Imagining Forward: Centering Blackness in Teacher Education

• In Event: Operationalizing Cultural Responsiveness to See, Center, Support, and Improve the Conditions for and Experiences With Black Education

Abstract

With the amount of anti-Blackness in K-12 schools (Warren & Coles, 2020), the focus on preparing preservice teachers (PSTs) to effectively teach and learn from Black students is long overdue.While some teacher education programs have been able to shift PSTs’ beliefs about students of color (Kumar & Hamer, 2013), changing PSTs’ ideologies, specifically around their color evasive stance has been negligible (Larkin et al., 2016). Teacher prep programs need to better prepare PSTs to challenge their biases, negative stereotypes, and preconceived ideas about Black students. This paper shares a qualitative study that seeks to understand how white PSTs perceive Black elementary students and how an elementary foundations course that centers Blackness impacted those perceptions.

Author

• Shamaine Bertrand, The College of New Jersey