Testimonial Injustice and Teacher Education

ABSTRACT

This narrative inquiry explores the experiences of LGBTQ+ teacher candidates of color in a teacher education program. Composed of vignettes written by teacher candidates and narrative analysis to frame the significance of and contexts within which the vignettes were written, this study first offers insight into the ways teacher candidates understand their own intersecting identities, with specific attention given to how events within and outside the walls of the teacher education program shaped these understandings. The faculty response to the teacher candidates’ vignettes is then shared, revealing how the perceived credibility of the teacher candidates’ vignettes by teacher education faculty limited or expanded the teacher candidates’ ability to engage their intersecting identities in the work of teaching and learning.

KEWORDS:

• Teacher education
• intersectionality
• testimonial injustice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brittney Beck

Brittney Beck, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at California State University, Bakersfield. Her body of work resides at the intersection of democratic education, teacher and student activism, the history of education, and university-school-community partnerships. At these intersections, she explores how school systems can best engage the material and ideological realities of the community to inform and reform curricula, pedagogy, and school climate initiatives in ways that engage teachers and students as active citizens. Currently, she serves at the Project Director and Principal Investigator for the Citizen Scientist Project, which is designed to build the capacity of teachers and students to weave science and civic action to address issues of community concern.