Building Pedagogues: White Practicing Teachers and the Struggle for Antiracist Work in Schools

Summary

An in-depth account and model of antiracist professional development for white practicing teachers.

Antiracist professional development for white teachers often follows a one-size-fits-all model, focusing on narrow notions of race and especially white privilege at the expense of more radical analyses of white supremacy. Frustrated with this model, Zachary A. Casey and Shannon K. McManimon, both white teacher educators, developed a two-year professional development seminar called "RaceWork" with eight white practicing teachers committed to advancing antiracism in their classrooms, schools, and communities. Drawing on interviews, field notes, teacher reflections, and classroom observations, Building Pedagogues details the program's theoretical and pedagogical foundations; Casey and McManimon's unique tripartite approach to race and racism at personal, local, and structural levels; learnings, strategies, and practical interventions that emerged from the program; and the challenges and resistance these teachers faced. As the story of RaceWork and a model for implementing it, the book concludes by reminding its audience of teachers, teacher educators, and researchers that antiracist professional development is a continual, open-ended process. The work of building pedagogues is an ongoing process.