Bridging Connections Between Teachers' Racial Identities and Their Teaching Practices

Author

Sandras M. Barnes, Lesley University

Date of Award

2001

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

PHD - Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how three Black female teachers and three White female teachers of kindergarten, first grade, and eighth grade understand the connections between their racial identity and their teaching practices . Specifically, it sought to understand how they experience their first awareness of racial difference and the influence their family, community, and school had on their construct of race. Also, how their preparation to teach reinforced, expanded, altered, or demystified their understanding of racial differences as a means to teach all children . The study used a phenomenologically based, lived experienced methodology to interview the six female teachers as they recalled, reflected, analyzed, described, and interpreted their ways of knowing and living in a racialized world. The study found the connections between the teachers' racial identities and their teaching practices lie in the attitudes and actions of their families and their reactions to dominant /oppressive beliefs that became part of their every day lived experiences . These experiences made these teachers classify and internalize these beliefs as truths or as myths. Also, their teacher education programs provided no teaching strategies and racial content to connect their experiential and analytical ways of knowing that bridged their racial identity and teaching practices.

Language

English

Number of Pages

115

Embargo Period

6-9-2017

Recommended Citation

Barnes, Sandras M., "Bridging Connections Between Teachers' Racial Identities and Their Teaching Practices" (2001). Educational Studies Dissertations. 110.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/education_dissertations/110