Making Rhetoric Reality: Teacher Educators' Capacity to Prepare Preservice Teachers for Racial Equity Work

• In Event: Teaching in a "Revolutionary Situation": The Role of Racial Justice in Teacher Education

Abstract

Objectives & Research Question
Teacher candidates often leave teacher preparation programs (TPP) underprepared to respond adequately to, and account appropriately for, the racial realities of diverse youth and families (Ng, 2003). TPPs can perpetuate disparities through their racial climates and in their approaches to matters of equity and justice by allowing several key factors to go unexamined and unchallenged. For instance, White students complete university-based TPPs at considerably higher rates than students of Color due to the racially hostile climates for future teachers of Color (Kohli, 2009), culturally biased high-stakes teacher licensure exams (Petchauer, 2018; Tintiangco-Cubales, Kohli, Sacramento, Henning, Agarwal-Rangnath, & Sleeter, 2015), inattention to racial literacy development (Sealey-Ruiz, 2011), and a teacher preparation curriculum that centers Whiteness (Brown, 2014; Sleeter, 2017).

This mixed-methods study examined the intentions and practices of teacher educators who desire to implement principles of racial equity into their TPP. Guided by Solorzano & Delgao Bernal’s theory of transformational resistance, this study explores: 1) What do teacher educators say about the need for centering racial equity in the preparation of preservice teachers? 2) What do teacher educators do to prepare teacher candidates to have the skills, knowledge, and dispositions to advance racial equity in their future classrooms?

Theory
This study presupposed that teacher educators at a research university based TPP were knowledgeable of the broader work relating to racial justice, racial literacy, and critical frameworks for understanding the role of race in society. By extension, teacher educators’ awareness of this important role TPPs play in perpetuating racism specifically in schools was also presumed based on these teacher educators’ continuing effort to address race and justice in their work. Solorzano and Delgado Bernal’s (2001) define transformational resistance as being political, collective, conscious, and motivated by a sense that individual and social change are possible. They outlined four types of student oppositional behavior: reactionary, self-defeating, conformist, and transformational. They argued that only behavior that includes a critique of social oppression and is motivated by social justice meets the criteria for transformational resistance. We believe transformational resistance as a framework enables us to better understand the practices of these teacher educators preparing teacher candidates to have the skills, knowledge, and dispositions to advance racial equity.

Methods/Sources
A case study approach was utilized involving teacher educators from one university based TPP who sought to advance racial equity through program and curricular designs. Data from faculty surveys, focus groups, and course syllabi were analyzed to generate themes organized around Solorzano and Delgado Bernal’s framework for transformational resistance.

Findings and Significance
Findings from the study revealed some teacher educators struggled with their positionalities, as white instructors, on how to equitably engage in race work without over/under stepping their roles as co-conspirators. Some struggled with understanding what it means to be in solidarity with colleagues of Color who are experiencing racism in real time, and what to do about it. This work adds literature that examine the constraints that impede TPPs ability to advance racial equity through their work with preservice teachers.

Authors

• Terry Kyle Flennaugh, Michigan State University
  Presenting Author

• Terrance Burgess, Michigan State University
  Presenting Author

• Robin White, Independent Consultant
  Presenting Author