Critical race reflections: valuing the experiences of teachers of color in teacher education

Abstract

While research has demonstrated that White teachers often must be taught about the pain of racism in order to not perpetuate it, this may not apply to racial minority teachers. Through personal experience, Teachers of Color are likely aware of the trauma that racism can cause students. Within teacher education, we must create research and teaching strategies that acknowledge racial minority teachers as insiders to the experiences of racism in school, and as valuable assets in the fight for educational justice. Using a critical race theory (CRT) framework, this article explores the reflections of Women of Color educators regarding their encounters and observations with race and racism in K‐12 schools. Qualitative interviews were conducted with twelve Asian‐American, Black and Latina women enrolled in a social justice teacher preparation program in Los Angeles. Their stories expose (1) the personal experiences with racism the women endured within their K‐12 education; (2) the parallel experiences with racism they observe Students of Color enduring in schools today; and (3) racial hierarchies within teacher education. This data highlights a cycle of racism that continues to manifest in the educational experiences of Asian‐American, Black and Latina/o youth. Additionally, the important stories and ideas revealed through the process of this research draws attention to the personal knowledge teacher preparation programs can tap into when training Teachers of Color about educational inequality.

Keywords:

• Critical Race Theory
• racism
• racial hierarchy
• urban education
• teacher‐education
• Asian‐American teachers
• Black teachers
• Latino teachers
• K‐12 education

Notes

1. All names have either been used with permission, or are pseudonyms.

2. ‘Students of Color’ references individuals of indigenous, African, Latina/o, Asian/Pacific Islander descent. It is intentionally capitalized to reject the standard grammatical norm. Capitalization is used as a means of empowerment and represents a grammatical move toward social and racial justice. This rule will also apply to the terms ‘Teachers of Color’ and ‘Women of Color’, used throughout this paper.