Capturing Teachers' Racial Literacy Knowledge: An Exploratory Study

• In Event: Dual Language Learners, English Learners, and Literacy Knowledge

Abstract

Events in 2020 and 2021 underscore the critical need for linking literacy and race to disrupt systemic racism and support greater social justice. One powerful way to do so is to increase teachers’ racial literacy. This requires, in part, that we expand what and how we come to know about teachers’ racial literacy. Towards this end, we have begun developing a tool to measure the knowledge underlying racial literacy. Guided by Goodwin’s (2010) knowledge domains, we developed and piloted the Teachers’ Understanding of Racial Literacy instrument with 38 novice teachers using survey and interview data. Initial findings suggest that the tool holds promise in providing policy makers and teacher educators with generalizable guidance toward building teachers’ racial literacy.

Authors

• Lisa O'Brien, Merrimack College

• Catherine Anne Lammert, Texas Tech University

• Carin L Appleget, Creighton University

• Pallavi Chhabra, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Shuling Yang, East Tennessee State University

• Poonam Arya, Wayne State University

• Xiufang Chen, Rowan University

• Marla Roschelle Goins, The Ohio State University

• Rhonda Hylton, Kent State University

• Amy Leigh Tondreau, University of Maryland - Baltimore County