(Re)membering as Transformative Praxis in Teacher Education: With Mindfulness as a Guide

• In Event: Roundtable Session 18
  In Roundtable Session: Communities of Praxis and Social Justice in Preservice Teacher Education

Abstract

In preparing white teachers to be socially just, critically conscious advocates for multilingual/multicultural learners with and without disabilities, it is critical that teachers first get to know themselves as cultural beings. It has been well documented that White teachers in particular often see themselves as devoid of culture and thus distance themselves from the “culturally diverse” other. In this paper, I explore the ways that a Language History project enabled white teachers to get in touch with themselves as cultural beings through an exercise of (re)membering (Dillard, 2008) their ancestors journey in adopting US English in “becoming American.”

Author

• Barbara J. Dray, University of Colorado - Denver