Disrupting Evasion Pedagogies in Research: Preparing Teachers for Culturally Responsive Teaching

• In Event: Identifying and Disrupting Evasion Pedagogies

Abstract

Objective
This study critically examines research practices of empirical studies on preparing pre-service teachers for culturally responsive/relevant teaching or pedagogy (CRT/CRP) (e.g., Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1995) to provide perspectives and lines of research that are true to the radical shifts the original theories called for, yet might not have been fully fulfilled (Matias, 2020; Paris, 2012).

Theoretical Frameworks
Two analytical lenses, research as “social practice,” and critical race theory (CritRT), guided the analysis. Herndl and Nahrwold (2000) propose that research practices are shaped by researchers’ purposes, commitment, and lived experiences that are in constant negotiation with institutional/structural norms and conditions. Research practices can be conceptualized along a continuum, where on one end is research that maintains existing social and material relations, and on the other end is research that disrupts the existing social and power relations. We used this methodological lens to analyze the research problem and questions, theoretical frameworks, and findings (see Figure 1). Given the focus of CRT/CRP on race and culture, CritRT (Solorzano & Yosso, 2002) was used to foreground the role of race and racism, challenge the dominant research practices, and offer possibilities of knowledge production from the margin. Together with the methodological lens, CritRT illuminates the varied locations of CRT/CRP research on the continuum ranging from maintaining the status quo (practices/ideas that sustain racial inequity, or evasion pedagogies) to disrupting it (practices/ideas that create racial equity, or anti-evasion pedagogies).

Method and Data
Using a set of inclusion and exclusion criteria (see Table 1), 125 empirical studies published between 1995 and 2018 on preparing K-12 pre-service teachers for CRT/CRP in the US were identified.

Results
Using the research-as-social practice continuum, we organized the studies into two clusters with the majority of studies (87) located toward the instrumental end of the spectrum and 38 located toward the “disruptive” end. Using the CritRT lens, the analyses reveal that dominant research practices located toward the instrumental end emphasize the problem of teachers’ stereotypes toward learners who are unlike them without attending to the systemic, inequitable, racist policies and norms. The dominant research practices also employ a linear research logic – investigating whether or the extent to which an “intervention” can improve the “deficiencies” observed among (White) teachers – without attending to the complexity of the situated, interactive, ever-changing phenomenon of teacher learning. Moreover, there is a lack of in-depth examination of racialized and cultural ways of knowing for participants and researchers. While these studies provide valuable information to the field, they maintain the inequitable status quo rather than disrupting taken-for-granted practices and assumptions. We also discussed the varied ways of challenging the linear research assumptions, breaking institutional regulations/boundaries, and centering marginalized experiential knowledge among the “disruptive” research. We proposed that researchers must attend to the intersecting system of inequalities in which learning to teach is situated, include multiple agencies (and their interactions) in research, and engage in constant reflection on our racialized and cultural lenses.

Significance
This study offers new lines of inquiry and perspectives that help sustain cultural pluralism and promote systematic change in teacher education.

Authors

• Wen-Chia Claire Chang, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Kara Mitchell Viesca, University of Nebraska - Lincoln