Interrogating Whiteness With Preservice Teachers: Writing as a Tool for Conceptualizing Race and Identity

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Learning Toward Remedy, Repair, and Equity in Literacy Instruction (Table 2)

Abstract

Writing is deeply personal and inseparable from social contexts. Engaging preservice teachers (PSTs) in the writing process can contribute to their understanding of pedagogical tools for teaching writing but also holds space for the interrogation of issues related to social injustice and their own identities. This paper examines how PSTs at a predominantly white institution (PWI) use writing to conceptualize their identities in a course on elementary literacy instruction. Using Critical Race Theory and Critical Whiteness Studies as frameworks, this study highlights the importance of interrogating whiteness in teacher education and addressing racial, cultural, and linguistic disparities between teacher and students in our schools. Findings reveal the potential of writing to foster critical reflection in teacher education

Author

• Kristen Driscoll, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign