Women of color in a bilingual/dialectal dilemma: critical race feminism against a curriculum of oppression in teacher education

Abstract

Teacher education programs have established gatekeepers, especially for women of color. For these women, finding an ally in their endeavor to become educators is paramount. This paper will discuss the work of a teacher educator who espouses critical race feminism (CRF) as a means of fighting against a curriculum of oppression in teacher education. The paper will begin with a description of CRF and its connections to currere. This will be followed with background information regarding the pre‐service teacher and her relationship with the teacher educator. A brief description of the student's field experience will follow. The paper will conclude with an analysis of the power of language and dialect, a form of curriculum oppression, in teacher education with the need to fight against such oppression in the development of new teachers from a critical race feminist perspective.

Keywords:

• critical race feminism
• teacher education
• language

Notes

1. This work is a segment of a larger study focusing on the use of memoir in bell hooks' engaged pedagogy as a means of preparing White female pre‐service teachers to teach in urban school settings.