Social Justice is Not Spoken Here: Considering the Nexus of Knowledge, Power and the Education of Future Teachers in the United States

Abstract

Using the critical race theory methodology of counter-storytelling, the authors provide narratives of their experiences as teacher educators to consider why and how the racial power of Whiteness continues to derail teaching and learning for social justice in US teacher preparation programs, despite the democratic intentions, hard work and good will of many teacher educators. Contending that Whiteness serves as a hidden referent structuring interactions and activity within US teacher preparation programs, the authors draw on their narratives to highlight and analyze moments in time when teacher educators actively and fully participate in and enact the obstruction of social-justice-oriented educational endeavors, thus ensuring that future teachers will not be prepared to teach all students. The authors argue that for social justice to be realized in education, the racial power of Whiteness must be interrupted. Since individuals choose, whether consciously or not, to help recreate Whiteness as the normative standard in US teacher education programs, the authors posit that teacher educators and others can also choose differently; they can choose to act ways that challenge the historical privileging of White interests, values, and beliefs.