Multicultural Perspectives, 17(1), 1320

Copyright 2015 by the National Association for Multicultural Education

ISSN: 1521-0960 print / 1532-7892
DOI: 10.1080/15210960.2014.984717

Naming a Personal Unearned Privilege: What Pre-service Teachers

Identify After a Critical Multicultural Education Course
Erin Feinauer Whiting and Ramona Maile Cutri
Brigham Young University
Introduction

This qualitative study systematically documents

pre-service teachers responses to a writing
prompt asking them to name a personal
unearned privilege on an end-of-term final
assessment. Findings suggest that typical White/
European heritage pre-service teachers can name
privileges that have advantaged their own lives,
even after one 14-week critical multicultural education course. Categories reveal patterns in participants responses about their own privilege that
are traditionally attended to in critical multicultural education curriculum, such as White privilege. However, student responses show that
students are most comfortable talking about inherited privileges related to social class and race is
named at a lower rate. Other responses show a
range of privileges that students can draw on when
they reflect on the structured nature of privilege in
society. Overall, our findings suggest that when
opportunities are created for students to grapple
with complex, personal, emotional concepts, the
vast majority of students are willing and able to
perform this type of reflection and analysis. This
work begins a discussion of what kinds of social
privilege are more easily discussed in a high
stakes assessment after experiences in critical
multicultural education. Our findings provide
nuanced understandings of how typical pre-service teachers name their own personal unearned
privileges and deconstruct their experiences of
privilege. Our findings suggest that attention to
privileges associated with social class could provide powerful entry into examinations of other
personal privileges in critical multicultural
education.

Critical multicultural teacher education that addresses

inequitable distributions of power and access to educational opportunities must attend to an underlying discussion of social privileges (Banks, 1996, 1999; Gorski,
2010, 2013; Gorski, Davis, & Reiter, 2012; Hill-Jackson,
2007; Sleeter & Grant, 1987, 2006; Wilbur & Scott,
2013). Inherent in attending to this inequality is engaging pre-service teachers in critical reflections of their
own assumptions, their cultural identity, and their location in a system of inequitable social privileges.
This qualitative study systematically documents preservice teachers responses to a writing prompt asking
them to name a personal unearned privilege on an endof-term final assessment. The specific research question
is: What do pre-service teachers most readily name as a
personal unearned privilege at the end of a required critical multicultural education course?

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):

Correspondence should be sent to Erin Feinauer Whiting, Teacher

Education, Brigham Young University, 206L MCKB, Provo, UT
84602.
E-mail: [email protected]

there is a definite need to re-invent critical pedagogy for

its implementation in the more privileged spaces of U.S.
teacher education programs. In order for critical

Multicultural Perspectives
13

pedagogy to bring about wide-scale transformation of

social inequalities in the U.S., it must be re-envisioned,
at least in part, around inquiries into the identity
formation of those in oppressor groups. (p. 165)

emotionally as allies in dismantling inequitable privilege

distribution in society and schools (Case, 2013).

The Study

A crucial step to being able to recognize ones own

complicit position in structural inequality must be to recognize and concretely identify and analyze ones own
lived experiences of privilege. Privilege in their own lives,
and lack of privilege in the lives of others, often remain
abstract ideas for White/European heritage pre-service
teachers that have not been asked to deliberately examine
these phenomena (Howard, 2006; Matias and Allen, 2013;
Ukpokodu, 2003). Literature suggests that in order for preservice teachers to begin to deconstruct experiences of
privilege, they must be brought from an abstract theoretical construct to a more tangible and personal level (Artiles,
2011; Howard, 2006). Such efforts cannot be an intellectual pursuit only; rather, the emotional work involved from
students and teacher educators must also be recognized
and attended to (Cutri & Whiting, in press). Our work
requiring our pre-service teachers to identify one unearned
privilege and analyze its impact in their lives makes the
concepts of privilege and inequitable distribution of privilege conscious, concrete, and overt, as their responses are
grounded in their lived experience.

