Abolitionist Teacher Education in the Contact Zone: Tensions of Facilitating Teacher-Candidate Learning in Activist Educator Spaces

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article shares findings from a qualitative study of the tensions experienced as facilitators of an urban education fellowship program in which we brought preservice teachers into activist educator communities. We analyzed field notes, analytic memos, artifacts, and transcripts from group meetings, interviews, and video blogs. Findings revealed four tensions to which we felt compelled to respond related to students: participating in spaces that decenter Whiteness, expressing discomfort with queer bodies, filtering learning through a savior orientation, and prioritizing the what of teaching over the who and why. We offer the framing of abolitionist teacher education in the contact zone as a way to understand the facilitation tensions that may emerge when teacher preparation is embedded within community and activist spaces.