Visibilizing our Pain and Wounds as Resistance and Activist Pedagogy to Heal and Hope: Reflections of 2 Racialized Professors

ABSTRACT

This article reflects experiences of two racialized professors from a Critical Race Theory (CRT) paradigm teaching in Canadian teacher preparation and educational leadership programs across multiple universities. The analysis of their lived experiences as counter-stories through storytelling focuses on how their identities, bodies, course content, and activist pedagogies are read and received teaching predominantly white students and working with non-racialized colleagues. The authors situate the microaggressions they experienced from administrators, colleagues, students, and larger community members, while teaching about anti-black racism, white supremacy, and other equity topics in education that challenge normalized metanarratives which at times make others uncomfortable. The authors seek to disrupt and challenge these normalized policies and practices within teacher education programs and within publication processes that privilege whiteness, and disadvantage Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC), and other minoritized identities. The sharing of counter-stories embedded with pain serve two purposes: to heal from traumatic experiences via sharing in solidarity with other brave voices, and simultaneously to disrupt and promote an activist pedagogy that calls-out inequities as a form of resistance, even within spaces and departments whose identity is shaped by their support for equity and social justice. The objective is to challenge the incongruencies and paradoxes between theory and practice within the enactment of equity in teacher education programs rooted in tokenism, color-blind/neutral policies, and performance politics. A series of recommendations are outlined to work toward centering non-dominant bodies, histories, voices, and cultural capital to prepare teacher candidates who can constructively engage in equity work by understanding interconnections between power and privilege, instead of remaining stagnant in deficit thinking rooted in fear and weaponization of bodies unknown to their cultural identities and lived experiences.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ardavan Eizadirad

Dr. Ardavan Eizadirad (@DrEizadirad) is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Wilfrid Laurier University. He is an educator with the Toronto District School Board, author of Decolonizing Educational Assessment: Ontario Elementary Students and the EQAO (2019), and co-editor of Equity as Praxis in Early Childhood Education and Care (2021),and International Handbook of Anti-Discriminatory Education (forthcoming 2022). His research interests include equity, standardized testing, community engagement, anti-oppressive practices, critical pedagogy, social justice education, resistance, and decolonization. Dr. Eizadirad is also the founder and Director of EDIcation Consulting (www.edication.org) offering equity, diversity, and inclusion training to organizations.

Dr. Andrew B. Campbell (@DRABC14) is a graduate of the University of Toronto with a PhD in Educational Leadership, Policy, and Diversity. He is a Faculty Member in the Master of Teaching program at University of Toronto and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Queens University. Dr. Campbell is an Ontario Certified Teacher and has been an educator for over 25 years in countries such as Jamaica, Bahamas, and Canada. He is the author of “Teachable Moments with DR.ABC: A Spoonful for the Journey“ (2015) and “The Invisible Student in the Jamaican Classroom“ (2018). His research interests include equity, diversity, inclusion, cultural competency, education leadership, and 2SLGBTQ+ issues. He is a workshop facilitator and motivational speaker. Learn more by visiting drabc.ca

Andrew Campbell

Dr. Ardavan Eizadirad (@DrEizadirad) is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Wilfrid Laurier University. He is an educator with the Toronto District School Board, author of Decolonizing Educational Assessment: Ontario Elementary Students and the EQAO (2019), and co-editor of Equity as Praxis in Early Childhood Education and Care (2021),and International Handbook of Anti-Discriminatory Education (forthcoming 2022). His research interests include equity, standardized testing, community engagement, anti-oppressive practices, critical pedagogy, social justice education, resistance, and decolonization. Dr. Eizadirad is also the founder and Director of EDIcation Consulting (www.edication.org) offering equity, diversity, and inclusion training to organizations.

Dr. Andrew B. Campbell (@DRABC14) is a graduate of the University of Toronto with a PhD in Educational Leadership, Policy, and Diversity. He is a Faculty Member in the Master of Teaching program at University of Toronto and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Queens University. Dr. Campbell is an Ontario Certified Teacher and has been an educator for over 25 years in countries such as Jamaica, Bahamas, and Canada. He is the author of “Teachable Moments with DR.ABC: A Spoonful for the Journey“ (2015) and “The Invisible Student in the Jamaican Classroom“ (2018). His research interests include equity, diversity, inclusion, cultural competency, education leadership, and 2SLGBTQ+ issues. He is a workshop facilitator and motivational speaker. Learn more by visiting drabc.ca