Leaders-Cloaked-As-Teachers: Toward Pedagogies of Liberation

Abstract

In this chapter, I utilize the concept of leaders-cloaked-as-teachers to describe the idea that preservice teachers must undergo a transformation process before they view themselves as teachers and leaders in the classroom, school community, and larger society. I also present the term leaders-cloaked-as-teachers to refer to an urgent political and pedagogical endeavor to recruit and retain teachers who view themselves as change agents in the struggle for social justice, and who intentionally adopt the profession of teaching to assist in the liberation of marginalized individuals and groups in a democratic society. I begin each semester with the premise that before future educators can appreciate and accept for themselves the transformative nature of teaching and learning, they first must understand the nature of oppression and how they too are victims of hegemony and social inequality. Throughout the chapter, writing as an African-American female scholar, I embrace a narrative voice (embedded in the tenets of Black womanism and critical race theory) to discuss the challenges and possibilities of teaching critical pedagogy frameworks to majority White, middle-class, female students.