Institute for Teachers of Color Committed to Racial Justice
2021 Teacher Educators Convening
January 21-22, 2021
9am-12:30pm PST
The application for the 2021 Teacher Educators Convening is now live!
Apply by December 14th, 2020.
78% of full-time faculty, and 79% of adjunct faculty in teacher education programs are white (AACTE, 2010), and numerous studies have shown their resistance to critical discourse (Alvaré, 2018; Boutte, 2012). Additionally, with rampant antiblackness (Haddix, 2016; Faison & McArthur, 2020) and institutional racism shaping curriculum, pedagogy, policies, and practices (Cross, 2005, Sleeter, 2017), teacher education has remained steadfast in reproducing a predominantly white teaching force with limited racial literacy and deficit frames of students and families of Color (Gist, 2017; Amos, 2010). A growing body of research has drawn attention to teacher educators of Color and their critical role in disrupting the pervasive racist curriculum, pedagogy, and ideologies of teacher education programs (Picower & Kohli, 2017; Matias, 2013; Navarro, Quince, Hseih, Deckman, 2019), however, additional studies have also described the tremendous emotional cost of this labor (Atwater, et. al, 2013; Shim, 2018).
To support Black, Indigenous, and people of Color (BIPOC) teacher educators who are committed to racial justice and who need a place to strengthen their praxis and realize their potential as racial justice leaders in their programs, the Institute for Teachers of Color Committed to Racial Justice (ITOC) is offering its first convening focused specifically on supporting Teacher Educators of Color. Hosted by the Lurie College of Education at San José State University, this two-day event will be held virtually January 21-22, 2021, and will take participants through dialogue and workshops focused on strengthening racial literacies—processing racism and its impact, as well as planning towards racial justice within the context of teacher education.
We are looking for teacher educators who identify as BIPOC, have a demonstrated commitment to racial justice, and who work in a university context training future teachers. Commitment to racial justice will be determined through:
We are looking for teacher educators who identify as BIPOC, have a demonstrated commitment to racial justice, and who work in a university context training future teachers. Commitment to racial justice will be determined through:
- Asset framings of communities of Color
- Structural analysis of racism
- Connection of critical theory to practice
- Demonstrated engagement in racial justice leadership/initiatives
We acknowledge that labels for race, ethnicity, and other social groupings are socially constructed, politically influenced, and fluid. While racial categories were originally created as tools of stratification and oppression, racialized people have also reclaimed labels, pridefully embracing the community and collective agency built within these terms. And while none perfectly capture the unique positionalities and experiences of people, we take great care as we operationalize and use them. We use both the terms “of Color,” to describe the aggregate of various racialized people, and Black, Indigenous, and people of Color (BIPOC) to distinguish and recognize the unique positionalities and struggles of distinct racialized people