Approaching and Rebelling Against White Inheritance: Critical Writing Pedagogy in Teacher Education

• In Event: Honing the Critical Literacy Development of Students, Preservice Teachers, and Teacher Educators

Abstract

This paper explores how the construction of a writer’s workshop in an English Teacher Education program affects the development of anti-racist white teacher identities. We seek a critical writing pedagogy that locates stories in social contexts to explore how systems of power affect the creation of one’s life narrative (Kamler, 2001; Anzaldua, 2015). We ask: How does the space of a writer’s workshop lead to anti-racist identity and actions? We find that despite tentativeness about how to write about whiteness and a sense of resistance to the topic, the white teacher candidates we interviewed chose a posture of approach. In approaching whiteness, the teachers candidates identified ways to rebel against their white inheritance and construct an anti-racist teacher identity.

Authors

• Elise Toedt, University of Minnesota

• Anna Schick, University of Minnesota