Preschool Teachers of Color Under Quarantine: Critical Resilience in the Pursuit of Educational Equity

• In Event: Power to the Field!: Equity and Transformation in Early Childhood Workforce and Education
  In Paper Session: Power to the Field! Equity and Transformation in Early Childhood Workforce and Education

Abstract

This paper reports research on the critical resilience employed by preschool teachers of color in their pursuit of equity for their students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on an on-going ethnographic study of preservice teachers of color in a university-associated preschool in the desert southwest, this paper examines the funds of knowledge teachers of color draw upon to provide inclusive preschool education for all children, especially children of color, through the temporary closure, remote teaching phase, and gradual reopening of the school. We use qualitative data from ethnographic interviews to establish a picture of the adversities faced by the teachers of color, as well as the resources and strategies that they implemented in overcoming those adversities.

Authors

• Katrina Liu, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Richard C. Miller, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Arnetha F. Ball, Stanford University

• Claire Therese Tredwell, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Haojie Cui, University of Nevada - Las Vegas