No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Teacher Dispositions for Cultural Competence: How Should We Prepare White Teacher Candidates for Moral Responsibility?
Abstract
The process of becoming culturally competent teachers could be hindered depending on the kind of dispositions individuals have toward racial/ethnic diversity. The analysis of 54 White teacher candidates' beliefs toward race and ethnicity revealed that the participants' beliefs were deeply embedded in Whiteness and that they did not identify White privilege as a type of racism. The author recommends that an affective approach that will make White teacher candidates emotionally engage in the conversation on race be taken in teacher education programs. Culturally competent teachers should not only possess knowledge and skills about teaching racially/ethnically different students, but also should possess a strong sense of social justice by thinking about whether or not their teaching contributes to society's advancement or to moral evil.
... The Center for American Progress (2013) reported that "The majority of children under age 1 in the United States today are children of color" while an article in the Huffington Posts' Black Voices in May of 2014 written by Jason Holland stated "Almost half the students attending public schools are minorities, yet fewer than 1 in 5 of their teachers is non-White." Additionally, Amos (2011) reports that studies predict public school students of color will represent half of all students served while the vast majority of teachers remain White in the next 4 years. In schools where students' speech is nonmainstream English, other research finds there is great difficulty in developing reading proficiency (p. ...
... 63). Amos (2011) postulates that if cultural diversity causes the gap in educational achievement between Blacks and Whites then it is incumbent upon teacher education programs to develop curricula that produces cultural competence in Black and White teacher candidates (p. 482) but also acknowledges that student teachers' prior dispositions can disrupt the accommodation of attitudes receptive of racial and ethnic diversity. ...
... The research of Amos (2011) and King (1991) is affirmed by Berlak (2008), a critical multicultural educator involved, as her colleagues, in preparing teacher candidates to contest the endemic reproduction of White supremacy in U.S. public schools. Berlak found it necessary to reassess her practice due to the contradictions in espoused beliefs and behavior identified in a student teachers' observation. ...
This qualitative doctoral thesis sought to explore African American parents' experiences related to society and parenting in order to provide a counter-narrative to the mainstream narrative that suggests African-American parents are ineffective. Five Black females provided the data garnered from semi-structured interviews framed by critical race theory (CRT). Findings revealed the participants' perceived their efforts were successful in readying their children for pre-kindergarten as evidenced by the children's demonstration of phonemic awareness, numeracy, color recognition, and appropriate social skills. Interestingly, all the participants believed that racism was taught by White parents to their children. Though each participant cited deficit ideologies reflective of elitist, hegemonic enculturation of White supremacist ideologies in U. S. society, the data further reveal that the participants retained their cultural and traditional perspectives associated with oral traditions and an African ethic.
... Importantly, second-wave White teacher identity studies pushed forward with new refinements in understanding White teachers' race-evasive identities that have relevance both for education researchers and for teacher education practitioners. Before looking at studies that advanced new emphases, however, it is important to note that several scholars in this group emphasized White teachers' race-evasive identities (e.g., Amos, 2011;Picower, 2009;Solomon, Portelli, Daniel, & Campbell, 2005) in ways that very much reflected previous research studies (e.g., Hytten & Warren, 2003;McIntyre, 1997aMcIntyre, , 1997bMcIntyre, , 2002Sleeter, 1992Sleeter, , 1993. ...
... Fourth, we found fertile paradoxes in recent literatures on White race-evasive teacher identities (Amos, 2011;Haviland, 2008;LaDuke, 2009;Segall & Garrett, 2013, Vaught & Castagno, 2008Yoon, 2012). These fertile paradoxes led into the discussion on the problematics and potentials of race-visible White identities further discussed below. ...
... Fertile paradoxes articulated a complex cultural production of race-visibility inside White teachers' personal or institutional-level race-evasion. Both Amos (2011) and LaDuke (2009) clearly articulated this paradox. Amos (2011) found that respondents recognized White privileges, yet simultaneously reincorporated understandings of White privilege back into race-evasive notions of humanist diversity. ...
