Reading in Between the Lines: Exploring the Experience of Cultivating Cultural Awareness With White Teacher Candidates

• In Event: Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Subjects, the Teacher Self, and Investigations Into Teacher Positioning

Abstract

Due in large part to the overrepresentation of White teachers and the increasingly diverse public school population, it is critical that teacher educators challenge teacher candidates to develop cultural awareness and relinquish the status quo to become agents of social change. For this reason, the purpose of this inquiry was to explore a variety of experiences with White teacher candidates utilizing Critical Literacy to analyze African American children’s literature for explicit and implicit forms of oppression and autobiographical explorations to challenge Whiteness. White Identity Theory, Critical Literacy Theory, and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy informed the study. Through exploring the experiences narratively, several findings emerged that have significant implications for the work of teacher education programs both within Georgia and nationwide.

Author

• Holley Morris Roberts, Georgia College & State University