The Possibilities, Tensions, and Contradictions of Centering Teachers of Color in Teacher Preparation

• In Event: Ethnic Studies in Teacher Preparation: Programmatic and Cultural Shifts Supporting Ethnic Studies Teacher Development

Abstract

Objective
Informed by the critique that even when programs attempt to take a justice-oriented, anti-racist approach, Teacher Preparation is not for Teachers of Color (Chung and Harrison, 2015), we examine how an Ethnic Studies Teaching Pathway attempted to implement programmatic shifts that bring experiences of Teacher Candidates of Color (TCoC) to the center of the work (Gist, 2018). Specifically, we analyze how collective and community-oriented approaches to the pathway influenced experiences of TCoC who are simultaneously learning to navigate and reimagine schooling.

Theoretical Framework and Methods
Ethnic Studies as a field shifts the “curriculuarization of racism” (Paris, 2017) by challenging white and Eurocentric epistemologies and narratives. Thus, merging Ethnic Studies and Teacher Preparation has the potential to counter the “overwhelming presence of whiteness” in Teacher Education (Sleeter, 2001; 2017).

Recruiting teacher candidates with a background in and commitment to ethnic studies, the program has admitted five cohorts to date, of whom 96% identify as People of Color. This study draws on three years of data to understand the unique experiences of TCoC in a space that was specifically designed and implemented with their learning in mind. Through a collaborative inquiry process, the data sets -which included peer interviews, teacher-generated artifacts, and field observations - were analyzed individually and comparatively within and across cohorts. Taking a Participatory Action Research Approach to Grounded Theory (Teram, Schachter, and Stalker, 2005) study participants engaged in a process of sensemaking through dialogue around the initial codes and findings that allowed the research team to deepen, complicate, and expand our understandings.

Results
Inherently, tensions arose as the program strove to center marginalized identities and perspectives, but still existed within the larger institutions of higher education, K-12 public schools, and teacher credentialing. While TCoC might understand the power of Ethnic Studies to disrupt whiteness, cishetero patriarchy, ableism, and classism, they must still navigate multiple systems (including the program itself) that entail fulfilling requirements that uphold those very systems. Moreover, the spaces of K-12 public schools continue to reproduce a hostile racial climate (Kohli, 2016) in which candidates and their students must grapple with deficit thinking about Communities of Color and the need to legitimize their identities, knowledge, and experiences. New programmatic spaces were created as a response to the limitations of the pathway as it initially existed, such as 1) inclusion of new and enhanced coursework and 2) positioning activists, veteran teachers, and community organizers as teacher educators. Such transformative approaches to the pathway offered space for students to reflect on and process their teaching experiences, while theorizing and concretely planning for ways they might push back on and reimagine those systems of power.

Significance
These findings contribute to gaps of understanding on developing programs and pathways specifically for and by TCoC. Through collective and community-oriented approach to learning, programs can alleviate issues of TCoC retention and sustainability by affirming intersectional identities that support their development and application of pedagogical and curricular approaches to Ethnic Studies.

Authors

• Darlene Lee, University of California - Los Angeles

• Josephine Pham, University of California - Santa Cruz