In this study of White teacher identity literatures, we historicize, define, and advance second-wave White teacher identity studies in education research and teacher education. First, we provide a discussion of methodology used to conduct this study called the synoptic text. Second, we provide an historical account of White teacher identity studies that situates our review of literatures. Third, using the methodology of the synoptic text, we provide a systematic review of White teacher identity studies between 2004 and 2014. Situated within an account of a developing field, we develop the notion of second-wave White teacher identity studies. In our discussion and conclusion, we articulate the pedagogical implications of second-wave White teacher identity studies for education research and teacher education.
... In today's public schools, becoming an effective teachermaking professional decisions that lead to favorable student outcomes-requires that teacher candidates develop orientations toward instruction, and interpersonal interactions with youth, that produce evidence of culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP). Such an orientation (sometimes described as dispositions-see Amos, 2011;Annamma, 2015;Talbert-Johnson, 2006) includes active commitments to social justice, anti-oppressive, and antiracist teaching (Villegas, 2007). Diez (2007) insists that cultivating such orientations requires both conceptualizing and modeling effective teaching for teacher candidates (p. ...
... Indeed, the field recognizes the importance of preparing teacher candidates to cultivate dispositions necessary for preparing them to teach in increasingly diverse public schools (Amos, 2011; Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, 2011; Talbert- Johnson, 2006;Villegas, 2007). The application of empathy expands teacher candidates' knowledge of students, families, and communities such that there are necessary shifts in their beliefs, attitudes, and values determining their teaching dispositions. ...
Culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) offers elaborate empirical and theoretical conventions for becoming an effective teacher of diverse youth. Empathy has been found to improve classroom teachers’ capacity to (re)act or respond to youth in ways that produce evidence of CRP. However, there are too few instructive models in teacher education that help connect teacher candidates’ knowledge of students and communities to development of efficacious physical habits, tendencies, and trends in observable behavior or teacher dispositions. The application of empathy operationalized through perspective taking is one such model useful to preparing teacher candidates to make professional decisions that produce evidence of CRP. Engaging teacher candidates in perspective taking—adopting the social perspectives of others as an act and process of knowing—invites them to obtain (and reason with) new knowledge of students and the sociocultural context where she or he will teach. Recommendations for modeling and practicing perspective taking in teacher education are discussed.
... These researchers, however, questioned the genuineness of students who claimed to understand how race-based privilege and power perpetuated racism. Similar to Amos (2011), Glenn (2010), and Marx (2004, the authors stated, "Whiteness was a discourse of power that worked to maintain power imbalances" (emphasis in original, Hytten & Warren, 2003, p. 67). The authors went beyond these researchers, however, by using discourse analysis to develop strategies students used to protect the dominance of Whiteness: Appeals to Self, Appeals to Progress, Appeals to Authenticity, and Appeals to Extremes. ...
... Multiple researchers (Amos, 2011;Galman et al., 2010;Glenn, 2010;Hytten & Warren, 2003;Marx, 2004;Souto-Manning, 2011) explicitly interpreted Whiteness as a barrier between preservice teacher acknowledgment of race-based privilege and systemic inequities. Of this group, Galman et al. (2010) were the only researchers to address how Whiteness affected their own research efforts. ...
A narrative literature review was conducted to examine how researchers address the concept of White privilege in teacher education using critical race theory. A Boolean search revealed 26 articles met criteria for inclusion. Findings show most researchers (n = 15, 55%) investigated perceptions of White privilege within individual multicultural education courses and not comprehensively at the teacher education program level. Many White preservice teachers had difficulty connecting race-based privilege with systemic inequities. Implications for future research and training preservice teachers are provided.
... While scholars continue to recognize race-evasive patterns for white teachers, new epistemological directions (Amos, 2010;Michie, 2007) and increased researcher reflexivity (Case & Hemmings, 2005;Marx, 2004;Pennington, 2007) have added conceptual nuance. For instance, researchers observed white teachers recognizing their white privilege, while still avoiding in-depth discussions of race with students (Amos, 2011;Crowley, 2019;LaDuke, 2009) or invoking race while simultaneously glossing over its significance (Segall & Garrett, 2013). Other studies examined white teachers' race-conscious discussions of white privilege (Seattlage, 2011), suggesting that experiences of cross-racial contact and marginalized identitiesdfor example, based on socio-economic class (e.g., Laughter, 2011) or sexual orientation (e.g., Cabrera, 2012)d strengthened candidates' willingness to interrogate racism and racial bias. ...
