Accomplices in Action: Exploring the Case for Cross-Racial Co-Teaching in Teacher Education

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Reimagining Possibilities for Teacher Education (Table 27)

Abstract

In this paper, the authors argue that cross-racial co-teaching offers a promising way to address several enduring tensions within teacher education. Drawing on six years spent co-teaching an equity-focused course in a teacher residency program, we explore the opportunities associated with facilitating “courageous conversations” as a Black-white teaching team. We argue that co-teaching the course has been a powerful force for justice, allowing us to model vulnerable cross-racial dialogue, to leverage our intersectional identities during racialized encounters, to call each other in/out, and to demonstrate how to find joy in the journey. We suggest that cross-racial co-teaching is a powerful but underutilized way to model for teacher candidates what it means to take collective responsibility for practicing antiracism.

Authors

• Sarah M. Fine, University of California - San Diego

• Michelle Pledger, High Tech High Graduate School of Education