-related manners (Howard & Del Rosario, 2000).
Carlisle, Jackson, and George (2006) define social justice pedagogy as “the conscious and reflective blend of content and process intended to enhance equity across multiple social identity groups … foster critical perspectives, and promote social action” (p. 57). As Keehn (2015) shows, some of its chief goals include
Providing students with the tools to think critically about their own social identities and social locations, developing an understanding of various manifestations of privilege and oppression, building an understanding of the historical roots of structural inequality, and developing individuals’ and groups’ capacities to take action against injustice. (pp. 374-375)
These definitions of social justice pedagogy guided our work as we developed a teaching/research project specifically focused on race. Race continues to significantly influence the schools students are likely to attend, the content and nature of educational experiences, the dynamics of student-teacher relationships, and the opportunities and outcomes students are likely to experience (McDonald, 2007; Milner, 2012). Despite the enduring significance of race and the disparities that exist between the experiences of white students and those of racially minoritized students, teacher candidates are often under-prepared for understanding the impact of race and racism and for knowing how to address these issues in their future classrooms (Stevenson, 2014; Gaine, 2001). The responsibility for building skills and understanding related to race and education falls squarely on the shoulders of teacher educators.
This chapter describes a critical self-study conducted by teacher educators as they taught and learned with their candidates about race and how it impacts education. Responding to requests for more research on social justice-focused pedagogy in the field (Dunn, Dotson, Ford, & Roberts, 2014; Clausen, 2017), the authors aim to help teacher educators consider how to build racial literacy in their teacher candidates. We share insights gained through conducting a self-study focused on racial literacy pedagogy. Two of the authors are white, female teacher educators (Jill and Lynn), while one is Latina (Rosalie), and all of us work in teacher education programs where our undergraduate teacher candidates are primarily white and racially minoritized candidates are underrepresented. Because of our commitments to equity and social justice, we seek to develop teachers who are proficient in our different content areas (early childhood education, elementary social studies education, urban education, and secondary English education), but who are also agents of change, especially as related to systemic racism.
Racial literacy as a conceptual framework provides a vocabulary and a set of tools to help individuals interpret how race interacts with education, and it promotes engagement of racial themes into curriculum and pedagogy. Guinier (2004) notes that developing racial literacy involves engaging in a continual learning process about the ways race, “in conjunction with class and geography invariably shapes educational, economic and political opportunities for all of us” (p. 117). From 2015-2018, we engaged in the Racial Literacy Project, a two-part teaching and research endeavor examining (1) student response to teacher preparation curriculum focused on developing racial literacy and (2) peer feedback and self-reflection in developing racial literacy pedagogy. In this chapter, we explore phase two of the project, a critical self-study of our own teaching, addressing the following questions:
Key Terms in this Chapter
Self-Study: A research methodology that involves teachers studying their own practice, often through data collection and reflection, in order to understand the effects of their pedagogy and potentially improve it.
Emotionality: Emotionality refers to the physical and behavioral effects of feeling strong emotions, in this case related to race work, which has been explored by scholars such as Matias (2016) .
Racial Stress: According to Stevenson (2014) , racial stress describes the physical, emotional, and mental stress that people feel when in encounters that are uncomfortable due to race, their own or others’. Acknowledging racial stress helps us consider its physical manifestations and how to alleviate them; it also invites students to “read, recast, and resolve racially stressful social interactions” ( Stevenson, 2014 , p. 4).
Teacher Educators: Teacher educators are education professors who prepare future teachers, most often for P-12 positions.
Racial Literacy: Used in this chapter as a conceptual framework, racial literacy provides a vocabulary and a set of tools to help individuals interpret how race and racism interact with education, and it promotes engagement of racial themes into curricular and pedagogical projects and approaches.