This comparative case study leverages dynamic systems theory to analyze how whiteness impacts social studies discussions about racial topics. Four white candidates facilitating discussions of African American history with predominantly Black students experienced identity tensions that led them to foreclose student discussion and privilege their own conceptual understandings, trumping their goals for open discourse. Analysis suggests such moments and identity tensions emerged when discussions of the past intersected directly with contemporary topics, or when teachers perceived a potential or real threat to identities they held as non-racist or anti-racist teachers. Implications for role-identity exploration and teacher education are discussed.
... One line of research within this area examines how STEM teachers engage equity-focused teaching practices to improve learning outcomes for youth from nondominant communities (Gutiérrez & Calabrese Barton, 2015;Gutstein, 2006;Nasir, Rosebery, B. Warren, & C. Lee, 2006). Research in teacher education has demonstrated that a teacher's disposition towards equity-focused teaching matters because it influences her beliefs about students' abilities and measures of student success, instructional decisions (lesson planning, teaching practices, classroom management, and participation strategies), and interactions with students (Amos, 2011;Annamma, 2015;Talbert-Johnson, 2006;C. Warren, 2018). ...
... To understand the experiences and needs of educators during the pandemic, it is important to be aware that schools are dynamic environments, each with a unique set of circumstances. The capability and flexibility of the teachers to adjust in a crisis are strongly tied to the responsibility of educational systems and the accessibility of helpful resources for teachers [10,11]. Specifically, school characteristics such as the location of school and number of students have been highlighted as important factors in teacher support during the pandemic. ...
Teachers serving students with special needs, students from low-income backgrounds, students with disabilities, and students from underrepresented racial/ethnic backgrounds experienced a myriad of challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to assess whether and to what extent teachers received resources during the pandemic, and to evaluate the impact of this on their perceptions of student academic engagement. Using the American Teacher Panel (ATP) data collected in October 2020, this research found that 41% of teachers working with diverse and marginalized students did not receive any resources tailored specifically for students with special needs. Teacher experiences with resources were clustered into four groups: Most Supported (35%), Least Supported (41%), Moderately Supported A (16%; received support primarily with students with disabilities), and Moderately Supported B (8%; received support primarily with students with racial/ethnic backgrounds). Across the four groups of teachers, teacher groups classified as less supported were more likely to be teaching in more urbanized settings with larger size schools than the other teacher groups. Additionally, they perceived their students as attending less often and being less ready for grade-level coursework than their counterparts. Discussions for school leaders and counselors are outlined to emphasize the importance of teacher support for effective education during the COVID-19 pandemic.
... A moral human must have moral knowledge about his surroundings, know how to interact and act according to the decisions taken. Culturally competent teachers must not only have knowledge and skills about teaching students but must also have a strong sense of social justice with whether building them contributes to the progress of society or moral evil (Amos, 2011);(Mohd Yusoff & Hamzah, 2015). School Improvement, repair or development of schools is very dependent on professional development. ...
The research aims at describing the teachers’ need to supervise content in their professional development. The research was conducted with a quantitative descriptive design whose respondents were elementary school teachers in four districts/cities in West Sumatra, namely: Padang Panjang, Payakumbuh, Padang, and Pesisir Selatan. The sample, 108 teachers consisting of 75 female and 33 male teachers, were selected by using a proportional random sampling technique. The data were collected by using an online questionnaire which was arranged based on two indicators of content supervision of teacher professional improvement, namely commitment and the ability to think abstractly. The result shows that there are 16 contents of supervision related to commitment and abstraction needed by teachers for competency improvement and professional development. Supervision of content that is relevant to the needs of teachers' fundamental competencies allows for an increase in the ability of teachers to respond well to various changes and challenges in carrying out their tasks. This research implies that this content supervision needs to be developed into more comprehensive theoretically and practically.
