Students of Colour as Cultural Consultants: A Self-study of Race and Social Justice Issues in a teacher Education Programme

Abstract

This paper documents our learning over a 3-year period from students of colour in our M.Ed. certification programme. Students of colour are always a minority (8% to 20%) in our programmes. Despite a variety of efforts, these students continued to complain that we were not meeting their needs or dealing adequately with diversity issues. The students of colour became our cultural consultants as we talked about their perceptions of our teaching and the programme. As two white middle-class professors and one Asian doctoral student, we learned different things from this self-study. Our major recommendation is that students of colour be given a separate space to talk with each other and with those who are teaching them.