Revisiting the Development of Racial Literacy in Undergraduate Teacher Preparation Five Years Out: AERA Sessions, 11:44 AM

• In Event: e-Lightening Ed-Talk Session 12

Abstract

The transition from undergraduate teacher preparation to in-service teaching practice is an important area of focus in the overall research on teacher development. Specifically, the field needs more insight into the process of developing and solidifying an identity as a teacher for racial justice—an identity that must endure through challenging and even hostile contexts. This study explores the professional trajectories of former pre-service teachers during their first years of in-service teaching, who participated in undergraduate critical race inquiry groups. Guided by Critical Race Praxis and Racial Literacy, this poster shares the process for conceptualizing and designing a study that focuses on how to learn from educators’ experiences, in their own words. Using qualitative methods, former teacher candidates, now in-service teachers, reflect on their journey in education to be racially-literate educators through storytelling narratives. The approach to research includes a co-constructive, participatory process that engages teacher participants as co-researchers. Insights gained from this study provide a window into what former pre-service teachers navigate after they graduate and how they undertake the journey of implementing racial literacy skills and teaching for racial justice.

Author

• Chanelle Wilson, Bryn Mawr College