... At the same time colleges of education continue to prepare preservice teachers who are overwhelmingly white (Milner, 2006;Sleeter, 2001), have limited experience in participating in cross-racial and cross-cultural relationships (Keengwe, 2010), and bring with them deficit perspectives and discourses about urban schools, communities, and students (Amos, 2011;Groff & Peters, 2012;Lazar, 2007). This, on the whole, has been true of our own university, West Chester, part of the State System of Higher Education, and a former normal school at which a great many of our students are pre-service or in-service teachers, so our education programs are integral to the entire university. ...
In this article we argue that colleges of education should lead alongside communities to foster a counter-logic of democratic participation to address the "Mad Tea Party" illogic of this era, and provide an example of one such community of practice.
... Researchers have documented a variety of discourses about race that teachers use and that bolster hegemonic racial ideologies (Amos, 2011;Picower, 2009;Solomon, Portelli, Daniel, & Campbell, 2005). Upholding dominant racial ideas inhibits teachers and youth workers from challenging racism in classrooms, in curricula, and in their own contexts and lives (King & Chandler, 2016). ...
Camp staff have hope that summer camp plays a role in helping youth bridge differences. Educational research, though, raises concerns about preparing youth workers to combat racism (Jupp, Berry, & Lensmire, 2016). This study draws on prior school research and critical Whiteness studies to examine race-evasiveness among camp staff. Grounded theory analysis resulted in two major thematic categories of discursive strategies by which camp staff evaded critical engagement with antiracist discussion. First, camp staff upheld dominant racial understandings by invoking discourses of colorblindness and humanist caring. Second, they prioritized White comfort by neglecting youth of color and employing self-protective emotional tools of Whiteness (Picower, 2009). The research suggests areas of attention for scholars and camp staff trainers with regard to White staff’s race-evasiveness.
... These newer studies refined prior insights as well as shaped a distinct methodology of research in the study of white teacher identity. Although it is beyond the scope of this article to comprehensively portray the wealth of studies from this decade, notably, race-evasive studies persisted but within a race-visibility narrative (Amos 2011;Raible and Irizarry 2007) creating 'fertile paradoxes' (Jupp, Berry, and lensmire 2016, 14) for further study. Additionally, the role of silence was explored (Mazzei 2011), voices of pre-service teachers of color added important contributions (Amos 2010), and researchers demonstrated how participants in their studies were willing to accept and acknowledge whiteness although action to interrupt it did not always follow (laDuke 2009). ...
Teacher education programs in the US, recognizing the mismatch that exists in preschool provision between mostly white teachers and a very diverse intake of young children, have begun to explore ways of raising racial awareness among pre-service teachers, with the aim of improving non-white children?s classroom experiences and outcomes. This paper analyzes 60 critical memoirs written by students about their own awareness of their identity to demonstrate the intersectionality of teacher identity, and in particular the impact of social class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and religion on the processes whereby white students acquire a successful white teacher identity. In doing so, it highlights the ways white pre-service teachers who hope to work with young children imagine or realize their whiteness as it intersects with other aspects of their identities.
Critical consciousness is the ability to critically analyse societal inequities and to develop the motivation and agency to promote social change. While there has been a proliferation of empirical work on critical consciousness over the last two decades, this is the first volume to consider how we can support youth's critical consciousness development – their ability to recognize and fight injustice. Leading scholars address some of the field's most urgent questions: How does critical consciousness develop? What are the key developmental settings (such as homes, schools, community programs) and societal experiences (racism, policy brutality, immigration, political turmoil) that inform critical consciousness development among youth? Providing novel insights into key school-based, out-of-school-based, and societal contexts that propel youth to greater critical reflection and action, this book will benefit scholars and students in developmental, educational, and community psychology, as well as practitioners working in schools, community-based organizations, and other youth settings.
