Breaking the Cycle of Sisyphus: Social Education and the Acquisition of Critical Sociocultural Knowledge about Race and Racism in the United States

Abstract

Using Lani Guinier's notion of “racial literacy” and the findings from a study that analyzed how recent K-12 social studies textbooks portray racial violence against African Americans, I argue in this article that students come to teacher education programs possessing a limited understanding of racism as a historically situated, institutionalized practice. I consider the implications this gap has on preservice teacher education and offer suggestions on how social education might assist K-12 students and later preservice teacher candidates develop critical racial literacy.

Keywords:

• race
• racism
• social education
• sociocultural knowledge
• teaching
• teacher education