Decolonizing Teacher Preparation Programs: Strategies for a Changing K–12 School System

• In Event: Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: Becoming Who We Were Meant to Be: Black Teachers' Experiences of Teaching and Becoming Teachers

Abstract

In this paper, the presenter documents student experiences as they train to become
teachers by looking at the experiences of students of color who are interested in going into teaching because they see education as a place for creating a socially just world. This study looks at 30 students who were in teacher education programs, or who were once in teacher education and left or who were never in teacher education but are interested in working with or currently work in public schools with youth. Questions guiding this inquiry include: What are the
obstacles they face? How do they stay motivated despite what they see as curriculum that is not
interested in engaging them and their peers in a socially just curriculum? Did they use social
capital to help get them through their teacher prep or volunteer experiences? Do their
experiences help us think more critically about decolonizing teacher prep programs to be less
Eurocentric and less responsive to a changing demographic of students?

Author

• Kimberly Natalia Williams Brown, Syracuse University