Scope, Sequence, and Social Injustice: The Case for Confronting Anti-Blackness in Teacher Education

• In Event: Collectively Grasping: Lessons and Limits in Pursuing a Racial Justice Teacher Education

Abstract

Objectives & Research Question
Despite significant scholarly advances in teacher education regarding social justice (Cochran-Smith et al, 2009; Kohli & Pizzaro, 2016), the field has yet to fully contend with and “call it what it is” - teacher preparation remains anti-Black (ross, 2020). Therefore, this paper engages a critical analysis at the nexus of critical race studies and teacher education. Research questions included: 1) What are the limits of social justice education in preparing racially just teachers? 2) How, if at all, are teacher candidates prepared to confront anti-Blackness in their teaching? and 3) How can teacher education programs make confronting anti-Blackness an imperative?

Theory
This paper uses an interdisciplinary approach blending Critical Race Studies (Coles & Stanley, 2021; Dumas and ross, 2016; Solórzano, 2019) and Ethnic Studies (Author; Tintiangco-Cubales, et al., 2015) to guide study design and analysis. Through BlackCrit, we situate anti-Blackness to “signal the broader antagonistic relationship between blackness and the possibility of humanity” (ross, 2019, p.3). Critical race theory in teacher education provides an "explanatory framework that accounts for the role of race and racism in teacher education" (Solórzano, 2019, p. 108). Finally, Ethnic Studies provides an analytical precision concerned with interrogating anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and colonialism as constitutive of schooling. These framings inform how we might better recognize the potential for a more expansive and intersectional teacher education.

Methods/Sources
Through a case study of a teacher education program shifting curricula to center racial justice, this paper draws on three years of data from three focus groups and individual interviews that engaged 30 students and 22 teachers as a part of a university teacher education program that centered racial justice across core classes. The study’s site is unique, consisting of majority Teacher of Color candidates and majority Faculty of Color. The authors incorporate autoethnography (Chang, 2016) to honor the experiential knowledges of teacher educators of Color. Taken together, we present research reflective of the potential for teacher education grounded in intersectionality and explicitly examining anti-Blackness.

Findings
This study documents how one university teacher education program shifted its knowledge base to center racial justice. In spite of the program’s shift, the critical need to interrogate anti-Blackness became abundantly clear. The study examines how teacher educators of Color navigate and contend with moving from a longstanding focus on multicultural education to an anti-racist curricula and now toward an explicit focus on studying and unlearning anti-Blackness across the program. Findings contribute to the field toward: 1) Identifying the shortcomings of social justice education to tackle issues of anti-Blackness and white supremacy and 2) Moving from anti-racism toward embedding critical race and ethnic studies approaches in teacher education.

Significance
This paper contributes to a body of literature on critical race studies and education generally as well as anti-Blackness in teacher education specifically. Considering the limits of social justice education, we take seriously the imperative all teacher education programs must grapple with to challenge anti-Blackness. This paper reveals the necessary work in which teacher educators and researchers must engage toward just repair and teacher education renewal.

Authors

• Edward R. Curammeng, California State University - Dominguez Hills

• Laurie D. Inman, California State University - Dominguez Hills