For some time, scholars who are guided by critical theories and perspectives have called out how white supremacist ideologies and systemic racism work to (re)produce societal inequities and educational injustices across science learning contexts in the United States. Given the sociopolitical nature of society, schooling, and science education, it is important to address the racist and settled history of scientific disciplines and science education. To this end, we take an antiracist stance on science teaching and learning and seek to disrupt forms of systemic racism in science classrooms. Since teachers do much of the daily work of transforming science education for minoritized learners, we advocate for preparing teachers who understand what it means to engage in antiracist, justice‐oriented science teaching. In this article, we share our framework for supporting preservice teachers in understanding, developing, and implementing antiracist teaching dispositions and instructional practices. In alignment with other researchers in teacher education who emphasize the importance of anchoring teacher education practice and research in prominent educational theory, we highlight the theories undergirding our approach to antiracist science teaching. We offer considerations for how researchers and science teacher educators can use this framework to transform science teacher education.
Given the subjective nature of some disability diagnoses, one way to mitigate the disproportionate referral of students of color for Special Education in the United States is by unearthing teachers’ deep-seated biases regarding race and ability. Drawing on Freire’s (1970 Freire, P. 1970. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York, NY: Seabury Press. [Google Scholar]) theory of critical consciousness, we unpack the role that teacher dispositions play in upholding racism and ableism, and we offer strategies aimed to address teacher bias and ableist/racist practices. We use the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act as an example of institutional racism and ableism in the United States and consider how teacher dispositions can fuel disproportionality. Because of the importance of teacher training as an entry point into one’s career in education, we specifically focus on the teacher preparation period as a time and space where pre-service teachers (PSTs) can engage with their dispositions and offer concrete strategies that teacher educators can employ with PSTs.
This study explored college students’ civic education ideologies in an entry-level elementary education course using Q methodology. The study asked the students to sort previously developed survey items measuring ideology onto a pyramid ranging from agree to disagree. The analysis found four patterns among students, which were labeled critical multiculturalist, nationalist, disaffected, and institutionalist. A lesson was developed where participants completed the q-sort and studied how their beliefs could influence their instructional practices and classroom discussions. The students also completed reflections on the q-sort, where they expressed that the activity developed a more in-depth understanding of their own beliefs while also illuminating their classmates’ ideological diversity. The study also demonstrates Q methodology’s utility, beyond being a research method, which can provide a powerful instructional tool to translate research into practice.
This narrative inquiry explores the experiences of LGBTQ+ teacher candidates of color in a teacher education program. Composed of vignettes written by teacher candidates and narrative analysis to frame the significance of and contexts within which the vignettes were written, this study first offers insight into the ways teacher candidates understand their own intersecting identities, with specific attention given to how events within and outside the walls of the teacher education program shaped these understandings. The faculty response to the teacher candidates’ vignettes is then shared, revealing how the perceived credibility of the teacher candidates’ vignettes by teacher education faculty limited or expanded the teacher candidates’ ability to engage their intersecting identities in the work of teaching and learning.
Background/Context
With a rationale informed by the demographic imperative, the resegregation of public schools, and our positionalities as researchers, we understand both the high stakes and the complexity of capacitating White preservice and in-service teachers capable of anti-racist praxis and race-visible teaching and learning in public school classrooms.
Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study
Deploying the framework of colorblind racism, we systematically reviewed race-evasive White teacher identity studies and answered the question: What can we learn from 25 years of research?
Research Design
In using the method called the synoptic text, we engaged electronic databases, with special emphasis on ERIC EBSCOhost. The simple and general search term “White teachers” conducted using year-by-year parameters provided the most systematic net for capturing relevant studies. In narrowing our focus, we developed the following criteria: (a) White teachers as central topic, (b) analytical emphases on colorblind racism, (c) publication in peer-reviewed journals, (d) use of qualitative and/or narrative research methodologies, and (e) publication date between 1990 and 2015.
Data Collection and Analysis
Our general search yielded 136 (N = 136) peer-reviewed empirical qualitative and/or narrative studies between 1990 and 2015, and after narrowing our criteria, we found 47 race-evasive White teacher identity studies (n = 47, 47/136) that we reviewed here. Each study in the document universe was abstracted by authors, added to a spreadsheet, and categorized by emergent themes.
