‘That really hit me hard’: moving beyond passive anti-racism to engage with critical race literacy pedagogy
Abstract
This study interrogates how understandings about racism and anti-racism are constructed through interactions with students as well as peers in preservice teacher education contexts towards a closer understanding of racial literacy as both a personal and pedagogical tool. Critical race literacy pedagogy – a subset of the approaches known as multicultural education, culturally responsive teaching, and anti-racist teaching – is a set of tools to practice racial literacy in school settings with children, peers, colleagues, and so forth. In this article, I explore the construction of critical race literacy pedagogy for one white preservice teacher in a U.S. teacher education program through two engagements with literacy pedagogy: a reading lesson with two African American students and the discussion of a children’s literature text in a teacher education book club. Through the critical, mediated discourse analysis of these two engagements, we see that for Kelly, the process of enacting racial literacy in a reading lesson required anti-racist discourse patterns not yet available to her; whereas in the book club, interviews, and written reflections she was able to articulate what it means to practice racial literacy, pinpoint the breakdown of her pedagogy, and develop what it means to be ‘actively’ anti-racist as a literacy teacher. The findings of this study suggest the complexity of the roles and the variety of paths available for white teachers who desire to be anti-racist teachers. Ultimately, the findings indicate that we do not need only to prepare teachers for identities that ‘transcend’ predictable ways of being white but to construct a more complete framework for what it means to practice racial literacy in educational contexts.
Reference
Mosley, M. (2010). 'That really hit me hard': Moving beyond passive anti-racism to engage with critical race literacy pedagogy. Race Ethnicity and Education, 13(4), 449-471.
Journal
Race Ethnicity and Education
Analysis
Is this article part of a larger project or series of studies?
yes
Does this study draw on a large, preexisting data set?
no
Research Approach
- Case study
- Critical discourse analysis
Geographic Setting
Institutional Context
Certification Level
Programatic Focus
- Critical Literacy (transforming practices)
Research Location Context
Preservice Participants
- Undergraduates (university based program)
Preservice Sample Size
-1
Duration of Data Collection
Data Sources
Data Analysis Tools
- Case study analysis
- Critical Discourse Analysis
Researcher Positionality
- inside (staying their own students)
Research Questions
I explore the construction of critical race literacy pedagogy for one white preservice teacher in a U.S. teacher education program through two engagements with literacy pedagogy: a reading lesson with two African American students and the discussion of a children’s literature text in a teacher education book club.
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Combination