Being and Becoming a Teacher: How African American and White Preservice Teachers Envision Their Future Roles as Teacher Advocates

Abstract

This article captures the life histories and professional futures of preservice teachers at three institutions of higher education. In this article, we focus on the experiences and expectations of 4 preservice teachers. We find that, although African American and White preservice teachers both see themselves as advocates for their students, they envision different approaches to advocacy and their agency along racial lines. African American preservice teachers envision advocacy as serving as role models for their future students, while White preservice teachers advocate for their students through their instructional actions in the classroom. This study complicates ideas of race, agency, and teacher advocacy.

Notes

¹ The four components are capitalized throughout this article in order to represent how Peters and Reid's (2009) present the terms in their model.

² All names are pseudonyms to ensure anonymity.