Findings/Results
The following five themes emerged and developed over the last 25 years: (a) racialized silence and invisibility (9/47), (b) resistance and active reconstruction of White privilege (12/47), (c) whiteness in institutional and social contexts (8/47), (d) fertile paradoxes in new research (9/47), and (e) reflexive whiteness pedagogies (9/47).
Conclusions/Recommendations
We believe our literature review identifies the complex contours of White preservice and in-service teachers’ silence, resistance to, engagement in, and pedagogical grappling with racism, whiteness, and White privilege. The importance of pre-service and in-service teachers being able to engage, understand, and challenge these issues becomes critically important at our crossroads in the present, especially given the recent election that bolstered open and tacit White supremacists into power. If White teachers are to engage racism, whiteness, and White privilege, they must do so with as opposed to for their students, in a Freirean sense. If teaching for social justice is important, renewed interest and investment in White teacher identity studies and related whiteness pedagogies is key for the next 25 years.
While the public discourse around grade predictions focuses on BAME identity as the sole source of bias, and has thus far been dominated by the voices of experts and professionals rather than the students who are being impacted. As a result of these reasons, the Equality Act Review designed a study that explored the experiences and viewpoints of students and parents, in an attempt to re-centre their voices in the decision-making around the way in which grades were to be predicted. The study was live between 5th April 2020 and 1st May 2020 and was promoted through social media and various organisational bodies. The survey received 803 responses. 80% of all respondents were concerned about their grades being predicted and 85% were from BAME backgrounds. The study found BAME bias to be at 23% but unearthed additional sources of bias such as islamophobia, bad behaviour, favouritism, social class, learning style, and mitigating circumstances. We also find that grade predictions are about predicting futures, as 80% were concerned about future prospects of education and employment. We make specific recommendations to Ofqual and the DfE to mitigate bias and protect the futures of young people from all backgrounds.
This study contributes to ongoing conversations about mechanisms to support preservice teachers, especially those who are White and middle class, in learning about race and racism in preparation for teaching in diverse settings. We use the frameworks of Critical Race Theory and racial literacy to inquire into the ways that two cohorts of undergraduate students took up issues of race and racism during an urban education fellowship. This qualitative study uses data from a program in which participants attended professional conferences, teacher inquiry community meetings, and on-campus meetings over the course of one semester. Using field notes, interview transcripts, and artifacts, thematic analyses indicate that each space of the fellowship offered a unique opportunity to learn about race and racism. Conference spaces introduced fellows to new frameworks, while inquiry community meetings spaces offered fellows visions of practicing teachers grappling with race-related challenges, and on-campus meeting spaces allowed fellows the chance to process personal experiences. Findings suggest that teacher educators should consider ways to create multidimensional opportunities beyond the confines of university-based courses or field placements to allow preservice teachers to develop their racial literacies.
Teaching for critical social justice is an attempt by classroom teachers to promote equity within their classrooms. Researchers have analyzed the impact of preservice teachers' readiness to address social justice issues in their classrooms upon exiting their teacher education programs. However, despite reports of already practicing K-12 teachers' attempts to teach for social justice in their classrooms, there is little connection to teacher education programs. This postcritical qualitative study addresses the research gap by highlighting the understandings and experiences of four intern teachers simultaneously enrolled in a teacher education program while participating in a critical social justice focus group. Findings from the critical social justice focus group revealed intern teachers' understandings of critical social justice included: (1) embracing a critical awareness, (2) advocacy: "it's about the students", and (3) praxis defeat.
The goal of this interpretive study was to further research in the field of Whiteness studies by empirically analysing how a racially conscious white male teacher interacts with his minoritised and White students. The teacher’s classroom was examined using Critical Race and Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). Two empirical assertions were developed based on the continual search for disconfirming evidence within interview and observational data. Results show the teacher participant created a learning environment in which his black minoritised students felt comfortable, trusted, and respected.
