Listening to Counternarratives of Faculty of Color: Studying Rural Racism in One of Most Conservative Communities in America

Abstract

This study reports on a qualitative narrative, counterstory of six faculty and one administrator of color (Merriam in Qualitative research: a guide to design and implementation. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2009; Yosso in Critical race counterstories along the Chicana/Chicano educational pipeline. Taylor & Francis Group, New York, 2006) teaching at a Predominately White Institution teacher education in a rural U. S. state. The study examined the experiences of how the racial hierarchy, the macro-level and the organizational-individual relations impacted diverse (i.e., Othered) faculty. Specifically, participants explained how unequal racial relations had significant professional and personal consequences. In reflecting on the findings, we theorize how future research on diversity-racial relations in teacher education programs may be enhanced by foregrounding insights from the literature on Whiteness Studies, Critical Race Theory, and examination of White organizational structures toward strengthening multiracial coalitions.