Solidarity Not Charity: Decolonizing Teacher Education

• In Event: 16.034 - Attending to the Preparation and Support of Teachers of Color: Preservice Through Induction Years

Abstract

In an attempt to tap into cultural and critical frameworks in pre-service teacher of color candidates, I used a decolonizing, critical framework to teach my credential students to utilize the assets and cultural wealth children bring into classrooms (Borrero & Yeh, in press; Yosso, 2005) and channel student personal frustration and social dissatisfaction against the very social system that undermines their existence (Yeshitela, 2005). Decolonizing frameworks recognize that oppression is implicated in the history of colonialism and “writing back” serves as “a recovery of ourselves, an analysis of colonialism, and a struggle for self-determination” (Smith, 1999, p. 7). Furthermore, I used a variety of pedagogical approaches to help pre-service teachers think about ways to teach their students to love themselves, love their people, and love their histories, while confronting the pain of their suffering and finding ways to help children and adolescents of color heal from the trauma caused by the colonial conditions they find themselves in (Ginwright, 2010). Even more, I taught teacher candidates to facilitate spaces that allow young people to explore the depths of their grief and foster a deeper sense of control over their individual and collective destinies (Duncan-Andrade, 2009).
This paper will answer the following question: How is teaching pre-service teachers to critically understand race and class oppression and liberation from a decolonizing perspective transformative for identities and teaching practices as teachers of color? Traditional data collection strategies were used in the form of analysis of field notes, student work and other artifacts, classroom video, and student interviews. I also used critical discourse analysis (CDA) (Fairclough, 1995) to generate grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Blending a framework on decolonizing (Cesaire, 1972; Fanon, 1961; Smith 1999) and critical pedagogy (Darder, Baltadano, & Torres, 2008; Duncan- Andrade & Morrell, 2008) provided the analytic basis to render observations into evidence of my argumentative points.

Author

• Patrick Camangian, University of San Francisco