Implementing a Social Justice Perspective in Teacher Education: Invisible Burden for Faculty of Color
2005; Volume: 32; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0737-5328
Autores Tópico(s)Service-Learning and Community Engagement
ResumoContext Introduction It is as if we are all on a river that flows quietly and gently along. Most of my friends, students, and colleagues float on this river in a strong, sturdy boat of their majority status--a boat I cannot get into because I am not White. The river, our societal mainstream, is accepted and hardly noticed. I manage to swim or float alongside the boat as I am learning how to navigate this mainstream. Every once in a while someone in the boat notices my struggle and tosses out an inner tube or briefly holds my hand. And then sometimes, someone reaches out and pushes my head under with, Just get over this race thing, Jean. I sputter, resurface and continue on. In the long run, I figure it makes sense to construct a raft for myself. So while I talk to those in the boat and we run difficult rapids together, at the same time I must lash together whatever supportive materials I can find. The response? Hey, how come Jean gets a raft? When I say, Because I can't get in the boat with you and I'm getting tired of staying afloat without more support, some say, What boat? (Moule, 2003, p. 3 [adapted from Journal entry 11/19/01]) African Americans in predominantly White institutions often carry a greater load than their positions describe. While researchers have explored the unique role of African Americans in higher education (Cook, 1996; Diller & Moule, 2005; Jones, 2001; King & Castenell, 2001; Ladson-Billings, 1997; Maboleka & Green, 2001; Moule, 2004; Powell, 1999; Richardson & Villenas, 2000; Turner & Myers, 2000), this study deepens the understanding of this role by analyzing the work of one African American woman in a teacher education program at a large Northwestern research institution. As a female African American assistant professor, I examine my position description and assignments over a five-year period. I focus particularly on changes that occurred as our teacher education faculty struggled to implement a social justice perspective into our preservice teacher program. How have we run these rapids together, and what impact has the institution of our social justice perspective had on my role and person as an isolated individual of color? Setting and Participants As the proportion and number of children of color in the nation's and our state's school districts have increased, so has the need for teachers with multicultural awareness and perspectives. For the success of students of color, it is imperative that these teachers develop a social justice foundation and perspective while enrolled in our teacher education programs and carry this perspective into their teaching practices. Sleeter's (2001) meta-analysis of efforts to prepare students to work in diverse settings highlights the overwhelming presence of Whiteness in education. For example, my college has made efforts to recruit a more racially diverse student population into its graduate teacher education programs, yet the reality is that the majority of the preservice teachers are White. In the school year 2003-2004, 95% of our preservice teacher cohort was White. The faculty is also overwhelmingly White. I serve on the elementary education team of 5 core faculty and 6 part-time faculty in a School of Education with 30 faculty members. I am one of the few people of color in my building, and I am one of only 10 African Americans among the university's 1,200 tenured or tenure-track faculty (Oregon State University, 2002). Our one-year Master of Arts in Teaching program began in Fall 1991. From its inception there had been a strong constructivist, reflective and interpersonal focus in the program. At one point, due to the need to formalize a perspective for a National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) review, one member of our faculty wrote a social justice perspective statement. Social Justice Perspectives We placed a social justice vision statement on the first page of our handbook (Professional Teacher Education Program, 2002): The purpose of education is to promote a democratic society based on principles of social justice and economic equity. …
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