Dilemmas in Enacting Racial Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Social Studies

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: Racial Literacies and Antiracism in Social Education

Abstract

We argue in this paper that recent work on racial pedagogical content knowledge (RPCK) runs the risk of overlooking the situated, enacted way that teacher knowledge emerges in the course of instruction. We present our findings from a study of two teachers planning for and then enacting a unit of instruction about 19th century, African American history in Philadelphia. We found that both teachers were thoughtful educators with evidence of RPCK as it has been discussed in the literature. However, their respective RPCK emerged—or didn’t—at different moments that presented distinct instructional dilemmas. How teachers manage these dilemmas has enormous implications for whether and how a teacher’s RPCK makes its way into the classroom.

Authors

• Abby Reisman, University of Pennsylvania

• Lightning Jay, University of Pennsylvania

• Lisette Nnenna Enumah, The University of Pennsylvania