This study occurred at a private university in the

Intermountain region of the United States. Our sample
participants reflect the demographic trends documented
for U.S. pre-service teachers (Ladson-Billings, 2005;
Slater, 2008). Official school statistics boast students
from all 50 states; however, only 16% of the undergraduate population identify themselves as a member of any
racial minority group. Additionally, almost 99% of students are Christian (School Statistics, 2012). Students in
our pre-service programs do not appear to differ from
these institutional norms.

Multicultural Course Content

Our 14-week multicultural education course asserts
that socially constructed categories of difference in our
society (race, ethnicity, language, gender expectations,
sexuality, social class, and poverty) contribute to systematic and institutionalized inequitable treatment of
people who are not from the dominant culture in the
United States. We explicitly distinguish between factors
that are within an individuals control in life (e.g., effort
put into work) and factors that are beyond an individuals control (e.g., socioeconomic conditions), and deconstruct meritocracy as a myth held in esteem by a culture
of power in society. Students are asked to reflect on the
ways that privileges are granted and organized in society
outside of a merit structure by critically reflecting on
how social privileges are structured and experienced. By
highlighting the institutional factors that maintain inequitable conditions and opportunities for people from
non-dominant cultures as well as challenging the myth
of meritocracy, we seek to promote dispositions in our
pre-service teachers that challenge a deficit orientation
toward their future Students and Parents of Color, and
prepare pre-service teachers to work as allies for minoritized students in their future classrooms.

A crucial step to being able to

recognize ones own complicit
position in structural inequality
must be to recognize and
concretely identify and analyze
ones own lived experiences of
privilege.
This study provides rich description of what pre-service teachers identify as an unearned privilege in their
lives, how they closely examine the implications of that
privilege in their lives, and points to instances where we
see students approach, engage in, and/or avoid the emotional dimensions of this work. Our work attends to what
Allen and Rossatto (2009) called critical pedagogys
lack of focus on the oppressor student (p. 166). Rather
than positioning our typical pre-service teachers as
dehumanized oppressors, the data collected in this study
promote a humanized, conscious consideration of personal unearned privilege and its impact on the pre-service
teachers lives. The insights provided from our analysis
can guide critical multicultural teacher educators in their
efforts to better understand White/European heritage preservice teachers and engage them intellectually and

Data and Method

This research examined pre-service teachers
responses to a final course assessment in mandatory multicultural education courses in elementary and secondary
education taught by us and that shared a common curriculum. After receiving clearance from the Universitys
Institutional Review Board, we collected responses from
pre-service teachers across three semesters. There were a

The Ofcial Journal of the National Association for Multicultural Education

14

Membership (8%), U.S. citizenship (6%), and Language

(4%). We present exemplars of these major findings and
unpack the underlying patterns in the privileges pre-service teachers named most readily.

total of 175 respondents (24 males and 126 females)

ranging from sophomores to seniors and all prior to practicum and student teaching assignments. The research
prompt asked them to: identify at least one important
personal privilege that you did not earn or merit for
yourself and then reflect on and analyze the impact of this
in your lives. Some respondents offered more than one
reply to the prompt resulting in a collection of 239 identified privileges. The average length of responses was
about one to two paragraphs double-spaced.
The responses were coded using an open, emergent
approach to find patterns that could inform our research
question (Strauss, 1987). We first independently analyzed a small sample of data, and then we formulated
preliminary codes representing themes and ideas that
emerged from the responses. Next, the preliminary codes
were discussed and analyzed, and our preliminary coding procedure was synchronized. The final coding activity consisted of a content analysis in which we counted
the frequencies of particular words, phrases, or concepts
(Miles & Huberman, 1994).
We consider the pre-service teachers responses to this
final assessment item to be examples of their public articulations of their own privilege and not necessarily a representation of true feelings or an objective assessment of
their dispositional outlook. Furthermore, this study begins a
discussion of the kinds of social privilege that are acknowledged by pre-service teachers in a high stakes assessment
after experiences in critical multicultural education.

