Disrupting Spatial Narratives: Redlining, Place-Based Pedagogy, and Preservice Teacher Learning

• In Event: Honoring, Unforgetting, and Humanizing Teacher Preparation: Acknowledging Complexity in the Process

Abstract

Using place-based education and critical geography we outline how we teach and model a curriculum that introduces preservice teachers (PSTs) to the history of redlining and the creation of racialized and class based spaces/neighborhoods. In collaboration with a community organization, we utilize redlining maps to illustrate the interconnectedness between space and power. Our purpose for this lesson was to disrupt the spatial narratives that our PSTs hold regarding predominantly Black and Brown communities and schools and to bring awareness to racial inequities. Findings reveal that PSTs recognize the harmful legacy of redlining and its continued manifestations of racial inequality. However, they lacked a deeper awareness of their own embeddedness within these systems and their potential to make meaningful change.

Authors

• Crystal G Simmons, University of North Carolina - Wilmington

• James Oigara, SUNY - College at Geneseo