Critical Race Theory and the Whiteness of Teacher Education

TLDR

The article applies three critical race theory tenets to critique teacher education’s focus on preparing predominantly White teacher candidates for diverse classrooms. It examines interest convergence, color blindness, and experiential knowledge to reveal how White interests are served, how ostensibly neutral structures reinforce Whiteness, and whose voices are amplified. The authors contend that teacher education can be transformed and provide concrete suggestions grounded in these tenets.

Abstract

This article uses three tenets of critical race theory to critique the common pattern of teacher education focusing on preparing predominantly White cohorts of teacher candidates for racially and ethnically diverse students. The tenet of interest convergence asks how White interests are served through incremental steps. The tenet of color blindness prompts asking how structures that seem neutral, such as teacher testing, reinforce Whiteness and White interests. The tenet of experiential knowledge prompts asking whose voices are being heard. The article argues that much about teacher education can be changed, offering suggestions that derive from these tenets.