Creating a Triad of Mediation to Facilitate White Teacher Candidates' Learning of Race and Racism

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 3:20 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Teachers' Critical Development and Learning (Table 10)

Abstract

The present study investigates how white teacher candidates (TCs) at a rural, primarily white institution in the mid-Atlantic learn about race and racism in a course on liberatory pedagogies. This study demonstrates a trans-semiotizing pedagogical strategy - the triad of mediation - that includes instructional materials, professor feedback, and, innovatively, lyrical wait-time (i.e., using songs during wait-time) to support how TCs learn and understand race and racism. Using interaction analysis, we examined classroom interaction data to make sense of how TCs’ learning happened. Findings suggest that the triad of mediation provokes TCs’ thinking, facilitates their learning through trans-semiotized knowledge (e.g., visuals, songs), and fosters ideological consensus among them. Implications for developing and implementing the triad of mediation will be discussed.

Authors

• Jennifer Jackson, Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education

• Di Liang, Pennsylvania State University

• Azaria I. Cunningham, Boston University

• Jeanine M. Staples-Dixon, Pennsylvania State University