Does Anti-racist Teacher Preparation Endure?: Revisiting the Development of Racial Literacy in Undergraduate Teacher Preparation Five Years Out

Chanelle Wilson

The transition from undergraduate teacher preparation to in-service teaching practice is an important area of focus in the overall research on teacher development. Many formal public schooling institutions in the United States replicate oppressive social structures, hierarchies, and inequities, including racism. Specifically, the field needs more insight into the process of developing and solidifying an identity as a teacher for racial justice?an identity that must endure through challenging and even hostile contexts. This study prioritizes learning from (1) the perspectives of in-service teachers who participated in race inquiry groups during their student teaching and (2) their professional trajectories in implementing race-conscious practices during their first years of teaching. Critical Race Praxis and Racial Literacy, offer a powerful theoretical guide for the praxis work of in-service teachers that is the focus of this study, bringing together an argument for an understanding of racism with a focus on practices that can counter and begin to dismantle racist systems in education. Using qualitative methods, former teacher candidates, now in-service teachers, will be guided to reflect on their journey in education to be racially-literate educators through storytelling narratives. The approach to research includes a co-constructive, participatory process that engages teacher participants as co-researchers. Insights gained from this study will provide a window into what former pre-service teachers navigate after they graduate and how they undertake the journey of implementing racial literacy skills and teaching for racial justice.

About Chanelle Wilson

Chanelle Wilson is currently an Assistant Professor of Education in the Bryn Mawr/Haverford Colleges Education Studies Department and the Director of Africana Studies at Bryn Mawr College. Dr. Wilson has served as a public school practitioner, teaching secondary education students, in the United States and around the world. Her current scholarship focuses on race and anti-racism in education, decolonization of schools and the mind, students as teachers and learners, culturally relevant pedagogy in international schooling contexts, and developing holistic models of teacher preparation for liberation. Dr. Wilson has a passion for using research to improve the educational experiences of marginalized groups, promoting equity and critical race-focused conversations. Dr. Wilson is the author of multiple scholarly journal publications, book chapters, and has presented over 25 papers at research conferences, domestic and international. She has collaborated with colleagues to inform policy and practice briefs, co-authored an edited volume, delivered invited keynotes, professional development series, and training programs for a spectrum of age groups and a variety of contexts and communities. Dr. Wilson is committed to social and racial justice. She enjoys supporting people from diverse backgrounds to engage with concepts of race, colonialism, and justice, encouraging self-introspection for outer transformation. Dr. Wilson completed her undergraduate studies in Secondary Education and English, at Rowan University. She earned a Master of Education at Temple University and collected data for her master?s thesis while completing a Fulbright, in South Africa. She earned a doctoral degree in Education Leadership, at the University of Delaware.