7 Racially Literate Teacher Education: (Im)possibilities for Disrupting the Racial Silence
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Susan Whatman
Abstract
Some form of racial literacy is essential for enacting teachers’ personal and professional commitment to embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives and knowledges in education. Our experiences of teaching Indigenous education in universities over the last 30 years provide insights into how racial literacy has (and has not) infiltrated teacher preparation degrees in Australian universities. We discuss in a conversational style critical race theorists who have shaped our conceptualizations of research and teaching practice, and share our ideas of forms of racial literacy in praxis – even though it is rarely called that – in the field of Indigenous studies at two universities. We identify through lived examples of teachers of critical Indigenous studies the precedents, enablers and barriers to sector-wide commitment to graduating racially literate teachers with the intention to illustrate and provoke accountability from those working in university teacher education in advancing a racially just society.
Abstract
Some form of racial literacy is essential for enacting teachers’ personal and professional commitment to embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives and knowledges in education. Our experiences of teaching Indigenous education in universities over the last 30 years provide insights into how racial literacy has (and has not) infiltrated teacher preparation degrees in Australian universities. We discuss in a conversational style critical race theorists who have shaped our conceptualizations of research and teaching practice, and share our ideas of forms of racial literacy in praxis – even though it is rarely called that – in the field of Indigenous studies at two universities. We identify through lived examples of teachers of critical Indigenous studies the precedents, enablers and barriers to sector-wide commitment to graduating racially literate teachers with the intention to illustrate and provoke accountability from those working in university teacher education in advancing a racially just society.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Series Editors’ Preface vii
- List of Figures and Tables ix
- Notes on Contributors x
- Foreword xvii
- Acknowledgements xxi
- Introduction: Articulating a Critical Racial and Decolonial Liberatory Imperative for Our Times 1
-
Going beyond ‘Decolonize the Curriculum’
- Being Woke to Anti-Intellectualism: Indigenous Resistance and Futures 13
- Decolonizing Australian Universities: Why Embedding Indigenous Content in the Curriculum Fails That Task 32
- Let’s Get Critical: Thinking with and beyond the ‘Dead White Men’ of Social Theory 49
- (De)constituting Settler Subjects: A Retrospective Critical Race-Decolonizing Account 62
-
Being in the Classroom
- Shedding the Colonial Skin and Digging Deep as Decolonial Praxis 79
- Racially Literate Teacher Education: (Im)possibilities for Disrupting the Racial Silence 93
- In Conversation with Helena Liu: Redeeming Leadership – a Project of Critical Hope 111
- The Provocateur as Decolonial Praxis 123
-
Doing Race in the Disciplines
- Decolonizing the Curriculum in the Colonial Debtscape 137
- Race-ing the Law 152
- Assembling Decolonial Anti-Racist Praxis from the Margins: Reflections from Critical Community Psychology 164
- Unravelling the Model Minority Myth and Breaking the Racial Silence: A Collaborative Critical Auto-Ethnography 178
- Counter-Storytelling as Critical Praxis 190
-
Building Critical Racial and Decolonial Literacies beyond the Academy
- Incantation: Insurgent Texts as Decolonial Feminist Praxis 205
- Race at Work within Social Policy 227
- ‘The Sole Source of Truth’: Harnessing the Power of the Spoken Word through Indigenous Community Radio 246
-
Resistance, Solidarity, Survival
- Death Can Be Clarifying: Considering the Forces That Move Us 261
- In Conversation with Yassir Morsi: Slow Ontology as Resistance 276
- Teaching Race, Conceptualizing Solidarity 290
- In Conversation with Alana Lentin: Racial Literacy – an Act of Solidarity 305
- Teacher/Decolonizer 317
- Index 322
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Series Editors’ Preface vii
- List of Figures and Tables ix
- Notes on Contributors x
- Foreword xvii
- Acknowledgements xxi
- Introduction: Articulating a Critical Racial and Decolonial Liberatory Imperative for Our Times 1
-
Going beyond ‘Decolonize the Curriculum’
- Being Woke to Anti-Intellectualism: Indigenous Resistance and Futures 13
- Decolonizing Australian Universities: Why Embedding Indigenous Content in the Curriculum Fails That Task 32
- Let’s Get Critical: Thinking with and beyond the ‘Dead White Men’ of Social Theory 49
- (De)constituting Settler Subjects: A Retrospective Critical Race-Decolonizing Account 62
-
Being in the Classroom
- Shedding the Colonial Skin and Digging Deep as Decolonial Praxis 79
- Racially Literate Teacher Education: (Im)possibilities for Disrupting the Racial Silence 93
- In Conversation with Helena Liu: Redeeming Leadership – a Project of Critical Hope 111
- The Provocateur as Decolonial Praxis 123
-
Doing Race in the Disciplines
- Decolonizing the Curriculum in the Colonial Debtscape 137
- Race-ing the Law 152
- Assembling Decolonial Anti-Racist Praxis from the Margins: Reflections from Critical Community Psychology 164
- Unravelling the Model Minority Myth and Breaking the Racial Silence: A Collaborative Critical Auto-Ethnography 178
- Counter-Storytelling as Critical Praxis 190
-
Building Critical Racial and Decolonial Literacies beyond the Academy
- Incantation: Insurgent Texts as Decolonial Feminist Praxis 205
- Race at Work within Social Policy 227
- ‘The Sole Source of Truth’: Harnessing the Power of the Spoken Word through Indigenous Community Radio 246
-
Resistance, Solidarity, Survival
- Death Can Be Clarifying: Considering the Forces That Move Us 261
- In Conversation with Yassir Morsi: Slow Ontology as Resistance 276
- Teaching Race, Conceptualizing Solidarity 290
- In Conversation with Alana Lentin: Racial Literacy – an Act of Solidarity 305
- Teacher/Decolonizer 317
- Index 322
