New Article on White Racial Consciousness in Pre-Service Women Teachers

I recently published an article with one of my doctoral students, Shanna McHellen, entitled “Yes, I’m White, But… Now What…: Cultural Competency & Deficit Perspectives in White Preservice Undergraduate Women Teachers.” In the research article which appears in the International Journal of Multidisciplinary Perspectives in Higher Education. In this this phenomenological qualitative study we used Rowe, Bennett, and Atkinson’s (1994) White Racial Consciousness Model to conceptualize racial awareness in a sample of White undergraduate female preservice teachers. The sample is drawn from the Midwest. The findings suggest that White women-identified preservice teachers understand their own white racial identity. However, they really struggle to contextualize their own positionality within Whiteness. They hide behind colorblind perspectives and proffered an enlightenment narrative. They external blame about a cultural competency to their teacher preparation programs and precollege experiences which facilitated limited exposure to diverse identities and settings. White women preservice teachers also engaged deficit perspectives about Students of Color and struggled communicating with their parents. Recommendation for practice are included related to improvements within teacher preparation curriculum and culturally relevant pedagogy.

The article is available in open source format.