Freedom in Unfree Spaces: Black Preservice Teachers Reimagining and Reshaping Community in Teacher Education

• In Event: Lived Racial Experiences and Pedagogies of Freedom and Care

Abstract

Historically, the literacies that Black preservice teachers bring to content and pedagogical practices have been deemed inadequate and inaccurate (Sleeter and Milner, 2011; Haddix, 2017). In an ethnographically-informed qualitative study grounded in Black Feminist Thought, Critical Race Theory, and Ubuntu, my collaborators, three Black preservice teachers, and I engaged in conversations over the course of a year. In this paper, I examine how marginal garret spaces for Black preservice teachers in an English Education teacher preparation program at a large, public, and predominantly white institution allowed my collaborators to draw on their literacies to affirm, resist and reshape perceptions of who they are, what they know, and what they need to experience and share affirmation, community, and joy.

Author

• Jenell Igeleke Penn, The Ohio State University - Columbus