Five decades of rhetoric and reform in teacher education underscore the importance of multicultural education in preparing teachers to meet the needs of all students. State and national policy initiatives targeting multicultural education build on two assumptions: first, that preservice teachers lack the multicultural awareness to function as culturally responsive educators, and second, that higher levels of multicultural awareness correspond with increased pedagogical proficiency. Few studies have examined variation in multicultural awareness across preservice candidates, or the link between multicultural awareness and prospective teachers’ measured competencies. Using a novel dataset of 2,500 preservice teachers’ beliefs and student teacher performance assessments, we find that Black and Latino candidates report greater multicultural awareness, while Asian Americans report less, compared with their White counterparts. Prior experience working with nondominant populations is linked with higher levels of awareness, particularly for minority respondents. Propensity score matching analyses reveal that multicultural awareness is tied to candidates’ competence in creating nurturing classroom environments.
When young children notice and comment about physical appearance differences often associated with race, adults may experience discomfort and uncertainty about how to respond. As a result, many adults try to avoid or terminate such discussion, leaving children with unanswered questions and misunderstandings. To prepare educators to be supportive of the development of children's positive racial identity and racial awareness, it is important for educators to examine their own attitudes, biases, and knowledge about race and racism. This chapter summarizes research on children's racial identity and awareness, describes critical approaches to anti-racist education, and provides resources and strategies through which professionals can better understand themselves and the young children they serve.
Universities and colleges across the United States have been increasingly intentional in their effort to become educational institutions with a culture reflective of all their students, faculty and staff. However, achieving a proportionate representation of faculty for the community of students they serve seems to be a goal yet to be achieved by the higher education institutions. Closing this gap of representation of faculty and students is critical for allowing students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to access support and mentorship from faculty with whom they can identify. This paper describes the approach employed by an Early Childhood program of a southern university with faculty from culturally diverse backgrounds significantly underrepresented. Diverse students within the institution are unable to connect with a faculty member with whom they can identify. The faculty in this program took the initiative to discuss how the learning environment offered to pre-service teachers truly recognizes and creates learning opportunities inclusive of all cultural identities. The faculty and students participated in the Undoing Racism training program and further extended the conversations to address the needs of the program. Using the theoretical framework of the critical race theory, this paper describes how employing the Undoing Racism program to increase awareness and access to all students led to structural changes.
This qualitative study focuses on a representative sample from 200 teacher candidates' responses to Peggy McIntosh's article, 'White privilege: unpacking the invisible knapsack'. The notion and understanding of whiteness and white privilege were explored revealing several strategies that teacher candidates employed to avoid addressing whiteness and its attendant privileges in Canadian society. We analyse three primary strategies that the teacher candidates employed: ideological incongruence, liberalist notions of individualism and meritocracy, and the negation of white capital. Some implications of this study are that teacher education must help candidates understand their own racial identity formation and provide the learning space to work with the range of emotions and feelings of indignation that evolve from an exposure to white privilege and the 'myth of meritocracy'.
America is a country of paradoxes. The American ideology is strongly egalitarian, and yet the history of our country includes centuries of institutionalized inequality. Even today, persistent racial in justice in the face of democratic ideals truly remains the “American Dilemma” (Myrdal, 1944).
A critical issue in teacher education today is the mismatch between racially homogenous teachers and students from increasingly diverse cultural backgrounds. In the United States, the student population is becoming more diverse while the teaching force is becoming increasingly monocultural, white, and middle class. Current data on the teaching force also reveal that the prospective teaching population is predominantly white, middle class, monolingual, female, rural and suburban. The impact of this disparity in the socio-cultural mismatch between diverse students and their white and middle class teachers have been well documented to include lowered teacher expectation and teachers' racialized attitudes towards, and beliefs about students. Studies indicate that compatibility between school culture and student culture facilitates effective communication and positive interactions whereas differences interfere in communication and learning. Numerous studies indicate that a majority of white preservice teachers have negative and racialized dispositions toward diverse students; that these attitudes coupled with the attendant lower expectations, are major factors contributing to the widespread academic failure among diverse students. Consequently, researchers and scholars have challenged teacher education programs to provide prospective teachers opportunities for authentic experiential encounters with contextualized diversity where they can be challenged to confront their preconceived notions, and ultimately transform their attitudes. The current study is a response to that challenge. The participants' written reflective summary reports provided the most compelling evidence of the impact of the experience. In this report, participants described, analyzed, compared, and reflected while noting specific insights and perspectives of their interactions with their partners in various contexts such as home, school, place of worship, and other out-of-school extra-curricular activity centers. This article presents patterns and themes which emerged from analyzing the participants' reports of their cultural experience.
