Countering Complacency With Radical Reflection: Supporting White Teachers in the Enactment of Critical Multicultural Praxis

Abstract

Although White teachers can be effective teachers of racially diverse students, studies continue to document factors that can undermine their success, such as color-blindness and unawareness of racial privilege. We argue that these factors contribute to a sense of complacency among White teachers regarding the implementation of culturally affirming practices. In this review, we advance an argument for the need for radically reflective practices that are necessary for the constitution of effective educational praxis for White teachers who teach in urban classrooms of mostly Black and brown students. Using Critical Multiculturalism as a framework, we address a gap in the translation of theory to practice by providing a set of process-oriented strategies that are necessary for the constitution of teacher praxis that is both radically reflective and radically hopeful, and where complacency is not an option.