Black Students as Architects of Future Designs for Teacher Education

• In Event: 47.047 - Examining the Role of Teacher Education as Identity-Forming Site: Democratizing Our Work as Teacher Educators

Abstract

Objectives
In this study, we examine the different pathways that students of color pursue toward a teaching profession, and explore their distinct experiences within teacher education and in disciplines outside of education despite their desires to be teachers. We examine the following research question: What do the lived experiences of students of color teach us about how students and teacher educators can work together to design curriculum and spaces that reflect the humanity and voices of undergraduate students of color considering a future in teacher education?

Perspectives
More interrogation into failed teacher educator reform efforts that call for increased diversity (Authors, 2017), and in particular, the perspectives and voiced experiences of teacher educators of color should be leveraged to redesign teacher education curriculum, pedagogy, and practice. Several recent studies draw on voice methodologies to explore what people of color in teaching have to say about their experiences learning to teach and working in schools (e.g., Achinstein & Ogawa, 2012; Brown, 2014; Jackson, 2012).  We draw on an Afrofuturist framework (e.g., Womack, 2013) and theories of critical architecture (e.g., Hays, 1984; Rendell, 2007) to situate the voices of teachers of color as experts capable of crafting their own future by allowing students to be at the table when we design curriculum and programs.

Methods
Data were collected via focus group and one-on-one interviewing methodology from 28 students of color across the university both within the discipline of education and outside of it. Drawing upon data from four focus group interview sessions and individual interviews with these participants, we analyzed the data to gain a better understanding of how students were enacting being architects of their educational futures.

Results
Our findings illustrated that a shift in positioning of students of color from participants to architects of design is necessary for effective teacher education reform. Participants in the study were not homogenous in their experiences. Some participants felt their teacher preparation lacked the critical frame necessary for them or their white peers to be prepared to teach in a variety of communities and as a result changed majors or fought vigorously to their detriment with program administrators. Other students stayed in the teacher education programs despite the negative experiences they had in teacher preparation programs because they wanted to be change agents in their communities. And finally, there were students for whom teacher educator programs were not attractive because of the lack of attention to their particular lived experiences who studied in other disciplines but volunteered in the school district to gain experience and to do what they love.  This reframing of their role shifts power dynamics and acknowledges the knowledge and agency that students of color bring to their own education and development.

Significance
This study shifts teacher candidates of color into a position of much greater agency by arguing that they should be architects in reform efforts for teacher education. We contend that we must think about creating futures in partnership with those who experience marginalization.

Authors

• Marcelle M. Haddix, Syracuse University

• Kimberly Natalia Williams Brown, Vassar College