The Incongruent Racial Grammar of Teacher Education: A Critical Race Theory Study of Black and Latina Preservice Teachers

Abstract

Current research has turned a gaze towards teacher education programs' desire to recruit students of color. Yet very little has been done to deconstruct the intersectional racial structure and grammar of teacher education in order to provide meaningful learning experiences for preservice teachers of color (PSTOC) who often endeavor to teach in the very underserved communities of color that educator preparation programs fetishize. Moreover, we do not know much about the first-generation preservice teachers of color. Drawing from Critical Race Theory in education as a conceptual framework, we use critical counter-storytelling within intersectional narrative methodology to foreground how four preservice teachers of color--U.S. Black and Latina-navigate the racial grammar of teacher education. Similar to prior studies, findings indicate that racial incongruence underscores preservice teachers' of color experiences in teacher education programs. Furthermore, students' experiences speak to how race, class, and gender function together in creating a structure and grammar of teacher education that creates barriers of entry for educators of color. In light of our findings, we call for greater attention to discourses of Black and Latinx educator recruitment.

Critical What What? A Theoretical Systematic Review of 15 Years of Critical Race Theory Research in Social Studies Education, 2004–2019

“…Second and concurrent to what we saw in the legal field, CRT also ushered in a significant turn from implied race vis-à-vis colorblind multiculturalism towards an explicit naming of race, racism, and racialized citizenship in social studies scholarship (Howard, 2004; Marshall et al, 2016; Navarro & Howard, 2017; Tyson, 2003). Following the collective call to apply a CRT lens to social studies curriculum, professional spaces, policy, and research, social studies education scholars began to move away from the multicultural paradigm and instead foreground critical theories and frameworks explicitly centered on race (Busey, in press). In addition to CRT, scholars also draw from Black feminist thought, postcolonial thought, queer theory and sexuality studies, and critical whiteness studies (Hawkman & Shear, 2020; Mayo, 2013; Sabzalian, 2019; Crowley & Smith, 2015; Vickery, 2015, 2016, 2017; Woodson, 2017a).…”