Preservice Teachers of Color, a Community of Abolitionist Praxis, and Pedagogies of Abolitionist Praxis

• In Event: Educating While Racially Marginalized: The Teaching Profession as a Site for Care and Activism

Abstract

Objectives
In response to the AERA theme of dismantling racial injustice and constructing educational possibilities, abolition seeks to (re)imagine and (re)configure the social conditions that allow for carceral institutions to exist (Gilmore, 2022). While the exploration of abolition in educational spaces is not new (Love, 2019; Stovall, 2018), the nascent scholarship on abolition in teacher education remains largely conceptual (Camangian, 2021; Sabati et al., 2022). This year-long ethnographic study explores how four English Language Arts (ELA) racially marginalized pre-service teachers, who participated in a Community of Abolitionist Praxis (Author, Forthcoming), operationalize an abolitionist praxis in their work (i.e., curriculum and instruction, relational work, organizing and activism).

Theoretical Framework
I engage in an interdisciplinary approach to explore an abolitionist praxis in educational settings. I build on Rodríguez’s definition of abolition (2019), which “seeks (as it performs) a radical reconfiguration of justice, subjectivity, and social formation” that does not depend on the existence of carceral institutions (p. 1576). I couple this with Freirean praxis (1970), a cyclical process of reflection, theory, and practice to “[act] upon the world in order to transform it” (p. 52). Taken together, I define an abolitionist praxis as the commitment and practice toward abolishing all carceral systems, policies, and practices via a (re)imagination and (re)configuration of society through individual and collective reflection, theory, and practice within and beyond K-12 schools.

Methods
This year-long ethnographic case study (Yin, 2018) explores how participants operationalize an abolitionist praxis in their work. Participants are two elementary teachers (Latinas) and two high school teachers (one Afghan woman and one non-binary Latinx person). Participants were part of a larger group of fourteen pre-service teachers of color who participated in a Community of Abolitionist Praxis, a monthly inquiry group outside of their teacher education program.

Data
Data includes in-depth interviews (Seidman, 2019) and participant observations (Emerson et al., 2011). Each interview focused on the personal and professional experiences of participants that supported and/or hindered their ability to operationalize an abolitionist praxis in their work. The ethnographic observations included ten two-hour and monthly Community of Abolitionist Praxis gatherings and over 60 classroom observations. Open, axial, and closed coding (Saldaña, 2021) was employed to identify emerging themes within and across the data (Braun & Clark, 2012).

Results
First, all participants revealed various personal and professional experiences within the Community of Abolitionist Praxis that supported their ability to operationalize an abolitionist praxis in their work. Second, all participants engaged in what I conceptualize as “pedagogies of abolitionist praxis”: pedagogical approaches, rooted in an abolitionist ethos, in the areas of curriculum and instruction, relational work, and organizing and activism.

Significance
This study contributes to the nascent scholarship exploring abolition in teacher education. Findings have profound implications for the preparation and support of racially marginalized pre-service teachers, and all pre-service teachers, along with implications for K-12 teacher practice. This scholarship highlights effective approaches and practices to better prepare and support pre-service teachers to operationalize an abolitionist praxis, coupled with effective K-12 pedagogical approaches and practices through an abolitionist praxis.

Author

• Rubén A. González, University at Buffalo - SUNY