Language of Inequity: How Teacher Candidates Utilize Social Media to Acknowledge Privilege

• In Event: Interrogating and Responding to Oppression in Teacher and Teacher Education

Abstract

This article addresses how teacher candidates (TCs) use arts-based assessments to understand their own privilege around issues of race, gender, and sexual orientation in a foundational, multicultural education class. Using art as a mechanism for discovery, TCs explore the use of privileged language on social/media platforms. This article examines the course assignment as well as the resulting art show of TC-created work. Results indicate TCs are hesitant to discuss topics of racism, sexism, gender identity, and heteronormativity; TCs need space in their education classes to safely explore these issues; and TCs must understand how privilege intersects across differing identities in and out of their future classrooms.

Author

• Scott Baker, St. Cloud State University