Managing Racial Stress While Educating White Teacher Candidates: A Self-Study

• In Event: 25.068 - Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: 25.068-3 - Leveraging Self-Study to Transform Our Identities

Abstract

Unmanaged racial stress can act as a barrier to exercising racial literacy skills. In classrooms, racial inequities result in unsafe and unproductive learning environments. Teacher educators are charged with helping preservice teachers learn how to serve racially diverse populations. However, if teacher educators fail to manage their own racial stress, preservice teacher learning is limited. This self-study explores the ways in which two teacher educators recognize and managed their own racial stress during field instruction of White teacher candidates serving students of color. The teacher educators/researchers share challenges with managing their own stress and posit ideas about how to improve their racial competency and future field instruction.

Authors

• Elizabeth Gayle Soslau, University of Delaware

• Nicholas Steven Bell, University of Delaware