Teaching White Preservice Teachers

Abstract

About 90% of the teachers in the United States are White, which is mirrored at the preservice level. In addition, schools of education have historically grounded their curricula in cannons of positivist science and Eurocentrism that are transmitted through conventional styles of pedagogy. Given the apartheid nature of U.S. society and the disinterest and/or resistance of preservice teachers to teach in urban settings where students of color are the norm, teacher educators need to help their students develop the dispositions they need to rethink their assumptions about “others.” Using dramaturgy, this self-study demonstrates how the connection of multiple epistemologies and other emancipatory pedagogies can stimulate the dispositions needed to rethink assumptions about the children and adults who live in communities of color.