"I'm Not Crazy!" Testifying, Knowledge-Building, and Theorizing in Garret Spaces With Preservice Teachers of Color

• In Event: 51.079 - MTCC Roundtable Session 22
  In Roundtable Session: 51.079-1 - Social Justice Teacher Education Programs

Abstract

Drawing on an ethnographically informed qualitative study that I conducted with preservice teachers of Color enrolled in three different sections of reflective seminar, this paper explores how the creation of garret (McKittrick, 2006) spaces with preservice teachers of Color helped to establish a place where Black feminist praxis thrived. It explores how this space allowed my participants, whom I refer to as my collaborators, to draw on racial, cultural, social, and historical knowledges and discourses to affirm, resist, and reshape shared perceptions of who they are, what they know, and what they need. Ultimately, counter to the oppressiveness of their other teacher education spaces, this space allowed my collaborators to position themselves as knowledgeable, theory builders.

Author

• Jenell Igeleke Penn, The Ohio State University - Columbus