Growing Your Own: A Narrative of a Novice Social Justice Teacher Educator of Color

• In Event: Centering the Professional Development Needs of Pre- and In-Service Social Justice Educators of Color

Abstract

Objective
Social justice teacher educators of color (SJTEC) are focused on preparing prospective teachers to meet the needs of a diverse student population (Ladson-Billings, 1994; Gay, 2000; Goodwin, 2004). Their praxis is focused on the significance of diversity, equity, and structures of power in schools. Because the teacher workforce remains overwhelmingly White, there is a large body of literature that addresses how to prepare White teachers to teach students of color, but how is someone an effective teacher educator of color who prepares teachers of color and what are their experiences in doing this particular work? Specifically, what are some of the experiences and insights of a novice SJTEC navigating the field of teacher education such that they are supported or hindered in working to prepare preservice teachers of color to examine and address issues of inequity and institutionalized racism in schools that impact historically and systematically dispossessed students?

Theoretical Framework and Method
This paper is a critical autoethnography where a novice SJTEC new to the field of teacher education explores and examines the limits and possibilities of supporting and centering the needs of preservice teachers of color (Boylorn & Orbe, 2014). The paper drew upon her personal narrative and counter-narrative that uses a cultural analysis in teacher education to situate experiences of gender, race, ethnicity, ability, and orientation within the sociopolitical context of power, liberation, and oppression. Critical autoethnography emphasizes practitioner research, where research and practice are inseparable and interdependent. Because knowledge is socially constructed and situated, narrative inquiry asserts that we understand and give meaning to our lives through telling in storytelling while autoethnography is crucial in understanding that the researcher’s story is indelible to the study of phenomena (Boylorn & Orbe, 2014; Connelly & Clandinin, 1990).

Results
This paper details the experiences of a novice social justice teacher educator of color as she navigates a teacher education program and finds ways to support her own growth and learning and that of preservice teachers of color. It highlights the problematic cultural taxation (Joseph & Hirshfield, 2011) of being an educator of color in the academy that can impact the psychological and emotional work of teaching.

Significance
There is a dearth of literature describing how SJTEC make sense of their work and experiences in teacher education, especially work that is equity-centered and social justice-oriented. The more examination and exploration dedicated to these experiences, the better we can support SJTEC thereby supporting teachers of color and students.

Author

• Nini Hayes, Marist College