Bringing Teacher Candidates to Racial Crisis

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Taking Risks and Challenging Racism: Going Beneath the Surface of Whiteness

Abstract

Through critical reflection we examine a classroom scenario of bringing teacher candidates to racial “crisis” (Kumashiro, 2009) in a required child development course. We pair this examination with a critical discourse analysis of student course evaluations to interrogate the racial dynamics present among the predominantly white teacher candidates, white teaching assistant, and Asian American professor. This micro-analysis unmasks three challenges in disrupting white supremacy in teacher preparation: the white fragility of teacher candidates who view themselves as progressive educators; the prevailing norms and practices of educating about race and racism in teacher preparatory programs; and the ways in which dominant narratives of racism have been essentialized into the binary of racist and anti-racist.

Authors

• Colleen Rost-Banik, Windward Community College

• Vichet Chhuon, University of Minnesota