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Full-Text Articles in Education

Responding To “Innocent” Racism: Educating Teachers In Politically Reflexive And Dialogic Engagement In Local Communities, Fatima Pirbhai-Illich, Theresa Y. Austin, Patricia Paugh, Yvonne Farino Jan 2011

Responding To “Innocent” Racism: Educating Teachers In Politically Reflexive And Dialogic Engagement In Local Communities, Fatima Pirbhai-Illich, Theresa Y. Austin, Patricia Paugh, Yvonne Farino

Theresa Y. Austin

This article develops the construct of ―innocent racism‖ and argues for keeping questions of race central in teacher education. The authors report three cases in which they, teacher educators working within a school/university alliance, identified and addressed racism in their courses. We situate our analyses within antiracist research informed by Critical Race Theory (CRT) where the teacher education students and ourselves struggled to recognize and address racism. Critical episodes are reflectively analyzed to challenge both teacher educators‘ and teachers‘ beliefs. We demonstrate how race still matters because of the ways in which it intersects with our practices. Examples of struggles …


Revisiting Collaborative Boundaries-Pioneering Change In Perspectives And Relations Of Power, Francis Bangou, Theresa Y. Austin Jan 2011

Revisiting Collaborative Boundaries-Pioneering Change In Perspectives And Relations Of Power, Francis Bangou, Theresa Y. Austin

Theresa Y. Austin

In this article, we examine collaboration as a situated practice that defies a prescriptive definition mainly located in the interpersonal relations of professionals. We argue that collaboration does not merely depend upon “good” will or professionalism, rather interacts complexly with racial expectations that have been cultivated in institutions where racism is manifested in subtle ways. We use Critical Race Theory (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995) to examine how we as 2 different pairs of teacher educators in innovative programs in different sites faced racial tensions through our co-teaching experiences. Each racially diverse pair consisted of a more senior faculty member and …