Critical Reflection and Counternarrative: Preparing Prospective Teachers of Color for Educational Equity

• In Event: Using Reflection as a Tool for Instructional Improvement: From Postsecondary to the Classroom

Abstract

This paper presents a qualitative study of critical counter-narrative that was facilitated with a framework of critical reflection for transformative learning in an alternative route to licensure program at a state university. Participants included 11 prospective teachers of color from racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Learning from each other’s stories and gaining theoretical sensitivity from readings, collaborative reflection enabled participants to critically examine their personal histories, languages, cultures, and identities in the larger social and political context. Based on their critical reflection and counternarratives, they analyzed socially distorted assumptions about people with diverse backgrounds, actively searched for transformative ways to teach diverse students, and implemented emancipatory actions in their own teaching practice to teach diverse students for educational equity.

Authors

• Katrina Liu, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Richard C. Miller, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Arnetha F. Ball, Stanford University