“We Sort of Dance Around the Race Thing”: Race-Evasiveness in Teacher Education

The racial and linguistic diversity of U.S. classrooms has drawn attention to the intersecting dynamics of race, racism, and language learning in teacher education. While most studies in this vein focus on teachers, almost no research has focused on teacher educators themselves. Therefore, this stud...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of teacher education 2022-01, Vol.73 (1), p.8-22
Main Author: Chang-Bacon, Chris K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bilingual Education
Bilingual Students
Bilingualism
Controversial Issues (Course Content)
Diversity (Faculty)
English Language Learners
Language Usage
Multicultural education
Race
Racial Bias
Racial justice
Racism
Reflection
Social Bias
State Policy
Student Diversity
Teacher Attitudes
Teacher education
Teacher Education Programs
Teacher Educators
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Summary:The racial and linguistic diversity of U.S. classrooms has drawn attention to the intersecting dynamics of race, racism, and language learning in teacher education. While most studies in this vein focus on teachers, almost no research has focused on teacher educators themselves. Therefore, this study draws on interviews with teacher educators to document how they addressed—or more often, evaded—the topics of race and racism. Participants (n = 33) were instructors for state-mandated courses on teaching emergent bilinguals for general educators across the state of Massachusetts. Through the lens of poststructural discourse analysis, the findings of this study demonstrate that race-evasiveness is not a byproduct of passive omission, but instead involves active, discursive effort. These findings underscore the importance of individual and collective efforts to disrupt race-evasiveness, but also illustrate the limits of surface-level race-intentionality for advancing antiracism in teacher education.
ISSN:0022-4871
1552-7816
DOI:10.1177/00224871211023042