In-Between and Becoming: Positionality, Power, and Justice in Teacher Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 11:45 am - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: The Politics of Becoming: Subjectivity, Power, and Teacher Formation

Abstract

This study offers a reflexive, arts-based inquiry into the lived experiences and identity negotiations of an Indian immigrant teacher educator of color working within a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). Framed by Critical Race Theory and Nepantla, the research engages Global South epistemologies and arts-based methods to challenge dominant paradigms in early childhood teacher education. Using self-study and reflective praxis, the project illuminates tensions, vulnerabilities, and transformative possibilities embedded in navigating borderlands of power, race, and knowledge. Findings suggest that culturally responsive, justice-centered teacher education must foreground relationality, embrace multiple ways of knowing, and reimagine preparation programs as spaces of collective liberation (Walker & Goings, 2025). This work contributes to re-theorizing faculty identity and pedagogical practice in equity-oriented, pluralistic, and liberatory ways.

Author

• Ayesha Rabadi-Raol, Sonoma State University