When Am I Going to Learn How to Teach? Tensions With Antiracist Theory and Practice

• In Event: Racial Realism Revelations: A Loving Critique of Racial Justice Teacher Education

Abstract

Objectives & Research Questions
Over the past twenty years, teacher education programs have revamped and revised their mission, visions, courses, curriculum, and field experiences to reflect the ideals embedded in social justice education (Reagan & Hambacher, 2021). With these changes, it is critical to understand how teacher candidates within these programs make sense of their experiences. The purpose of this study is to explore the tensions that surface as teacher candidates share perceptions of their experiences after they complete teacher preparation programs grounded in equity, social justice, and anti-racist practices. This study is predominantly qualitative but also employs a limited analysis of quantitative survey data. Our work is guided by the following research question: How do teacher candidates perceive their experiences in teacher education programs with a vision and goal that embeds racial consciousness and social justice?

Theory
The five knowledge domains for teaching serve as an essential analytical lens to better understand the experiences of teacher candidates (Goodwin, 2010; Goodwin & Darity, 2019). The knowledge domains are Personal, Contextual, Pedagogical, Sociological, and Social. Each domain provides a frame to focus on aspects of teaching knowledge and competencies that are necessary to enact social justice teaching. Considering student experiences through these domains help connect theory to practice by analyzing student perceptions in their programs and how these may have an impact on their future practice.

Methods/Sources
This study draws on four years of exit survey data that was administered from May 2020-2023 to teacher candidates in the final semester of their programs. The purpose of the exit survey was to gather information about teacher candidates’ perceptions of their experiences in teacher preparation programs regarding issues of racial consciousness and social justice. The survey includes questions that utilize a 1-5 Likert-scale (i.e., strongly disagree to strongly agree) as well as open-ended questions where teacher candidates were prompted to share information on various topics. We largely utilized qualitative methodology through content analysis of the open-ended questions; we applied inductive coding to identify themes found in the student responses (Saldaña, 2015). We also implemented limited quantitative analysis to determine response rates, and both mean and median scores for Likert-scale items on the survey.

Findings and Significance
Findings from the qualitative data revealed three tensions about teacher candidates’ perceptions of their preparation in racial consciousness and social justice education. First, respondents disclosed a tension between theory and practice where they felt there was a lack of opportunity to learn practical application in the classroom. Second, responses exposed a resistance and opposition to anti-racist and social justice ideals. Finally, teacher candidates expressed feelings that they received inadequate or missing information in some of their coursework or field experiences. Although findings from this study point to the gap that continues to exist in preparing anti-racist and social justice-oriented educators, there are practical implications that teacher preparation programs can consider for program development.

Authors

• Bernadette Castillo, University of Houston

• Beth Beschorner, Minnesota State University - Mankato

• David Kimori, Minnesota State University - Mankato