Disrupting the Narrative of Racial Progress: A Comparative Analysis of Two Preservice Elementary Teachers' Practices

• In Event: Toward Culturally Sustaining and Social Justice–Oriented Teaching and Learning

Abstract

This study examined the approaches used by two preservice elementary school teachers to disrupt the narrative of racial progress as they taught K-5 social studies lessons about civil rights history during a community-based field experience. Using a theoretical framework of racial pedagogical content knowledge (RPCK), we identified three domains of RPCK needed to enact anti-oppressive elementary social studies teaching and analyzed how these domains surfaced during lessons and interviews. Our cross-case analysis revealed that both preservice teachers struggled to balance presenting civil rights events as historically significant while also calling their legacy into question. However, the preservice teacher who viewed anti-oppressive teaching as a dialogical process, where knowledge is co-constructed with the students, was ultimately more successful.

Authors

• Ryan Emery Hughes, University of North Carolina - Greensboro

• Pratigya Christy Marhatta, University of North Carolina - Greensboro