Teacher educators and racecraft: unpacking unhelpful practices in anti-racist teaching.

• In Event: Innovative Pedagogies for Justice in Teacher Education

Abstract

For over twenty years two teacher preparation programs in a Southeastern state have been engaged in a student exchange program, one “urban” [and HBCU) and one “rural” (a PWI) to confront stereotypes about those communities. The goal of the exchange has always been to demystify the “other” and promote cultural competence in teacher education candidates (TC). The faculty have realized activities created to bring these two populations together have continued to promote racial separation and a duality of Black/ Urban and Rural/White experiences. This has caused us to reflect on our own knowledge base to engage in anti-racist teaching. This proposal shares the preliminary stages of a self-study on the evolution and outcomes, over 4 years, of one activity in this exchange that has evolved from faculty ascribing identities to the TCs to allowing them to share their avowed identities (Martin & Nakayama, 2010).

Authors

• Carrie Rogers, Western Carolina University

• Kimberly Bunch-Crump, North Carolina A & T

• Kellee Watkins, North Carolina A & T

• Adrienne Stuckey, Western Carolina University

• Pam Buskey, Western Carolina University