Nobody's Gonna Make a Movie About You: Perspective of a Cooperating Teacher of Color

• In Event: Eisner in Mind: Fresh Perspectives on Inquiry and Education

Abstract

Drawing on the fictional construct of scene, the author restories analytic and reflective journal and interview data, offering a counterstory of teacher preparation from a cooperating teacher of color’s perspective. The resulting narrative theorizes about the ways in which race, institutional racism, and racial microaggressions shape decisions made by teachers of color as to whether or not to host white teacher candidates in their classrooms. The use of fiction-based research also provides an imaginary entrance (Leavy, 2013) into the emotional landscape of teaching and mentoring for cooperating teachers, particularly cooperating teachers of color, and serves to reach a broader audience of readers.

Author

• Jehanne Beaton, University of Minnesota