Critical Self-Reflection as Disruption: A Black Feminist Self-Study

Abstract

As the PK-12 student population grows more diverse, the teaching population steadfastly continues to be white middle-class women (NCES, 2016). Critical teacher educators understand the importance of preparing pre-service teachers to become culturally responsive and sustaining (CR/S) practitioners by engaging in culturally relevant education (CRE). Critical teacher educators, particularly those of color from historically marginalized groups, can be important advocates in the struggle to strengthen the teaching candidate pool of CR/S practitioners. Building a cadre of teachers, who are poised to decolonize minds and spaces, sustains the work of many teacher educators of color. However, the acts of teaching and learning in most institutions of education are inundated with oppressive norms such as white privilege, xenophobia and anti-blackness. It is this reality in which I, a Black female junior teacher educator, attempt to disrupt normative teaching practices within a special education course. This self-study examined insight derived from a focus group as well as from my self-reflections conducted over the course of two semesters (Spring 2018 to Fall 2018). Using a qualitative methodological approach, the findings indicated tensions between my vulnerable position of being a junior faculty member and my desire to dismantle normative deficit practices through critical self-reflection.
 

The Trifecta Framework: Preparing Agents of Change in Urban Education

“…Moreover, Liu (2015) paired social justice-oriented critical reflection in teacher education with transformative learning to formulate a framework to challenge prospective teachers to interrogate their perspectives and eventually take action on newly developed belief systems. Further, critical reflection is an essential component of education guided by Black feminist theory (Kressler, 2020).…”

For Classrooms Rooted in Love, Liberation, and Justice: An Examination of White Teachers Walking the Winding Path Toward Transformative Practices

“…CSR is defined as "a constant cycle of coming back to our starting point and purpose" (Fernández-Balboa, 1998, p. 47). CSR has been used by preservice teachers during their training programs to reflect on how position and power manifest in the classroom and to demonstrate how to bring about important classroom changes only the teacher can institute (Gün, 2010) through disruption of the neoliberal education agenda (Kressler, 2020).…”

“…Emdin (2011) pointed directly to the ineffectiveness of society in general, and the way we teach specifically, for the way it disfigures the passion of Black youth. Kressler (2020) and Aronson and Boveda (2017) discussed the particular need to protect Black and Brown students who are differently abled or labeled as special needs because they are seen through an especially violent deficit-based lens.…”