Current research has turned a gaze towards teacher education programs' desire to recruit students of color.Yet very little has been done to deconstruct the intersectional racial structure and grammar of teacher education in order to provide meaningful learning experiences for preservice teachers of color (PSTOC) who often endeavor to teach in the very underserved communities of color that educator preparation programs fetishize.Moreover, we do not know much about the first-generation preservice teachers of color.Drawing from Critical Race Theory in education as a conceptual framework, we use critical counter-storytelling within intersectional narrative methodology to foreground how four preservice teachers of color--U.S. Black and Latina-navigate the racial grammar of teacher education.Similar to prior studies, findings indicate that racial incongruence underscores preservice teachers' of color experiences in teacher education programs.Furthermore, students' experiences speak to how race, class, and gender function together in creating a structure and grammar of teacher education that creates barriers of entry for educators of color.In light of our findings, we call for greater attention to discourses of Black and Latinx educator recruitment.
The current study is part of a larger case study of faculty and staff methods at a teacher residency program. Teacher residencies, which were founded in the early 2000s, have an explicit mission of serving historically marginalized populations. However, more research is needed to better understand how these programs implement social justice teacher education. Indeed, there is a dearth of literature regarding the application of social justice practices in teacher education and the social justice beliefs of teacher educators. The interviews, documents, and observations collected for this study revealed a robust theme of social justice in participants’ beliefs and their curricula and pedagogies both in the classroom and in community-based work. These findings have implications for research in teacher education as well as the literature on teacher residencies specifically.
