Corrigendum to The Layered Toll of Racism in Teacher Education
On page 6 in this article, a participant’s identity was incorrectly represented and should have been represented as noted in the “Revised Text” section below (changes shown in bold type). In order to ensure that this participant’s identity is represented according to her expectations and that an accurate representation is most visible to all readers, the online article has been updated with these changes.
Original Text
The racialized deprofessionalization that is enacted through these tactics leaves teacher educators of Color experiencing extreme racial stress. In our study, teacher educators of Color were impacted by both the fear and reality of white teacher candidates enacting resistance and harm. For example, Kalena is a Hawaiian part-time lecturer of STEM (science, technology engineering, and mathematics) education in a teacher education program in Hawai’i who was hired because of her expertise in infusing Indigenous principles of land education into the content. She shared,
As a limited-term faculty member most recently hired to my department, my position is at highest risk of being cut given the budget concerns brought by the pandemic. I understand how both of these limit the risks I am willing to take in class. Although BIPOC students are the majority, I am cautious of our white students, particularly those who express a right to comfort. Racial justice work assumes discomfort in order to grow, but I am always questioning how hard to push discomfort when it may possibly affect my employment.
We found that teacher educators of Color who teach about race have to weigh decisions about the curriculum and pedagogy they enact with the impacts these choices can have on their job security. In a response to white comfort and the worry that disrupting it may have on her job stability, Kalena feels compelled to compromise key tenets of her pedagogy. She knows that it requires “discomfort in order to grow” around issues of race and in/equity, but she does not feel safe to push white teacher candidates toward discomfort because of how they may leverage their whiteness to jeopardize her employment. A South Asian teacher educator from New Jersey, Nidhi echoed Kalena’s burden as she wrestled with the “emotional tax” of supporting white teacher candidates in their learning about race, arguing, “There is a noted need to work doubly as hard and not appear to be aggressive when helping students to rectify misconceptions around race, pedagogy and schools.”
Revised Text (changes shown in bold type)
The racialized deprofessionalization that is enacted through these tactics leaves teacher educators of Color experiencing extreme racial stress. In our study, teacher educators of Color were impacted by both the fear and reality of white teacher candidates enacting resistance and harm. For example, Amy is a third-generation Japanese American, born and raised in Hawaiʻi, who serves as a full-time instructor in a teacher education program. She was hired because of her expertise in distance education and infusing place-based approaches and land education into STEM. She shared,
As a limited-term faculty member most recently hired to my department, my position is at highest risk of being cut given the budget concerns brought by the pandemic. I understand how both of these [issues] limit the risks I am willing to take in class. Although BIPOC students are the majority, I am cautious of our white students, particularly those who express a right to comfort. Racial justice work assumes discomfort in order to grow, but I am always questioning how hard to push discomfort when it may possibly affect my employment.
We found that teacher educators of Color who teach about race have to weigh decisions about the curriculum and pedagogy they enact with the impacts these choices can have on their job security. In a response to white comfort and the worry that disrupting it may have on her job stability, Amy feels compelled to compromise key tenets of her pedagogy. She knows that it requires “discomfort in order to grow” around issues of race and in/equity, but she does not feel safe to push white teacher candidates toward discomfort because of how they may leverage their whiteness to jeopardize her employment. A South Asian teacher educator from New Jersey, Nidhi echoed Amy’s burden as she wrestled with the “emotional tax” of supporting white teacher candidates in their learning about race, arguing, “There is a noted need to work doubly as hard and not appear to be aggressive when helping students to rectify misconceptions around race, pedagogy and schools.”
