The dearth of K-12 teachers of color remains a resounding issue of equity and social justice. Given that more potential candidates of color are enrolling in Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) to avoid the negative experiences at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) that discourage them from entering the field, this qualitative study explored teacher preparation at two 4-year public Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). The goal was to better understand: (a) how HSIs work against the barriers that have historically excluded teachers of color, (b) how teacher educators at HSIs respond to the diversity of college student abilities and prior academic experiences, and (c) how teacher educators at HSIs conceptualized and taught about the increasing racial, ethnic, and ability diversity of today’s K-12 students. Drawing on data at the individual, classroom, institutional, state, and federal levels, this study both centered the voices of teacher educators and college students of color and analyzed their narratives in relation to larger systems of power and privilege. From this analysis, two broader questions emerged. First, what does it mean to serve historically marginalized students who wish to be teachers? The study demonstrated that even institutional contexts that work to be welcoming spaces for college students of color contend with the historical legacies of whiteness and ability as property in teacher education, as the majority of graduated teachers across both racially diverse schools were white. Second, is there something to “get” when it comes to diversity in teacher education, and how do we know that students “get” it? As teacher educators of color complicated essentialist narratives of urban schools, teachers of color, students of color, and students with disabilities, tensions emerged around the impact K-12 teachers and schools have on society, dilemmas when college students’ needs clashed with their future K-12 students’ needs, and pedagogically sound ways to respond to understandings of diversity that work against equity and social justice. The role of care emerged as essential in simultaneously upholding the democratic ideals of schooling and productively responding to pathologizing discourses about people of color, moving beyond critical critique in teacher education, and (re)prioritizing the humanity of both K-12 and college students.

Enactment of social justice education is an important step toward rectifying pervasive discrimination woven into public schools and other American institutions. A social justice educator must develop diverse cultural competencies and also recognize oneself as a racialized participant in a system of racial inequity. The demographics of an overwhelmingly White teaching force and increasingly diverse student body creates both need and opportunity to understand the development of White multicultural educators. This is a case study of two White, female, middle-class first-year urban teachers who had completed a social justice-oriented preparation program. Written reflections, interviews, and focus groups captured teachers’ perspectives on their first-year intercultural, urban teaching experiences. Findings illuminated experiences with cultural disequilibrium, culturally relevant teaching, critical consciousness, learning to teach, relationships, and navigating institutional knowledge. Teachers negotiated cultural disequilibrium by both seeking new cultural knowledge, and seeking or creating experiences more consistent with schooling they experienced as students. Culturally relevant teaching emerged through teachers’ critiques of academic policy and practices that disadvantaged their students, yet were coupled with constraints that inhibited cultural synchronization in classrooms. Student achievement was considered a primary responsibility, but teachers were frustrated by accountability to fill perceived large academic gaps. Teachers simultaneously participated in and critiqued the dominant structures, stereotypes, and narratives in place in their schools Teachers viewed themselves as life-long learners and valued foundational preservice experiences and school-based relationships to build knowledge of teaching. Teachers understood the value of relationships with families and students yet felt constrained in developing those relationships to enhance culturally relevant teaching practices. Teaching in a culture of high stakes accountability and monitoring stifled innovative teaching. Implications for teacher supports during induction include preparing teachers to enter the induction process with an experience bank and foundational critical consciousness from which they can build in new contexts, providing opportunities for teachers to build community- and school-based knowledge and relationships as early as possible, and providing supportive mentoring that guides teachers’ critical consciousness in their new school contexts.

Thesis (D. Ed.)--Ball State University, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Nov. 12, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 263-288).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Instructional Systems, Leadership, and Workforce Development. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

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his thesis, based on a visual study of five educators in South Africa, primarily concerns itself with the experiences of white educators who are currently teaching as the only white educator in schools with predominantly black learners. More specifically, my study is an exploratory research effort, which examines three research objectives. These are: (1) what are the experiences of white educators teaching in schools with predominantly black learners; (2) why are their experiences constructed in such ways; and (3) what is the relationship, if any, between their experiences and their social identities — such as race, gender and class. I selected ethnography as a research tool for this study, in that it encompasses the examining of visual representations for information about people, which are visual documents produced by those under study. Photographs can become stitched into the fabric of people's lives, reflecting and representing social persons and social relationships. It is therefore hoped that the visual images that the five white participants of this study take, disclose the texture of their own experiences of teaching in schools with predominantly black learners. The study participants are all currently teaching in schools within KwaZulu Natal. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2008. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 177-196). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Auburn University. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 99.

Despite calls by U.S. researchers and policymakers for more teachers of color, supported by research documenting the significant social, emotional, and academic benefits of having same-race and same-ethnicity teachers, teaching remains an overwhelmingly White profession, even in light of demographic shifts rendering children of color the numeric majority in U.S. pre/schools. Relatedly, even as over one-fourth of children in the U.S. are immigrants, immigrant and transmigrant teachers have been marginalized in teacher education. Seeking to address this problem from a political-ideological paradigmatic perspective, this study sought to learn from transmigrant teachers’ negotiations of identities and practices. Rejecting essentialized notions of immigrant teachers/communities and focusing on Chinese transmigrant teachers teaching Chinese immigrants and children of immigrants, it sought to understand how they negotiated their teacher identities and pedagogical practices in light of occupational, geographical, and migrational intersections of identities and experiences. Further, it sought to document how these were enacted in early childhood public school classrooms. Situated in New York City, home to the largest Chinese and Chinese-American population of any city outside Asia, this collective case study centered the voices, identities, and experiences of three Chinese transmigrant early childhood teachers via Thirdspace theory, bridging identity, and transnational funds of knowledge. Doing so accounted for their individuality and collectivity. Analytically, • Thirdspace theory was used to map how they reconciled transnational identities, experiences, and pedagogical practices in the classroom; • bridging identity helped deepen understandings of how they constructed a professional/occupational identity influenced by, but not limited to, past biographical experiences; and • transnational funds of knowledge epitomized their lived experiences resulting from transnational navigations and/or belonging to transnational communities, capturing the complex flow of knowledges that characterized their experiences and pedagogies. Findings shed light onto the power and potential of Chinese transmigrant early childhood teachers in the education of Chinese immigrant children. Implications underscore the need for teacher education to learn from the experiences of international teacher candidates, recognizing how they may serve as role models for all students while improving the outcomes and school experiences of immigrant students, leveraging the simultaneity of experiences, identities, and experiences in the construction of Thirdspace classrooms.

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