Playing the Social Class Card in Teacher Education: Distinguishing Between Skin Color and the “Color” of Privileged Social Class

• In Event: The Critical Importance of Race and Racialization When Considering How People Learn, What Should Be Taught and By Whom, and to What Ends

Abstract

Too often, the literature on teacher education portrays nonwhite teachers as monolithic entities using identifiers such as “teachers of color,” “black teachers,” or “Latino teachers.” This overly vague strategy for identifying teachers solely highlights race and ethnicity but fails to recognize social class influences on these teachers’ views of the world and on their work. This critical review of empirical and theoretical literature on the intersection between social class and race (1) synthesizes what is known about the intersection between race and class and teacher preparation research and pedagogy; (2) expands our understanding of how race and privileged social class intersect to advantage teachers of color from higher social classes while disadvantaging their lower social class counterparts in educational settings; and (3) recommends improvements in both teacher research and preparation.

A Critical Race Theory (CRT) lens informs this work. CRT refers to an academic discipline first employed in the field of law and legal studies, and currently gaining popularity in education, that highlights race and racism as being integrally embedded in US institutions (Delgado, 1995; Ladson-Billings and Tate, 1995; Parker, Deyhle and Villenas, 1999; Solórzano, 1998). Although this framework recognizes that multiple forms of oppression exist along the lines of social class, gender, sexual orientation - in addition to racism - the intersection of race and social class has only recently begun to be addressed (Leonardo and Hunter, 2009). This work seeks to contribute to the existing field of CRT by addressing intersections between race/ethnicity and social class.

Using ten major databases, we identified and examined empirical, peer-reviewed research that examine characteristics of effective black, Latino, and Native American teachers as well as those that address social class and ideological differences of teachers of color. We analyzed the data in three stages: (1) summarized articles using a template to capture key information; (2) coded the summary notes with both open and predetermined codes cited in the literature; and (3) read the article notes multiples times until we had accounted for all the substantive issues related to teachers’ of color social class and ideological distinctions (Strauss & Corbin, 1990).

Results of the literature review highlight three major themes: (1) the social construct of “race” and or “ethnicity” is used as a key identifier of teachers of color, without taking into consideration teachers’ possible privileged social class standing; (2) socially advantaged teachers of color tend to subscribe to dominant culture deficit ideologies about lower class students of color; and (3) the phenomenon of "minority" or "ethnic" transmogrification whereby "nonwhite" internationals in the US who come from upper social class backgrounds are categorized as nonwhite in the US and often go on to become representatives of lower class minority and immigrant ethnic groups.

These findings suggest that social class allegiance to dominant and discriminatory ideologies may often supersede membership in a racial or ethnic group categorized as nonwhite in the US. Teacher education research and pedagogical implications regarding the intersection between race and class and possible classroom instruction ramifications will be discussed.

Authors

• Lilia I. Bartolome, University of Massachusetts - Boston

• Donaldo Macedo, University of Massachusetts - Boston