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.

Although parent income was the most common

response, many pre-service teachers downplayed this
advantage as something that was not too big. Such
responses show that many pre-service teachers had not
yet recognized the intersectionality of social privileges.
They instead relied on meritocratic explanations for their
own privileges and those of their parents. Citing
blessings or the inheritance of privilege from worthy
others ignores the structured, institutional realities of
social privilege. It also exposes the difficulty some preservice teachers experience in fully confronting this

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

Middle-class, having enough money, not worrying about money

Having White skin or being White
Parental attainment, college emphasis and expectations, parents sacrifice for education
Emotional support, love, and encouragement
Institutional support including cultural capital & social capital
Opportunities of living and growing up in the U.S.
Personal attributes, unique responses, active resistance
good schools, extra-curricular activities, enrichment programs
English as primary language
Able to travel or live abroad, exclusive cultural experiences

Multicultural Perspectives
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Vol. 17, No. 1

particular privilege in their lives despite attention to this

issue in our course.
Another characteristic of social class is the emergent
theme of Education. Thirty-one responses (13%)
included education as a privilege, making it the third
most cited category. It is perhaps not surprising that preservice teachers would be so attuned to the importance
of educational attainment. Most often in these responses
they included information about having had parents that
went to college. Also, they noted the expectation that
they would attend university by their parents and the
related sacrifices made by parents to prepare them for
this opportunity. The following is a typical example of
this category.

participating in exceptional extracurricular programs.

Our pre-service teachers articulated some of the connections between various social class privileges as illustrated by the following response.

One of my greatest blessings has been that both of my

parents are college graduates. Unlike many of my high
school friends, a college degree was something that was
not only encouraged as I was growing up, it was
expected . . . . I am now in a position where I fully
believe in myself, in part because of my parents
example and their ability to accomplish the feat, but also
because of their unwavering support.

One privilege that I have had is to be on a soccer team

all [the while I was] growing up. I did not earn this, but
my parents happened to have put me in it because they
had the money and the friends to make it happen. I
learned a great deal of hard work, dedication, reaching
goals, talking to peers and coaches, and playing by the
rules. All of these lessons have helped me in my life
outside of soccer.

One thing or privilege that I have had in my life is

growing up in a place where I was able to go to the
nicest schools . . . . I was able to participate in multiple
extra curricular activities without having to pay extra
fees. I was also able to use nice sporting equipment,
new technology, and perform musical concerts in big
auditoriums.

Another response shows very specific and personal

examples of the implications of privilege.

Overall, the pre-service teachers did not write about

the intersection of privileges as they relate to the social
class of their parents nor did they critique their own passive inheritance of these privileges. Instead, they
acknowledged the more tangible social class resources
from parents toward their learning and development as
exemplified in the following response: I was privileged
to grow up with a stay at home mom which afforded me
a lot of educational advantages.
Pre-service teachers pointed to the blessings or
gifts of education, and the support from their families
to achieve this for themselves. They characterized their
privilege as an inheritance as illustrated in the following
response.

In addition to these affordances, a few pre-service

teachers discussed their ability To Travel or live abroad
as being an important privilege that they did not earn
themselves.

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.

My mom was always active in my class or helping me

with homework or simply reading out loud to me. I
believe that the value of education had [sic] in our home
was a gift that I often take for granted or fail to
recognize.

The idea of passively receiving advantage is in stark

contrast to the complicity of actively participating in a
system of inequality and stratification that was presented
in our critical multicultural education course. This led us
to question how our pre-service teachers were taking up
the course curriculum and wrestling with the emotional
and personal implications of concepts.
Social class was also represented by what we classified as Schooling and Program Opportunities, which
related to living in a good neighborhood or

Being a part of the majority culture definitely has its

benefits . . . . People assumed that I was educated. . . and
I have always felt empowered and equipped with a
feeling of belonging in society.

