Developing Cultural Critical Consciousness and Self-Reflection in Preservice Teacher Education

Abstract

In this article, the authors argue that developing personaland professional critical consciousness aboutracial, cultural, and ethnic diversity should be a majorcomponent of preservice teacher education. Theydiscuss some maneuvers teacher education studentsuse to avoid engaging with racial issues in education,and suggest some strategies for counteractingthem. The resistance strategies include silence, diversion,guilt, and benevolent liberalism. Techniquesto offset these and develop critical cultural consciousnessand self-reflection include creating learning expectationsof criticalness, modeling, providingopportunities to practice critical consciousness, andtranslating conceptual multicultural education intoK-12 instructional possibilities. Woven throughout thespecific suggestions is the general directive that criticalconsciousness learning experiences should takeplace within the context of guided practice, authenticexamples, and realistic situations.