“I don’t need permission to create change”: Affirming and Advancing Teacher Candidates’ Racial Micropolitical Literacies

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 3:45 pm - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Supervision and Social Justice: Supporting Preservice Teachers’ Growth, Agency, and Critical Reflections on Power

Abstract

To help teachers navigate today's precarious and contentious landscape, this proposal examines how integrating racial and political dimensions into teacher learning can pave the way for more equitable and just educational futures. Specifically, this qualitative case study examines how a student teaching seminar course supported the development of racial micropolitical literacies (RMPL; Pham, 2022)– or, the capacity to identify context-specific manifestations of power and respond through transformative everyday practice– among elementary teacher candidates (TCs). Our findings revealed teacher educators' essential moves in cultivating TCs' racial and sociopolitical awareness. Contending that field-based coursework must intentionally cultivate TCs’ political clarity and capacity, we offer practical implications for supporting TCs’ deep sensemaking and skill-building to disrupt inequities as crucial aspects of professional development.

Authors

• Acelynn C. Perkins, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Brenda Ortiz Torres, University of Colorado - Boulder