Teacher Educators of Color Navigating the Resurgence of White Supremacy in Education

• In Event: Teacher Educators of Color Under Attack

Abstract

This collective memory work examines how four teacher educators of Color resist white supremacy amid escalating anti-DEI policies. Through three years of dialogic analysis using collective memory work, we identified the following themes to explore: (1) institutional suppression of racial justice work through surveillance and censorship, and (2) collective resistance strategies to preserve critical scholarship. Findings reveal how white supremacy operates through faculty self-censorship or anticipatory obedience and state-sanctioned epistemic violence. Our work demonstrates teacher education's failure to disrupt whiteness perpetuates harm against BIPOC faculty and students, while highlighting the necessity of hallowed spaces for solidarity and action. This study contributes to understanding how critical teacher educators of Color sustain justice work during political backlash against equity initiatives.

Authors

• Amos Joon Lee, University of California - Riverside

• Sharon Leathers, Ramapo College

• Ranita Cheruvu, University of North Texas

• Ramon Vasquez, University of Minnesota