Racial Literacy in Elementary Teacher Education: Faculty Experience and Readiness

• In Event: Leading and Learning About Equity, Diversity, and Social Justice

Abstract

As teacher educators working to embed racial literacy across the full scope and sequence of our teacher preparation programs, we must know about faculty’s will and skill. This action research study explored faculty’s perspectives about the importance of racial literacy skills development and their justifications for addressing, or not addressing, these skills in their own education courses. The action-researchers, founding members of a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) focused on racial literacy, identified an intention-behavior gap that will inform locally designed and delivered professional learning opportunities. The study best represents the ‘reconnaissance phase’ of a broader action research study, which cycles through co-assessing, co-planning, co-implementing, and co-reflecting on ways to improve our programs’ attention to racial literacy.

Authors

• Janine de Novais, University of Delaware

• Rosalie Rolon-Dow, University of Delaware

• Erica Litke, University of Delaware

• Jill Ewing Flynn, University of Delaware

• Elizabeth Gayle Soslau, University of Delaware