“Because They’ve Had To”: Unpacking Resistance to Critical Self-Reflection for Preservice Teachers of Color

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 11:40 am Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Empowering Diverse Educators: Exploring Emotional Labor and Cultural Capital in Teacher Education (Table 8)

Abstract

This study examines how three preservice teachers (PSTs) of Color experience critical self-reflection coursework in an undergraduate education course at a liberal arts college in the Mid-Atlantic. Findings suggest that PSTs of Color, many of whom possess “experiential knowledge of societal inequities, including the inequitable nature of K-12 schooling" (Brown, 2014, p. 339), may resist critical self-reflection because it invites revisitation of potentially traumatic aspects of lived experience with oppression. Given that engagement with critical self-reflection is a prerequisite for the development of equity-minded educators (Gay & Kirkland, 2003; Liu & Milman, 2010), the paper offers thoughts on how preservice education can better differentiate both the process and product of critical self-reflection to mitigate harm and maximize benefits for all.

Author

• Kelly Gavin Zuckerman, Bryn Mawr College