Another acknowledged that seeing her White race as

a privilege is a relatively new awareness for her.

The Ofcial Journal of the National Association for Multicultural Education

16

I am privileged because I am White. Because of this, I

feel that I am awarded more choices and opportunities
in my life . . . . Before this class, I did what most White
people did, I felt that White was just average.

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.

Acknowledging that race matters in social life may be

a first step to deconstructing this privilege and its
involvement in inequity at a more systemic level.
Another example showed that some of our pre-service
teachers who chose to elaborate on their privileges associated with their Whiteness are beginning to unpack this
idea in more complex ways.

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:

I think a privilege that I have had in my life that I did not

earn is that I am White. I dont say this meaning that
White people are superior to other races, but that in the
United States Whites have the culture of power . . . .
Before this class, I never really thought my race and
culture as being a privilege to me, but now I see that it is
much of who I am and what I expect. I myself have
been shaped by that and it has given me the advantages
in areas of my life such as schooling, jobs and even
daily interactions.

Some pre-service teachers are grappling with the

intersections of their privileges, recognizing the impacts
of one privilege on gaining others, and trying to understand the boundaries and meanings associated with these
experiences. However, based on their responses it is
clear that many are not yet deeply analytical about race
as a social privilege.

I feel that being born into a family where my parents

love me has been a huge privilege. I did not earn this
love, but it was given unconditionally . . . . I believe that
for me it has been much easier to have confidence in my
ability to succeed in this world due to my parents love
and support.

As these examples show, pre-service teachers

described the importance of their parents and families in
their success in life and in their education. The discourse
of family fits into the religious culture, language, and
values of the dominant population of this university. For
members of this faith community, and the majority of
these pre-service teachers, opportunities related to the
family may be seen as justified and comfortably outside
structures of privilege.

Some pre-service teachers are

grappling with the intersections of
their privileges, recognizing the
impacts of one privilege on gaining
others, and trying to understand
the boundaries and meanings
associated with these experiences.

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

The overall percentage of responses acknowledging

racial privilege seems low and can be taken to mean that
these pre-service teachers did not see their Whiteness as
an unearned privilege. However, they were required to
name and discuss only one unearned privilege of their
own choosing. In light of this, we believe that 15% of
these pre-service teachers identified being White as a
privilege is significant since it was the second most cited
category overall after parent income. This demonstrated a
level of comfort and interest among these pre-service
teachers in recognizing that White people in the U.S.

Multicultural Perspectives
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Vol. 17, No. 1

example, one pre-service teacher commented that a

privilege was growing up in the church and knowing
I am never on my own. Others articulated these
privileges with more specificity. The following example represents a common response:

can raise awareness. This is especially important for the

immigrant children and youth who may be students in their
future classrooms. However, it raises questions about how
teacher educators can help pre-service teachers recognize
the artificial lines that exclude students from non-dominant
groups that may also be entitled to these advantages. For
example, a majority of students classified as English-language learners are born in the United States (see NCTE,
2013) and although entitled to free, high quality, and equitable education, are not always able to access the same opportunities as other U.S. citizens.

I learned to sit quietly in church, I learned to give talks, I

learned to lead music, play piano, and sing, I also
learned leadership skills, how to plan and teach lessons,
and activities for large groups and work with my peers
as well as work with adults [in my youth program] . . . . I
learned study skills before I had homework through
scripture study with my family everyday.

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.

