The Incongruent Racial Grammar of Teacher Education: A Critical Race Theory Study of Black and Latina Preservice Teachers

• In Event: 35.043 - Teachers of Color Push Back Against Power

Abstract

Research illustrates that preservice teachers of color are increasingly recruited into teacher education programs in an effort to diversify program cohorts and enrich the experiences of White preservice teacher candidates. However, preservice teachers of color often experience a racial grammar of teacher education that assigns a “normative culture of whiteness” (Brown, 2014, p. 339). Drawing from Critical Race Theory in education as a conceptual framework, we use critical counter-storytelling embedded within a comparative case study design to foreground how five preservice teachers of color—U.S.-black and Latina—navigate through the racial grammar of teacher education. Similar to prior studies, findings indicate that racial incongruence underscores preservice teachers of color experiences in teacher education programs.

Authors

• Christopher L. Busey, University of Florida

• Priscilla Bell, University of Florida