At the intersection of labor and racial equity in teacher preparation, Black women professors of practice (PoPs) find that they carry an excessive workload without a similar measure of compensation or recognition. The unique experiences of these Black contingent faculty provide a view from the margins regarding the simultaneity (Collins, 2002) of oppressions that are hidden from mainstream perceptions within teacher preparation, particularly through a raced and gendered lens. Through an autoethnographic approach, we reveal how our negotiations for respect, visibility and impact on pre-service teachers are navigated within larger institutional structures situated within the academy. This reflexive process provides us, as research practitioners, a socially conscious pathway (Ellis et al., 2011) towards both impactful practice and means for substantive contributions to investigating the often-hidden labor of Black women professors of practice within post-secondary institutions. While exploring how we were positioned as ‘mules’ of teacher preparation at our previous institution, we amplify experiences that hitherto are alluded to in the literature, thematically reflecting our scarce numbers, low access to professional advancement and lack of job security. We conclude with recommendations both for Black women PoPs about the nature of this work, the reality of its weight, and considerations on behalf of the academy relative to pathways for professionalizing and honoring Black women professors of practice in teacher education programs.
In this article, I reflect on ways to improve my practice as a Black woman teaching in a white-dominated teacher education program through self-study in teacher preparation (S-STEP). I describe strategies that Black professors can use to engage white preservice teachers in discourse about individual and cultural diversity in urban schools. The general underlying principle in this focus is that one must create a safe space for white students, regardless of comfort, to communicate about individual and cultural diversity in urban schools. This is imperative, as research demonstrates many professors of color, specifically Black professors, experience hostile classroom environments. These experiences occur mostly within white-dominated institutions when students experience a shift of power from a white professor to a professor of color. This shift is intensified when the topics of the course focus on equity and social justice in urban schools. Practitioners of color are encouraged to explore ways in which these and others can be incorporated in courses that prepare white teachers to teach diverse populations in urban schools.
Many institutions of higher education, and their teacher preparation programs, have mission or core value statements that include terms such as diversity, equity, or social justice. The terms are meant to suggest an inclusive approach but it’s often difficult to see how those terms are operationalized. As two Black pre-tenure faculty members working in predominantly white institutions (PWIs), we have pushed our teacher preparation programs to go beyond putting keywords in mission statements and provide ways to follow through so future teachers can enact the concepts in their classrooms. We use Self-Study in Teacher Education Practices (S-STEP) and Critical Race Theory (CRT) to make meaning of our own narratives, the systems that negatively impact people of color, and signaling words within our teacher preparation programs. We use the data from our personal narratives to discuss ways junior faculty can act as disruptors to ensure white preservice teachers are better prepared for the field.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.