Beyond Compliance: Teachers’ Lived Experiences and the Making of Ethnic-Racial Identity Projects in K-12 Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 9:45 am - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Curriculum as a Site of Struggle, Collaboration, and Transformation

Abstract

This study examines how Brazilian lead teachers design and implement school-based ethnic-racial identity projects, drawing on interviews with lead educators from three national award-winning initiatives. Findings reveal that these projects are not driven by curriculum requirements, but by teachers’ embodied commitment to anti-racist education, shaped by lived experiences of oppression, resistance, and ancestral pride. Teachers use their projects to offer students what they lacked or cherished in their own development process: identity exploration, cultural affirmation, and critical consciousness. The study demonstrates that the adoption of culturally responsive pedagogies is deeply rooted in personal histories, going beyond a technical effort. It calls for teacher training models that prioritize autobiographical exploration and self-reflection as essential to preparing educators for meaningful equity work.

Author

• Julia Callegari, Northwestern University