Complicating (Idealist) Conceptualizations of Equity: The Realist Perspectives of Teacher Educators of Color

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Complicating Ideas of Inclusivity and Equity for Teacher Educators (Table 22)

Abstract

Teacher education is not remiss from the critique within Critical Race Theory that the field prioritizes an idealist theorization of equity, which focuses on language and beliefs, and neglects the affordances of a realist/economic determinist perspective, which focuses on structural change and material conditions as related to racism. In this paper I argue that realist pedagogy surfaces contradictions that expand conceptualizations of educational equity. Rather than unilaterally negating rigor, economic mobility, and the myth of meritocracy (i.e., whiteness as property), three teacher educators of color at two Hispanic Serving Institutions contended with the realist/materialist consequences of not working within these structures and complicated narratives of community and teacher affinity in ways that idealist perspectives have yet to fully engage.

Author

• Tara Schwitzman-Gerst, Kean University