Critiquing Un/Critical Pedagogies to Move Toward a Pedagogy of Responsibility in Teacher Education

2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (5) ◽  
pp. 463-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina N. Berchini
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
White Privilege ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Critical Whiteness Studies ◽  
White Teacher ◽  
Critical Whiteness ◽  
Critical Pedagogies ◽  
Systemic Examination

Transformative work with teacher candidates relies on a critique of the tenets of Critical Pedagogy and subsequent Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS). I employ analyses of extant scholarship to argue that these specific domains, as popularly framed, might be responsible for uncritical examinations of the White teacher education students who devotedly enroll in our courses and trust their teachers to treat them fairly, responsibly, and with care. I then entwine relevant research on White privilege pedagogies with my own narrative to argue that taking on the problem of Whiteness in teacher education seems to have inspired an uncritical pedagogy of harmful generalizations. To conclude, I reconceptualize the application of White privilege pedagogies for more complex, systemic examination, and argue that if we are to move beyond a pedagogy of dismantling students, more work which openly and honestly grapples with paradoxes, double binds, and contexts of Whiteness is needed.

Critical Whiteness Studies

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Applebaum
Keyword(s):  
White Privilege ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Whiteness Studies ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
White People ◽  
Critical Whiteness Studies ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
Critical Whiteness ◽  
Black President

In 1903, standing at the dawn of the 20th century, W. E. B. Du Bois wrote that the color line is the defining characteristic of American society. Well into the 21st century, Du Bois’s prescience sadly still rings true. Even when a society is built on a commitment to equality, and even with the election of its first black president, the United States has been unsuccessful in bringing about an end to the rampant and violent effects of racism, as numerous acts of racial violence in the media have shown. For generations, scholars of color, among them Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and Franz Fanon, have maintained that whiteness lies at the center of the problem of racism. It is only relatively recently that the critical study of whiteness has become an academic field, committed to disrupting racism by problematizing whiteness as a corrective to the traditional exclusive focus on the racialized “other.” Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) is a growing field of scholarship whose aim is to reveal the invisible structures that produce and reproduce white supremacy and privilege. CWS presumes a certain conception of racism that is connected to white supremacy. In advancing the importance of vigilance among white people, CWS examines the meaning of white privilege and white privilege pedagogy, as well as how white privilege is connected to complicity in racism. Unless white people learn to acknowledge, rather than deny, how whites are complicit in racism, and until white people develop an awareness that critically questions the frames of truth and conceptions of the “good” through which they understand their social world, Du Bois’s insight will continue to ring true.

scholarly journals The Social Justice Teaching Collaborative: A Collective Turn Towards Critical Teacher Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-39
Author(s):  
Brittany A Aronson ◽  
Racheal Banda ◽  
Ashley Johnson ◽  
Molly Kelly ◽  
Raquel Radina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Critical Whiteness Studies ◽  
Social Justice Teaching

In this article, we share the collaborative curricular work of an interdisciplinary Social Justice Teaching Collaborative (SJTC) from a PWI university. Members of the SJTC worked strategically to center social justice across required courses pre-service teachers are required to take: Introduction to Education, Sociocultural Studies in Education, and Inclusive Education. We share our conceptualization of social justice and guiding theoretical frameworks that have shaped our pedagogy and curriculum. These frameworks include democratic education, critical pedagogy, critical race theory, critical whiteness studies, critical disability studies, and feminist and intersectionality theory. We then detail changes made across courses including examples of readings and assignments. Finally, we conclude by offering reflections, challenges, and lessons learned for collaborative work within teacher education and educational leadership. 

Structuring Disruption within University-Based Teacher Education Programs1: Possibilities and Challenges of Race-Based Caucuses

2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manka Varghese ◽  
Julia R. Daniels ◽  
Caryn C. Park
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Education Program ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Teaching Profession ◽  
Teacher Identities ◽  
White Teacher ◽  
Race And Racialization ◽  
Emotion Labor