Personal, Unique, and Negative Responses

Although themes discussed to this point reflect the
majority of responses by these pre-service teachers,
there were a few unique responses. For example, one

This shows that, for some pre-service teachers, a cursory

conversation about the advantages of U.S. citizenship status

The Ofcial Journal of the National Association for Multicultural Education

18

skills promoted and rewarded in both their church

and schools. It is likely that the critical reflection
skills practiced in the critical multicultural course
facilitated their developing recognition of privileges
associated with their church membership. Future
research could explore whether White/European heritage pre-service teachers manifest less resistance to
hegemonic cultural critiques when they apply critical
reflection to generate lists of their own unearned
social privileges. Pedagogically, this finding opens up
possibilities for teacher educators using pre-service
teacher self-generated lists of unearned social privileges as departure points for further social critique.
Additionally, such self-generated lists could help preservice teachers learn how to identify overlooked
sources of potential privilege in their own lives and
teach them how to capitalize on such sources in the
lives of under-resourced students.
Another finding shows that these pre-service teachers see citizenship and immigration issues as distinct
from English language learning issues. U.S. citizenship and speaking English as a first language were the
two least prominent privileges identified. However, in
todays political climate, it is encouraging that they
show up as two distinct privileges named by these
participants, indicating that some of them were able to
avoid conflating U.S. citizenship with the need to
learn English. These findings suggest that critical multicultural teacher education should encourage explorations of how language and citizenship are unearned
social privileges in that greatly influence schooling
experiences. Such self-recognition paired with explicit
teaching about the distinctions between and intersectionality of citizenship, immigration, and home and
school languages may facilitate counter-narratives to
the negative positioning of English learners and immigrants in schools and society.
The pre-service teachers in our study overwhelmingly named privileges associated with social class.
We assert that renewed and concerted curricular and
pedagogical efforts must be made in critical multicultural teacher education to define social class beyond
the surface level of socio-economic-status. It is interesting to note that our pre-service teachers name their
own social class, especially parent income, as a privilege more readily than their race. Does this mean that
social class is more easily discussed? Is discussing
social class as an unearned privilege more emotionally
palatable than race? Or could it be these particular
pre-service teachers recognized this privilege more
easily in their own experiences? Our findings suggest
that attention to privileges associated with social class
could provide powerful entry into examinations of
other personal privileges in critical multicultural
education.

respondent discussed access to health care as something

that allowed him to participate in opportunities he otherwise would have missed. Another cited her particular
privileges of knowing and meeting important people in
her hometown through her parents social networks.
Two male elementary education pre-service teachers
described how their gender had been an advantage to
them. Nine responses were not related to social privilege
at all, but instead reflected personal attributes such as
Im a nice person. Three respondents rejected the idea
of social privilege and instead elaborated on the merits
of meritocracy or gave responses that were not in line
with our research prompt.
Despite these exceptions, overall the pre-service
teachers responses formed a consistent pattern. The
majority named social privileges that have advantaged
their lives. Overwhelmingly, these responses show that
the pre-service teachers we teach were most comfortable
acknowledging inherited privileges related to social
class while race and parental support were named at a
much lower rate. The other patterns are interesting even
with lower numbers of responses because they show a
range of privileges that pre-service teachers are open to
drawing on when they reflect on the structured nature of
privilege in society. Our findings suggest that when
opportunities were created to grapple with complex, personal, emotional concepts, the vast majority of pre-service teachers in our courses were willing and able to
perform this type of reflection and analysis.

Discussion and Conclusions

Our findings suggest that typical White/European
heritage pre-service teachers can name privileges that
have advantaged their own lives, even after one 14week critical multicultural education course. Categories reveal patterns in participants responses about
their own privilege that are traditionally attended to
in critical multicultural education curriculum, such as
White privilege. However, responses also yield new
and interesting patterns about what White/European
heritage pre-service teachers readily name as
unearned social privileges. Our findings provide
nuanced understandings of how typical pre-service
teachers name their own personal unearned privileges
and deconstruct their experiences of privilege.
One particularly interesting finding was that these
White/European heritage pre-service teachers easily
articulate how their active participation in their
church affords them social and human capital.
Though our participants do not acknowledge the cultural hegemonic influence of their Christian faith
(Case, McMullen, & Hentges, 2013), they do recognize the shared dominant culture characteristics and

Multicultural Perspectives
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Vol. 17, No. 1

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