Race, Isolation, and Exclusion: What Early Childhood Teacher Educators Need to Know About the Experiences of Preservice Teachers of Color

• In Event: 73.051 - Race(ing) Teacher Education: Critical Race Theory as a Transformative Practice in Teacher Education

Abstract

Amidst the numerous calls to diversify the teaching profession there is a silence surrounding the preparation of early childhood pre-service teachers of color (Montecinos, 2004). Historically, in the United States, early childhood teacher education has been a discursive space dominated by White, English-monolingual, middle class perspectives (Ladson-Billings, 2005). In this paper, authors will discuss findings from a qualitative study that sought to gain insights into the perspectives of early childhood pre-service teachers of color as they navigate this discursive space. Using CRT as a framework, the study addresses the following question: In what ways does early childhood teacher education shape the experiences of pre-service teachers of color? By looking closely at the perspectives of four pre-service teachers of color in predominantly White private institutions of higher education in large urban centers, this study serves as a counternarrative to the predominance of narratives that focus on White pre-service teachers in early childhood teacher education.

Findings indicate that early childhood pre-service teachers of color in this study by and large do not have positive and supportive experiences in their teacher education programs. In this paper the authors will describe and discuss how participants struggled to belong, connect, and feel welcomed in the space of early childhood teacher education. In addition, the paper will explore how participants constructed borderland identities (Anzaldúa, 1987) as they faced and negotiated the “dueling opposites” (Haddix, 2010, pp. 99-100) of their home cultures and university-based teacher education cultures and constructed borderland identities (Anzaldúa, 1987). The paper will conclude with a discussion of the implications for teacher education policy, program and practice.

Authors

• Ranita Cheruvu, William Paterson University

• Mariana Souto-Manning, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Tara Lencl, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Marisa Salome Chin-Calubaquib, Teachers College, Columbia University