“You Know How to Deal with These Problems with Your Students, Not as a Teacher”: Learning to Teach as Racialized Experiences

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 1:45 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Staying Power: Narrating Teacher Identity and Becoming

Abstract

The purpose of this proposal is to examine teacher learning amid racialized experiences. Recent literature has highlighted both the complexity of learning to teach, as well as the particular challenges with discrimination teachers of color may face as they enter the profession. The proposed study is a single participant narrative inquiry of Zhuxin, an early career teacher from China who studied and worked in the US. Zhuxin’s racialized teacher learning experiences, along with her school’s struggle to support teachers and combat discriminatory behavior by students, exacerbated the challenges inherent to the first year of teaching. The study points to a need for preservice teachers to develop strategies to navigate racial discrimination they may face in the classroom.

Author

• William J. Davis, Southern Utah University