From Trauma to Political Clarity: Teachers of Color Reflect on Their Experience as K–12 Students

• In Event: 68.022 - Cultivating Critical Educators: Ideological Shifts and Programmatic Supports of Equitable Practice Along the Teacher Continuum

Abstract

Objectives
Many urban-focused teacher education programs centralize the sociocultural and historical context of schooling in order to develop an equity stance within its teacher candidates. Despite this focus, few programs provide opportunities for teachers of color to reflect on their traumatic experiences of an inequitable K-12 schooling. This oversight creates an emotionally unsafe and sometimes traumatic experience for teachers of color, who must support their white, teacher education colleagues, while also managing the emotions, often unexpected, that arise from remembering their own K-12 experience.
This research brings forward the ways in which Urban-focused teacher education programs can provide opportunities for teachers of color to heal in order to develop political clarity.

Theoretical framework
Beauboeuf-Lafontant (1999) argues that culturally relevant teaching is politically relevant teaching, as what is most salient is the ability of the teacher to be mindful “not only of the cultural norms, values, and practices of their students, but more importantly of the political realities and aspirations of people of color“ (p. 703). Furthermore Philip (2011) and Little and Bartlett, (2010) argue that to gain political clarity, teacher candidates must have support in rearticulating commonsense understandings of the intersection of race, class and education. Re-articulation provides a more nuanced opportunity to investigate one’s belief, attitudes, and political stance (Anderson & Stillman, 2013). For teachers of color re-articulation requires sense-making of traumatic experiences as K-12 students. Most noted in these experiences is the inability to interrupt the experience, which can cause teacher candidates of color to be uncertain about their capacity to counter inequitable educational experiences of their students.

Methods
Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and reflections during participants’ first year of the credential program. Conducted in two phases, phase one focused on motivations for teaching, for example: Why do you want to teach in an urban school? Phase two focused on participants’ experience as K-12 students, for example:
How was your experience as a student in the grade level you are student teaching?
Have you recalled challenging memories from when you were a student as a result of student teaching?
Additionally, participants’ were asked to share their daily reflections on student teaching. The interviews and reflections were coded for articulations of sense making in light of these challenging moments and whether or not the program supported teacher candidates in developing political clarity.


Findings
Analysis of the interviews and reflections indicated that programs need to disrupt the commonsense understanding that teachers of color are more prepared to discuss issues of inequality and shift how teachers of color are guided through sense-making of teaching. More explicitly, teacher education programs should employ strategies other than direct questioning to support teachers of color in gaining political clarity, as direct questioning in educational spaces, where students have already experienced silencing, can itself be traumatizing.

Scholarly Significance
This paper extends the research of Beauboeuf-Lafontant and Philips through identifying strategies for teacher education programs to support teachers of color develop political clarity without re-traumatization—a concern of teachers educators in urban focused programs.

Author

• Lanette Jimerson, University of California, Berkeley