Views From the South: Southern Women of Color Teacher Educators Navigating Midwest Nice

• In Event: Complicating Notions of Justice

Abstract

Drawing from critical race theory, critical geography, and border theories as theoretical frameworks, this paper interrogates how the practice of Midwest Nice served as an impediment to social justice and reinforced white supremacy in teacher education programs. Through a collaborative autoethnography grounded in a Southern epistemology, this study drew on the lived experiences of three women of Color teacher educators from the South to create a composite counterstory about teaching midwestern pre-service teachers. At the intersection of region, race, and gender, this research calls for teacher education programs that claim to embrace a social justice mission to no longer excuse “nice” White students and colleagues for reinforcing the gendered racial order and curbing social justice via regional norms.

Authors

• ArCasia James-Gallaway, Texas A&M University - College Station

• Brittany Frieson, University of North Texas

• Saba Khan Vlach, The University of Iowa