18.028 - "Well Situated to Do the Work": Female Professors of Color Navigating White Academia

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

While K-12 student diversity is rapidly increasing, teacher education programs remain predominantly white. Navigating a primarily white space as professors of color, specifically in effort to advocate for children of color, is challenging. This panel presents the narratives of five women professors of color engaged in critical teacher education at PWIs. The presenters discuss the burden of bearing the responsibility of being well situated to do the work for all things “critical,” “social justice” oriented, and “diversity, equity and inclusion” that aligns with their identities as professors of color. The presenters share narratives of navigating teacher education programs with white colleagues and students and make suggestions for broad systemic redress in teacher education beyond a single class or intervention.

Sub Unit

• Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education / Division K - Section 03: Teachers’ and Teacher Educators’ Lives: Lived Experiences, Identities, Socialization and Development

Chair

• Bettina L. Love, University of Georgia

Papers

• "Well Situated to Do the Work": Female Professors of Color Navigating White Academia - Sherell A. McArthur, University of Georgia - Athens; Morgan Faison, University of Georgia; Bettina L. Love, University of Georgia; Christine Montecillo Leider, Boston University; Christina L. Dobbs, Boston University

• Teacher Education Gap: The Experiences of Three Black Women Professors Navigating White Resistance in the South - Sherell A. McArthur, University of Georgia - Athens; Morgan Faison, University of Georgia; Bettina L. Love, University of Georgia

• Invisible or Hypervisible: Narratives of Brown Professors in Higher Education - Christina L. Dobbs, Boston University; Christine Montecillo Leider, Boston University