In this article the author looks at the impact NCLB is having on teacher education programs, focusing on three major areas: who is entering teacher preparation programs; the experience they have while they are in those programs; and the experience they have while in the schools as student teachers. The increased focus on testing to determine who can teach (despite a lack of research supporting this policy) is both pushing out and alienating potential teachers whose strengths and interests don't show up on tests, and/or who don't believe that this is the best way to serve the public school students. This emphasis treats teachers like they are incapable of making good decisions based on their knowledge of curricula, kids, and human development. NCLB pressures teacher education programs to violate what they know and believe about teaching and learning, and to perpetuate an unethical system of privilege and inequality.
The use of a dispositional framework in the preparation of teachers, especially one that attends to issues of social justice, has generated considerable debate of late. In this article, the author argues that assessing teacher candidates' dispositions related to social justice is both reasonable and defensible. She explains why social justice matters in teacher education, provides a definition of the term dispositions and discusses why programs of teacher education must attend to them, and gives examples of practices used at one institution to assess teacher candidates' dispositions related to social justice to illustrate that such assessment can be done in a fair and principled manner. The author concludes that underlying the dispositions debate is an all-out war to define the goals of public education, the role of teachers, the nature of knowledge, and conceptions of learning, teaching, and learning to teach.
Comprising complex technologies from different academic areas, Tennessee's Value-Added Assessment System measures effects of the system, school, and teacher on rate of student progress. Research findings reveal neutral racial-composition effects for intermediate grades, deleterious effects for students changing buildings, lower yearly academic gains among higher achieving students, and effective teachers' key role. (MLH)
Prevailing values of equity and social justice are increasingly espoused in the mission and policy statements of public institutions, organizations, and agencies. In higher education, teacher preparation programs are considered to be key contributors to the cultivation of mores of inclusiveness, where diversity is embraced and appreciated in its multitude of forms. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the diversity dispositions of a group of preservice and inservice teachers participating in a multicultural education course at a university in the deep southern region of the United States. Data were collected in the following ways: (a) autobiographical accounts that participants compiled and shared; (b) responses to abbreviated biographies in an online discussion forum; (c) face‐to‐face discussions of issues related to goals of equity, tolerance, and social justice in schools; and (d) instructor observations of participants' interactions with each other. The research revealed that in the electronic forum the teacher candidates and practicing teachers were particularly candid in reflecting upon and revealing their cultural roots, perceptions, and experiences and validated many—but not all—‐peer self‐reports of marginalization. Three major diversity dispositions emerged in the data analysis: (a) cultural consciousness, (b) intercultural sensitivity, and (c) commitment to social justice. The study also illuminated the challenge inherent in critically examining and sharing diversity dispositions when considering issues of discrimination, prejudice, and segregation in a multicultural setting. Although limited in scope and generalizibility, the findings provide insights into ways of framing tolerance sensibilities and for improving educators' capacities to reassess candidates' diversity dispositions.
This chapter examines color-blind campuses that perpetuate White transparency and racially cognizant environments that reveal and challenge notions of color blindness. Recommendations are offered to help White students respond to the realities of Whiteness and move beyond color-blind racism.
On the premise that teacher education programs, with their emphasis on methods, are largely ineffective in improving current teaching practice, this paper examines ways teacher educators can change some of the beliefs of teachers and teacher candidates early in a program so as to optimize the impact of learning new teaching practices. Three central questions are addressed-what technologies are available to teacher educators for changing candidate beliefs, what ethics come into play concerning changing the beliefs of candidates, and what beliefs should we teach-and the problems posed for changing beliefs. The paper then explores the concept of "dispositions," suggesting that if teacher educators could conceptualize the problem as one of "weak dispositions" rather than one of "beliefs," many of the issues would disappear. Three possible dispositions are explored as goals for a teacher education program: knowledge, colleagueship, and advocacy.
- Cochran-Smith M.
- Adams M.
- Lewis A.