Pedagogical Frameworks for Equitable and Antiracist Community-Engaged Teacher Preparation

• In Event: Community-Engaged Teacher Preparation: Issues and Insights From Teacher Educators

Abstract

Ideally, community-engaged teacher preparation could be employed to prepare candidates to develop a consciousness that promotes social activism and community engagement, and to employ equitable, culturally responsive, student-centered practices in their future classrooms. This paper explores three pedagogical approaches that can provide theoretical frameworks for preparing teacher candidates for engaging in equitable and antiracist community-engaged teacher preparation: culturally sustaining pedagogy, antiracist pedagogy, and humanizing pedagogy.
• Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy. Approaching community-engaged teacher preparation opportunities through culturally sustaining pedagogy means seeking to promote positive societal transformation through sustaining “the lifeways of communities who have been and continue to be damaged and erased through schooling (Paris & Alim, 2017). In the context of community-engaged teacher preparation, culturally sustaining pedagogy prepares candidates to enter the community context with humility and respect, which is at odds with the whitewashed educational agenda perpetuated by anti-DEI legislation.
• Antiracist Pedagogy. Antiracism is an ongoing process of internal reflection and external action that seeks to root out racist ideas and disrupt racist policies, which requires a radical reorientation of consciousness, persistent self-awareness, constant self-criticism, and regular self-examination (Kendi, 2019). Antiracist teaching requires intentionally working to disrupt white supremacy, centering BIPOC voices and experiences, and taking actions to promote racial equity. Antiracist teaching practices are built on a foundation of activism. Antiracist pedagogy includes acknowledging the lived experiences of BIPOC students and rejecting false notions of racial superiority (Pollock, 2008) and fighting injustice in their schools and communities through critical reflection and antiracist action (Love, 2019).
• Humanizing Pedagogy. Humanizing pedagogy engages teacher candidates and learners in the individual and collective pursuit of conscientização (Freire, 1978/2013) and positions them to challenge inequities and promote a “more fully human world” (Salazar, 2013). According to Freire, education is never neutral. Rather, it is an instrument used to bring about either conformity or freedom (Freire, 1978/2013). Humanizing pedagogy disrupts deficit-perspectives and the banking model of learning, in which students are positioned as empty vessels positioned to receive knowledge from teachers (Freire, 1978/2013). As candidates participate in community-engaged activities, it is vitally important to prepare them to engage critically and thoughtfully (i.e., conscientização) in order to avoid perpetuating (white) saviorist views.
The language of equity and inclusion has been politicized and anti-DEI legislation has taken hold across the country. These pedagogical approaches center issues of power, privilege, and positionality while upholding the principle of ‘do no harm’ (Bezrukova et al., 2016). This presentation will conclude with a discussion of the challenges teacher educators face in engaging their teacher candidates in equitable and antiracist community-engaged teacher preparation within the current political climate.

Author

• Diane Codding, Northwestern University