Group 4 Questions: Picower and McDonough

In McDonough’s article, she explores critical consciousness in teacher education.  While Friere defines critical consciousness as “a state of awareness activated through dialogue…[and] analysis” bell hooks expands on this definition, renaming the process “critical awareness and engagement,” and placing emphasis on the necessity of creating teachers who are actively engaged in the process of grappling with race and racism.  In your experience with teacher education, have you noticed a move from merely cultivating “awareness” to actually “engaging” in issues of race and privilege? In your opinion, has your time at BC truly challenged you to grapple with race and/or prepared you to teach in an environment that may be quite different from the one at Boston College?

McDonough’s case study demonstrates that other teachers (i.e. veteran teachers) can often pose a significant challenge to engagement.  Have you ever experienced this, either in the classroom or elsewhere (dinnertime conversations with relatives, small talk, etc.)?

In the McDonough article, “Jaclyn” neglects one of her students comments during a social studies lesson because, the author supposes, the comment poses the challenge “unplanned explorations in unfamiliar territory.”  How can we as educators handle, or even encourage, conversations with our students that go beyond our own cultural frame of reference and comfort zone? How do we engage in conversations about situations that we, from our positionality, may or may not understand? Is there a right way to handle a situation like this one?

McDonough says that “the connection between knowing and doing needs further exploration” with regards to critical awareness, race and racism.  Can you think of any ways that your teacher education program could do a better job at preparing you to move from simply “knowing” about race and privilege to actively “doing” something with that awareness? Do you feel equipped to do something with some of the ideas that we have explored in this course?

Picower raises an interesting question about the nature of white privilege by citing two key critical race theorists: Peggy McIntosh and Zeus Leonardo.  McIntosh compares privilege to an “invisible knapsack,” with advantages passively handed to white individuals by virtue of systems and institutions already in place and at work.  Leonardo critiques this idea, saying that privilege is a system actively created, maintained, and mystified by the dominant group.  Do you agree more with one theorist or another? Why? What has your experience been?

Picower also criticizes overarching courses like “multicultural diversity”—or much like the one that we are in—in teacher education programs, saying that they often do not adequately prepare (White) pre-service teachers to explore the role of culture, power, and oppression in schooling.  She also notes that many (White) pre-service teachers oppose the concepts and content of the course in the first place.  Is there a more effective way to deliver these ideas and this critical awareness to students? Does having a course, such as the one we are in, let other courses “off the hook,” enabling them to avoid tough conversations about race/class/gender/ability/sexual identity etc. and how it functions in the given content area?