Critical Family History as a Gateway to Racial Literacy in Teacher Education

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

Abstract

Objectives
Many U.S. teacher education programs respond slowly to the increasing calls to address the racial and cultural divide between students and teachers in U.S. K–12 schools, largely due to the dominance of whiteness in their curricula, demographics of students and instructors, and operational structures and politics (Author 2, 2016). These structural issues prevent preservice teachers from developing racial literacy to serve all students in K–12 schools equitably. Recent research suggests that many teacher educators employ critical self-reflection to foster preservice teachers’ racial literacy by engaging them in examining their racialized experiences and their implications for teaching (Hambacher & Ginn, 2021). Yet, it may omit how preservice teachers often inherit racist beliefs from their ancestors. This paper proposes using critical family history (Sleeter, 2011) to help preservice teachers enhance their racial literacy and teaching competence.

Theoretical Framework
Twine (2004) theorized racial literacy as White parents protecting their biracial children in England by directly addressing their encounters with racial discrimination and strategically nurturing their bicultural heritage. Guinier (2004) argued that U.S. society must shift from racial liberalism to racial literacy to “combine legal and legislative advocacy that enlists support among people of all colors” to eradicate systemic racism (p. 117). Building on this scholarly lineage, Price-Dennis and Sealey-Ruiz (2021) stated that racially literate teachers can “examine, discuss, challenge, and take antiracist action in situations that involve acts of racism” (p. 19). Three tenets anchor racial literacy: questioning assumptions, engaging in critical conversations, and practicing reflexivity (Price-Dennis & Sealey-Ruiz, 2021). Taken together, they can help educators develop a continuum of racial literacies to unsettle systemic racism in schools (Chávez-Moreno, 2022).

Methods
This qualitative case study examined how preservice teachers at a predominantly white institution in the Pacific Northwest developed racial literacy. Two research questions anchor this study: 1) How did one Asian male teacher educator facilitate a critical family history project in a multicultural education course? 2) How did preservice teachers’ engagement with the project enhance their racial literacy?

Data
The data for this study included the multicultural education course curricula, instructional materials, examples of preservice teachers’ critical family history projects, and open-ended interviews conducted with preservice teachers after they completed their degree program.

Results
Through triangulating the various data sources, the author delineates how preservice teachers learned to critique dominant racial narratives in U.S. society, practice self-reflexivity about (un)learning systemic racism within their families, and become committed to anti-racist praxis in their future classrooms. Specifically, the course materials and the critical family history project deepened preservice teachers’ racial literacy continuum to challenge whiteness in teaching and learning.

Scholarly Significance
The paper argues that critical family history can significantly help teacher education programs reimagine their preparation for the next generation of teachers. By critically analyzing family records and oral histories, preservice teachers can unsettle myths (e.g., meritocracy) that minimize systemic racism and perpetuate white supremacy in U.S. K–12 schools (Sleeter, 2016) and assume their responsibility of promoting racial justice and collective liberation.

Author

• Lin Wu, Western Oregon University