Critical Reflective Practice, Critical Pedagogy, and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

This chapter describes the frameworks of critical pedagogy, culturally relevant pedagogy, and related experiences that teachers engage in as part of the authors' antiracist professional development work. Critical reflective practice is at the core of these pedagogical approaches and is central in offering effective antiracist teacher professional development, with these frameworks having the potential to help teachers become aware of the ways that institutional racism pervades schools and society and the ways we are all complicit in perpetuating racism; shift the focus of oppressive educational challenges from individuals—including self as teacher, parents, and students—to systems of oppression; support teachers to develop the knowledge and skills to advocate and take action for antiracist attitudes, policies, and practices, both in society and in their own classrooms; support teachers' antiracist teaching that positions students to develop as critical, antiracist, and engaged citizens; and ensure that teachers and schools recognize and support the optimal development of every child.

When Asked, Teachers Said…

The authors perceive that institutionalized racial hierarchies are the greatest barrier to educational equity in the United States. While P-12 teachers may express the desire to make their classrooms spaces of joy, creativity, and intellectual brilliance, it is primarily through intentional skills development that teachers succeed. The authors assert the need for greater investments by school districts and teacher education programs in professional development for in-service P-12 teachers that further empower them and, in turn, their students, to contribute to the dismantling of racism in the U.S. Teacher educators, administrators and policy makers need to position themselves as cultivators and supporters of P-12 teachers in ways that encourage and sustain their antiracist advocacy and equity work in their teaching.

Teaching/Learning Relational Dynamic

The authors contend that relationships are the basis for the teacher transformation that can occur in antiracist teacher professional development. Because self-understandings are developed contextually in relationship with others, sensitive instructor attention created the trust that was essential for teachers to critically examine long held assumptions about race, themselves, and their students. Furthermore, instructors designed the program to build trust among the teachers as teachers additionally learned through interactions with each other. Intentional community building also developed the community of practice that allowed for teachers' gradual participation in the critical work of antiracist education both in the program and in their own classrooms.

A Policy Manifesto for Antiracist Teacher Professional Development

The authors believe that the de-racialization of teacher professional development is as harmful to teachers as the deprofessionalization of teachers, leaving them without the tools needed to attend to the basic and unmet needs of Students of Color, immigrant students, low-income students, as well as of affluent white students. Teacher educators, administrators, and policy makers should invest in sustained and broadly applied antiracist practices and policies as a matter of public self-interest. To extend Kendi's notion of antiracist educational policies, the authors suggest a spectrum of small “p” and big “P” policies that address the uniqueness of schools as institutions of learning and human development, where children are sorted early by skin color and family income to their “assigned” school. The authors offer this chapter as both a call to action and an invitation to collaborate to create and broaden antiracist teacher professional development.

Teacher Leadership and Collegial Relationships

The authors assert that P-12 classroom teachers are and should be leaders in the teaching and learning of children. The strongest teacher leadership is shaped by co-constructed knowledge and collaborative practices. The change that is required to help classroom teachers be better advocates for antiracist education can come from the leadership of teachers themselves, with the support of administrators and professional development designers. The authors examined teacher reflections on a variety of teacher leadership experiences and efforts to engage in equity-based initiatives at the school or district level to create antiracist policies and practices. The examination included an anonymous survey of school- or district-based equity initiatives, and how the goals are defined, what teachers perceive to be the impact (on students, teacher colleagues, their school, their district), and whether and how teachers are taking leadership in the initiatives.

Identity Work

The authors describe the first crucial step in antiracist teacher professional development – developing a deep understanding of one's identity. After providing the theoretical framework behind this approach and sharing their own stories of their identity development as antiracist educators, the authors describe the curricular approaches they used to engage teachers in exploring the self. They also share the outcomes of these efforts and the tensions and dilemmas that arise when supporting teachers to examine their identities in the process of becoming antiracist educators.