A demographic and epistemological divide: problematizing diversity and equity education in traditional, rural teacher education

Abstract

This study documents the experience of an Asian woman faculty in the rural Mountain West as it relates to difficulties teaching predominantly White preservice teachers about the importance of diversity and social justice to prepare them adequately with skills and materials for their P-12 classrooms in a rapidly changing world. The current challenge has its origins in US history (the macro-level) and continues into the present (the micro-level) beyond the preservice teachers to include college of education colleagues and administrators, and community members. Using nexus analysis to reveal this larger picture, the hope is to develop actions to keep the problem from persisting into the future. This study is geography-specific in that not all rural areas are predominantly White, nor do they all share the same worldview. The results suggest that rural university communities remain predominantly White in their demographic makeup and crucial actors often hold fast to Whiteness and White ignorance. This is problematic – the need to transform and change is urgent in rural teacher education programs.

Keywords:

• Asian critial race theory
• AsianCrit
• Woman faculty of color in homogenous White space
• Crucial needs for diversity and social justice
• Teacher education in remote rural contexts