White Teachers, Equity Professional Development

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: White Teachers Learning About Equity and Antiracist Practice

Abstract

P-12 school districts have long sought to support marginalized students (and their predominantly white teachers) through professional development (PD) addressing diversity, multiculturalism, and more recently, equity. Heeding the AERA 2022 call, this proposal considers how racial equity-focused PD can contribute to equitable schools and systems. This proposal overviews a year of research on a school district’s “diversity and equity” cohort of white teachers engaged in learning about race in order to better serve Black students. Our analysis leads us to consider the process of supporting predominantly white teachers to not only grapple with learning about race and racism but also apply such learning in schools, a distinction we came to see as “level 1” and “level 2” PD impacts.

Authors

• Andrew Matschiner, University of California - San Diego

• Mica Pollock, University of California - San Diego