Leveraging Relationships in Pursuit of Racially-Just, Culturally Sustaining Teacher Diversification Pathways in the Midwest

• In Event: Looking Back, Envisioning Forward: Teacher Educators of Color Unsettling Whiteness for Collective Liberation

Abstract

Objectives
Challenging white hegemonic institutional structures, pedagogical practices, and research orientations in teacher education (TE), this paper utilizes race-based epistemologies as liberatory tools for decentering the enduring whiteness and imperial/colonial logics pervasive in TE. The author documents how a partnership among educational institutions (EIs) in a Midwest context collaboratively designed and implemented systemic change initiatives for/with the communities they serve. Building on 20+ years of experience in recruitment, preparation, induction, and retention of educators of Color (EOCs), this study challenges enduring notions of “best practices” in TE that continue to cater to experiences, perspectives, and dispositions of the White, monocultural majority. By centering the critical voices of students and EOCs, this paper moves beyond espoused commitments to racial equity and diversification and toward authentic and critical action that transforms how we inspire, prepare, and sustain EOCs.

Theoretical Framework
This study draws on elements of critical race theory, critical race feminism, and critical whiteness studies as the foundation for its inquiry. It interrogates the superficiality of PK-20 educational institutions’ espoused commitments to racial equity, despite their continued upholding of Eurocentric, meritocratic paradigms as the desired standard (Diab et al., 2016). Furthermore, it utilizes asset frameworks in nuanced ways to highlight how the complex, racialized experiences of students and educators of color, along with the rich and varied funds of knowledge (González et al., 2005) they bring to classrooms, can counter these paradigms (Dixson et al., 2019; Kohli, 2021).

Methods
This study documents collaborative efforts and lessons learned from a cross-institutional partnership that unapologetically integrated race-based epistemologies into reenvisioning teacher diversification pathways. It details the findings and implications gleaned from a qualitative case study (Saldaña, 2015) that integrated participatory and co-design research methods (Bang & Vossoughi, 2016) and critical self-study (Dinkelman, 2003). Methods were chosen to foster agency among stakeholders and center the voices of partner participants as the foundation for our learning.

Data
Data sources for this participatory case study include participant and stakeholder surveys/reflections, planning documents, curricula, field notes, recent state/federal legislation and executive orders, researcher memos, and partner communications over three years.

Results
By centering the lived experiences and voices of students and educators of Color as the cornerstone of our praxis, we work to move beyond espoused commitments to racial equity and diversification, toward authentic and critical action. Results document the freedom dreams and lessons learned among the designers, participants, and stakeholders as they worked to build and sustain the multi-institutional partnership. Results also illustrate the localized impacts of recent white supremacist executive orders and anti-DEI legislation designed to dismantle public education. Amidst the loss and devastation, findings offer critical insights for subversive and strategic responses to whiteness through grassroots organizing and fugitive pedagogies within and outside teacher education.

Scholarly Significance
With a commitment to interrogate our practices in TE with authenticity, vulnerability, and reimagination, this study offers critical considerations amidst current uncertainties and practical action steps to EIs seeking to decenter whiteness within their teacher diversification efforts through coalition-building with/for communities of Color.

Author

• Amanda Morales, University of Nebraska - Lincoln