Exploring Black Preservice Teacher Identity using a Black Education Studies Curriculum

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 1:45 pm - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Learning to Teach, Teaching to Liberate: Black Teachers and Pedagogical Freedom

Abstract

This paper examines and critiques how traditional teacher preparation programs marginalize African American preservice teachers by centering Eurocentric curricula and excluding Black education histories and traditions. These programs often overlook the intellectual and political legacies Black educators carry, leaving preservice teachers to develop ahistorical and uncritical teacher identities. As anti-Black policies and curricular bans increase, many develop a harmful teacher dysconsciousness that disconnects their pedagogy from liberation. This study explores how engagement with a Black Education Studies curriculum, within a Black Literary Society, supports African American preservice teachers in reimagining their roles and reconnecting to a tradition of pedagogical excellence and justice. It calls for integrating Black Education Studies into teacher education to cultivate culturally sustaining, liberatory teaching identities.

Author

• Travon Jefferson, Michigan State University