"It's Equal but It's not Fair": The experiences of Teacher Candidates of Color in a Predominantly White Institution

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

This research documents the experiences of Teacher Candidates of Color (TCCs) during their K-8 teacher preparation program at a Predominantly White Institution. The study followed the TCCs in two different learning environments: their university courses and their school placement sites in order to discover in what ways, if any, their learning experiences were afforded or constrained by their racial and cultural identities. Findings suggest that school placement sites were especially beneficial for TCCs when their cultural and linguistic heritages were congruent with the students, families, and communities in which their school placement was located. At times the TCCs’ learning opportunities were constrained by their cultural and linguistic identities. These moments were more likely to occur in the university courses due to the program’s focus on culturally responsive instruction that was not consistently demonstrated in their program. These findings have implications for how teacher preparation programs at PWIs can better focus learning experiences for TCCs. Teacher preparation programs, school districts, and communities are struggling to better meet the needs of K-12 students whose racial, cultural, and linguistic identities differ from most of their teachers. One strategy to better meet the needs of K-12 students is to increase the number of teachers of color. By increasing the number of teachers of color in the K-12 teaching workforce, the demographic gap can be reduced with the overall goal of increasing academic outcomes for all students, particularly students of color. With that goal in mind, the teacher preparation programs at PWI’s have been working to increase the number of teacher candidates of color and the findings from this study could help to both recruit and retain teacher candidates of color.