Critical Race Theory, Teacher Education, and the "New" Focus on Racial Justice

• In Event: Critical Race Theory Perspectives in Teacher Education and Praxis

Abstract

In this paper, we use CRT as a frame to interrogate and highlight four analytic sites that might advance racial justice in teacher education and (preK)-12 contexts. These sites are: Curriculum practices, racial demography, Black teachers and their teaching, and Black students and STEM. We discuss these sites to (1) identify raced, racialized, and racist policies and practices that maintain an inequitable status quo and (2) discuss recommendations for change. This framing is particularly important because issues of race and racism are deeply rooted in U.S. society (Bobo & Kluegel, 1993), and they are concurrently ingrained in the systems and practices of teacher education. We summarize each site below:
Curriculum practices:
Infusing CRT principles into curricula practices provides an equity-focused lens to deconstruct oppression and co-develop more emancipatory systems through decision making. For instance, from a CRT perspective, we ask, how do curriculum practices reproduce whiteness and anti-Blackness? The overwhelming presence of whiteness (Sleeter, 2017) in the curriculum is a deep reflection of what teachers in teacher education and what young people in preK-12 contexts learn. In contrast, a racial justice curriculum means that student teaching experiences, practicum experiences, methods courses, and related experiences explore the ways racism permeate what gets taught and what is learned and experienced.
Racial demography
A CRT analysis allows us to explore the racial demography of teachers both in teacher education and US preK-12 schools to illuminate the shortage of teachers of color in comparison to the growing ethnic-racial diversity of students in schools. From a CRT perspective, we ask, how do the racial demography and racial identity of teachers impact who teaches whom? How does a mostly white teaching force perpetuate a white-centered curriculum in schools? It is well documented that teachers tend to teach who they are in schools (Ladson-Billings, 2009), and a CRT analysis allows us to center race and racial identity to understand what gets taught in teacher education and preK-12 contexts.
Black teachers and their teaching,
Using CRT, we delve into the experiences of Black teachers, their teaching practices and commitments as educators to children of color and Black children in particular. Black teachers are exceedingly qualified educators willing to serve, but they too endure racist practices and policies that challenge their capability to teach. Moreover, the germinal work focusing on Black teachers and their teaching should guide understanding of the role and salience of Black teachers and teaching (Anderson, 1988; Foster, 1997; Irvine, 2007, 1983; Siddle-Walker, 2000; Tillman, 2004), especially in teacher education.
Black students and STEM.
Finally, we move to investigating experiences of Black students in STEM education. We stress the need for teacher education programs to join the conversation and deeply consider experiences of Black students in STEM as teachers take on some responsibility to transform the STEM pipeline in schools. A CRT analysis of Black students, STEM, and teacher education not only offers a critical perspective, but it also provides a lens through which to envision a raced epistemology for Black students’ learning and participating in the long legacy of Black STEM excellence.

Authors

• H. Richard Milner, Vanderbilt University

• Mariah Deans Harmon, Vanderbilt University

• Ebony O. McGee, Vanderbilt University