For Part One of this Series, please see Social Location and Education, Part 1.
Due to my placement within the total sum of my lived experiences, it should come as no surprise that I passionately believe the inclusion of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in teacher preparation classes is not only a good idea whose time has come, but is vital if our profession is to evolve beyond its current state of discourse and dysfunction. Thus, these pieces are primarily about the need for having CRT-type instruction in the curriculum for all pre-service teachers. Otherwise, our schools will continue to erode as viable public institutions.
Due to my placement within these experiences, it should come as no surprise that I passionately believe the inclusion of CRT in teacher preparation classes is not only a good idea whose time has come, but is vital if our profession is to evolve beyond its current state of discourse and dysfunction. Thus, this piece is primarily about the need for having CRT-type instruction in the curriculum for all pre-service teachers.
I contend that the symptoms and consequences of White Supremacy remain almost wholly unaddressed within teacher training in the United States. As a result, teachers (90% White as of 2003) are woefully ill equipped to educate a student population that is 40.5% Persons With Color. Furthermore, I argue that because this ill prepared 90% arrives in our schools from their place atop the racial hierarchy, teachers are (intentionally or not) contributing to the reassertion- if not the reconfirmation- of White hegemony at the expense of those historically dominated by this system. In other words, the majority of teachers have a lot of learning to do.
I begin this exercise by first sharing and thus critically reflecting on my own student teaching experiences and thus openly disclosing the roots of my perspective- my positionality, if you will. Next, the examination of the hidden curricula within both schools will be discussed alongside the subject of hidden curricula itself. I then will share my belief of the necessity of having racially informed praxis (theory + practice) in place in one's teaching- indeed their very being.
This is vital if authentically transformative change is to take place within the current racialized system. This can be accomplished in part, I posit, if colleges of education develop strategies that provoke deep critical reflection on how social location plays out in the hierarchical superstructures of greater society.
Student Teaching U.S.A.
My first semester was spent in a public school within an economically disadvantaged community in a medium-large city in the United States. Forty-plus percent of students in this school were officially on free or reduced lunch programs. The district spent $6,000+ USD per student Minoritized (instead of "minority" because it shows that the naming and mistreatment of a group of people is the result of choices and actions taken on behalf of the dominant powers and not the result of inherent "problems" within said group of people) learners made up over fifty percent of the student population.
Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, the teacher and administrative population did not reflect this diversity. There were three Persons With Color (implying White folk lack any? This is simply a play on the "non-white" verbal paradigm) at the school who had regular contact with students and who were not custodial, maintenance, or food staff. One was an African American who was a student advisor. Another was one of two school counselors. The third was a math teacher. The rest of the teachers at the school and the entire administration were made up of White folks.
I was paired with a cooperating teacher (CT) with 10+ years of experience who turned out to be both a racist and a classist. In the first week I was in the school a student of African lineage brought in her "baby," a project for her health class in which students care for a "baby" in the form of an egg or a flour sack. Whereas these sacks of dry goods are usually filled with sugar or baking flour, this young lady had obtained and cared for a one-pound bag of brown sugar for the week before I arrived. Excitedly, she asked me, "...Do you like my brown sugar baby?" I smiled, and then beamed, praising the young woman for her awareness of self. A few minutes later, my CT arrived (late, as usual) and the young girl made the same statement. My CT responded with:
"It’s too bad your people try to make us feel so awkward all of the time."
I was crushed. More importantly, the young girl clearly was crushed. To say that my remaining time with this cooperating teacher was "difficult" would be an exercise in profound understatement.
This teacher’s attitude towards Students With Color and poor Whites was atrocious and well documented in my written observations. On multiple occasions, the teacher chose to leave for several days with no instructions- which, as she put it, "didn’t really matter" due to her "lack of need for planning in the first place." This provided me with an opportunity to counter this teacher’s hegemonic tendencies in the classroom.
As a first semester student teacher, I was able to keep students typically found to be disruptive "under control" without demeaning their personhood. Unfortunately, upon each return my CT would undo any progress we had made as a class towards creating a safe learning environment within a few minutes. As a student teacher with less power than anyone at the school, I felt I had to stay silent. This woman should have never been allowed to teach, much less be a mentor teacher.