Studentteacher
Studentteacher
Studentteacher
Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework for this study draws on
key components of critical multicultural education
including (a) bringing the abstract constructs of privilege
and inequitable distribution of privilege into the concrete
realm of lived experience (Artiles, 2011; Howard, 2006);
(b) acknowledging the emotional dimensions of recognizing ones own privilege (Boler, 1999; Zembylas,
2003); and (c) identifying the systemic institutional ways
that privilege is inequitably distributed in society and
schools (DiAngelo & Sensoy, 2010; Gorski, 2010;
Howard, 2006; Sleeter & Grant, 1987, 2006). We present our analysis to help deepen and expand the conversation about critical multicultural education. Indeed, we
take up the call put forth by Allen and Rossatto (2009):
Multicultural Perspectives
13
The Study
Social Class
The four individual codes grouped under the broader
topic of Social Class represent 50% of all responses
from pre-service teachers including Parent Income
(29%), Education (13%), Schooling Opportunities (5%),
and Travel (3%). Parent Income was cited most often
with a total of 69 responses.Please check presence of
highlight over responses. A simple, yet typical,
response was, [t]hough my family is not wealthy, my
parents are wise with money and we always had plenty.
Some pre-service teachers wrote of the importance of
growing up feeling economically secure. Often there
was a tendency to qualify their own economic status as
not rich or not wealthy. Additionally, some attributed their economic status to a blessing, as illustrated
in the following example.
I was blessed to grow up in a home where money was
rarely an issue. We were not filthy rich, but we always
had what we needed with a little extra. My middle class
home was perfect for encouraging early learning and
prepared me well to succeed in school.
Findings
Nine individual codes emerged from our analysis of
pre-service teachers responses about social privileges
(see Table 1.)Table 1. Four of these implicate social
class (about 50% of responses), including, Parent
Income (29%), Education (13%), Schooling Opportunities (5%), and Travel (3%). Other frequently cited
responses were Race (15%), followed by Parent Support
(10%). Three smaller categories included Church
Table 1. Content Analysis Summary: Personal Unearned Privileges from Pre-service Teacher Candidates
Categories
Parent income (Social class)
Race
Education (Social class)
Parent support
Church membership
U.S. citizenship
Personal/Unique/Negative
Schooling/Program opportunities (Social class)
Language
Travel (Social class)
Total
Total
Descriptions
69 (29%)
35 (15%)
31 (13%)
23 (10%)
20 (8%)
16 (6%)
16 (6%)
11 (4%)
10 (4%)
8 (3%)
239
Multicultural Perspectives
15
Race
Thirty-five responses (15%) identified Race as an
unearned social privilege in their lives. Pre-service
teachers in our sample referred to their race as affording
them social privilege because they were White. This represents the second most often cited privilege overall
after Parent Income, though race and social class were
often cited concurrently (and coded for both). Some
responses were stated simply as being White middle
class. However, at least half made connections to other
social opportunities and experiences showing that some
pre-service teachers did think about privilege as related
to race more deeply. For example, one elaborated on the
relationship she saw between her race and her place in
society.
context experience advantage disproportionately to nonWhites, even after a short mandatory course. We feel that
choosing to discuss race, in the context of other choices,
is an indication that at least some pre-service teachers are
taking up these ideas, rather than avoiding them.
Parent Support
Parent Support emerged as a theme in student responses,
including things like parental love or time to help with
homework. This was the fourth largest category of
responses overall, with 23 (10%) responses indicating that
this has been an important privilege in their lives. The preservice teachers discussed love and the attention they
received from parents. For example, The biggest impact on
my life has been my family. I am so blessed to be in a good,
stable family in which I have always been provided with
everything that I could possibly need.
Responses that indicated parental support ranged
from simple statements about parents to more detailed
connections between this support and the pre-service
teachers own abilities to achieve or to face the world, as
illustrated by this example:
Church Membership
This study was conducted at a religion-affiliated
university where the majority of students are from a
particular Christian background, thus Church Membership was cited as a social privilege in 20
responses (8%). The pre-service teachers, many who
have affiliated with this church their whole lives,
articulated ways that membership and participation in
church led to social privileges and opportunities for
them. Interestingly, most responses focused on the
institutional privileges afforded by their church leading to increased cultural and social capital. For
Multicultural Perspectives
17
Language
The pre-service teachers linked their participation in
church with opportunities to develop social capital, such as
meeting people who could help them in other parts of their
lives. Church was also linked with cultural capital (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990), such as learning how to interact and
be a leader, and it was linked with elements of human
capital. All of these opportunities and influences are seen as
flowing from the religious choices of their parents.
Pre-service teachers articulated social and cultural
capital supports as a result of their church membership
that were well matched to school expectations. Interestingly, some pre-service teachers and families who are
not from the dominant culture may also be very active in
faith communities. This raises questions about how to
bring attention to social networks as privileges afforded
by organized religion that their future students may participate in and avoid a deficit orientation toward these
students and their families (Bomer, Dworwin, May &
Semingson, 2008). Further, that these pre-service teachers connected strongly with institutionalized religion as
a support, and even an advantage, in their own lives
should encourage multicultural teacher educators to look
beyond the common conversations of race and social
class as institutionalized sources of social privilege.
Four percent of our sample also identified their Language as a social privilege. These responses specifically
acknowledged language as a privilege, and in every case,
pre-service teachers described speaking English as their
native tongue. Some simply stated comments like:
Being a native speaker of English is a gift that I feel has
put me in a position of privilege in my life.
Others described in greater depth their family language choices and history. They elaborated on the role
of language in their lives in ways similar to the following response:
One thing in my life that I took for granted that is a
privilege, is always speaking the dominant language.
This is not anything that I worked hard to get, socially it
is acceptable so my social identity was boosted, and I
could always understand everything that was going on.
Pre-service teachers identifying speaking the dominant language of a society (English in this context) as a
social privilege is significant because it can potentially
sensitize them to challenges that non-native English
speakers may face in school and social settings and possibly alleviate any propensity they may have to deficit
orientations. We believe it is incumbent upon teacher
educators to explicitly teach pre-service teachers how to
make content comprehensible to non-native English
speakers and facilitate their academic and social English
development, although such content is usually beyond
the scope of a multicultural education course. It appears
that in our 14-week multicultural education course, at
least some pre-service teachers were able to recognize
how speaking the dominant language affords them social
and academic privileges.
U.S. Citizenship
Being born in the United States was named as an
unearned social privilege that pre-service teachers recognize in their lives in 6% of responses. Often, replies were no
more than a short phrase (being born in the US,); however, several were in depth discussions. For example,
One privilege that I feel has been very important to how
I live was receiving a free education growing up. I feel
that this was a huge privilege. Many places around the
world children are unable to receive an education for
free let alone an education at all.
Multicultural Perspectives
19
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