Brief: Undoing Whiteness to Diversify Teacher Education and the Teaching Force (original) (raw)

Decentering Whiteness in Teacher Education: Addressing the Questions of Who, With Whom, and How

Journal of Teacher Education, 2021

The work of preparing teachers and adequately supporting them in schools requires that we ensure their ability to meet the academic, socioemotional, and sociocultural needs of young people. It also requires countering the normative culture of Whiteness in teacher education and the perpetuation of its oppressive and debilitating impact on program design and implementation, pedagogy, and community interactions and partnerships. Calderon (2006) states that “the reproduction of whiteness in structures serves to oppress raced, gendered, and classed individuals and communities who deviate from the norms established by the ideology of whiteness” (p. 73). While the field of teacher education has made strides in efforts to be more social justice focused and responsive to persistent challenges facing teachers, schools, and families, there is still much work to do to eliminate the presence and use of White supremacist logics in teacher education programs, policy development and implementation,...