Background Teacher education candidates are in different places in terms of developing their identities and relationships to equity and social justice. Various approaches have been taken within university-based teacher education programs to engage with candidates, wherever they are in this development. One such approach has been engaging or drawing on teachers’ own lenses, especially through challenging and understanding their racialized selves. Purpose This conceptual article examines how race-based caucuses (RBCs) in one teacher education program attempted to shift candidates’ understandings of their racialized selves as related to their teacher identities. Context RBCs were instituted in one elementary teacher education program to help White teacher candidates and candidates of Color construct critical teacher identities. Candidates were asked to participate in caucuses according to the ways they had been racialized within schools. Facilitators who demonstrated a willingness to sit with the work of engaging race and racialization led the caucuses. Observances For the candidates of Color, the “overwhelming presence of Whiteness” in the teacher education program and in the schools required the RBCs to focus on reframing deficit narratives of teachers of Color to an asset-based view of their value and contribution to the teaching profession. The RBC provided space for White teacher candidates to explore the consequences of Whiteness for their future identities as teachers and for the kinds of communities that they could and wanted to cultivate with students. Messiness and challenges abounded in both RBCs. Discussion and Reflections Emotions—and especially emotion labor—were central to RBCs. For teacher candidates of Color, facing one's own oppression was painful but also presented opportunities for them to articulate emotions and experiences in relatively safe spaces. In a different way, the RBCs resulted in significant emotional upheaval for White teacher candidates that shifted into deeper self-reflection and sense of awareness and allyship (for some)— although in a few cases, RBCs led to even deeper resistance. Conclusions Race-based caucusing is a messy and challenging practice that can provide opportunities to reflect constructively on emotions and produce emotional upheaval for teacher candidates. Teacher educators and programs must approach RBCs with an orientation toward hyperreflexivity.

scholarly journals The Double Meaning Making of the Term Cultural Diversity in Teacher Educator Discourses

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-38
Author(s):  
Sandra Fylkesnes ◽  
Sølvi Mausethagen ◽  
Anne Birgitta Nilsen
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Central Component ◽  
Critical Whiteness Studies ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Critical Whiteness

Cultural diversity is assumed to be a central component of Western education and even though it has been extensively investigated in international research on teacher education, little knowledge exists about its usage and meaning making in teacher educator discourses. This article provides insights into the usage and meaning making of the term cultural diversity based on semi-structured individual interviews with a total of twelve teacher educators from two Norwegian teacher education institutions. Drawing on the theoretical perspectives of discourse theory and critical Whiteness studies, we find that the term cultural diversity is used in a double meaning making pattern: Cultural diversity is presented as desirable and positive by teacher educators, yet it is also aligned with the notion of otherness. We discuss some possible methodological tools with which teacher educators can detect meaning making patterns and thus counter the production and reproduction of socially unjust discursive patterns.   

scholarly journals Opening the “Can of Worms”: Preparing Teachers to Address Issues Relating to “Race”

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Davies
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Critical Whiteness Studies ◽  
White Teacher

This paper reports the findings of a study which involved a critical examination of “race”-related provision on initial teacher education (ITE) programmes in England. It draws upon data collected as part of a national survey of ITE provision which included interviews with providers and students, and case studies of ITE providing institutions. The study utilized aspects of Critical Race Theory and Critical Whiteness Studies as a theoretical framework with which to analyse the data. The paper explores the nature of provision relating to “race,” suggesting that teacher educators and student teachers are often ill-equipped to address the complexities relating to this area and, as a result, they can fail to recognize the importance and potential impact of their professional practice, and their pedagogical decisions. It suggests that ITE practices are often underpinned by dysconscious racisms and manifestations of Whiteness, leading to a marginalization of “race” input, with opportunities for deeper interrogation missed, or actively avoided. The paper explores some of the constraints impacting on ITE namely a lack of time; a lack of confidence on the part of a predominantly White teacher educator workforce; a lack of recognition of the importance and significance of “race” on the part of White student teachers, and an emphasis of superficial measures of student satisfaction at the expense of deeper interrogation and deconstruction of hegemonic norms. It makes recommendations relating to how practice can be improved within the current challenging global contexts in relation to “race” equality. It calls for teacher education to aspire to produce novice teachers willing and prepared to embrace “race”-related challenges in their teaching careers, and to contribute to curricula which acknowledge and address inequality.

The discourse of denial: how white teacher candidates construct race, racism and ‘white privilege’

2005 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Patrick Solomona ◽  
John P. Portelli ◽  
Beverly‐Jean Daniel ◽  
Arlene Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
White Privilege ◽  
White Teacher

scholarly journals A WHITE PALETTE GATHERING

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-131
Author(s):  
Karen McGarry
Keyword(s):  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Critical Whiteness Studies ◽  
White Teacher ◽  
Critical Whiteness ◽  
Blank Slate

Storytelling, a tenet of Critical Race Theory, offers a distinct approach for researchers engaging in narrative inquiry. This article models a fiction as research approach for creating a literature synthesis as a pedagogical strategy for teacher educators and pre-service teachers. The white palette refers to a painting palette, a blank slate or canvas, often considered neutral ground. Whiteness, however, is not neutral and this one-act conversation centers on examining whiteness as it impacts my role as a white teacher educator. The production, players, and script developed out of salient literature inclusive of Critical Race Theory, Art Education, and Critical Whiteness Studies. I am both author and a participant in this story. In this capacity, I disclose the impacts of the literature on my white teacher educator identity and reveal how I created arts-based data artifacts to evidence the overall story.

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