"It's Not About Race": Problematizing Latinidad and Its Contribution to Anti-Blackness in Teacher Education

• In Event: Calling Out and Resisting Lasting Legacies of Racism in Policy, Teacher Education, and Across the Pre-K–20+ Pipeline

Abstract

In this paper, we acknowledge that anti-Blackness persists within Latinx communities and further explore how Latinx pre-service teachers draw on dominant white narratives such as colorism, class, assimilation, meritocracy and the American Dream in ways that perpetuate and uphold anti-Blackness. Latinx pre-service teachers need a more extant understanding of how dominant white narratives shape their positionality and relationship to Latinidad, as well as their relationship with entering the teaching profession. We offer a framework for ongoing reflective positionality analysis, intended to serve as a tool for reimagining teacher education programs to ultimately support Latinx pre-service teachers to disrupt the anti-Blackness that persists in education.

Authors

• Rosa Chavez, Texas Tech University

• Karla Lomeli, Santa Clara University

• Faith Kwon, Stanford University

• Jennifer M. Langer-Osuna, Stanford University