On the exploitation of cooperating teachers of color: Clinical practice as racial capitalism

Abstract

In the United States, clinical practice—a critical component of initial teacher education—is largely predicated on the uncompensated labor of cooperating teachers. The practice of giving student teachers “diverse” placements has served as a veneer of diversity atop the Eurocentric compass of teacher education programs, which continue to be predominantly white and staffed by predominantly white faculty. Attending to matters of diversity and equity, teacher education programs have engaged in incremental changes, seeking to recruit more cooperating teachers of color. However, despite their contributions to the preparation of teachers, the voices of cooperating teachers remain marginalized and silenced in teacher education. Centering the voices of cooperating teachers of color, in this article I employ racial capitalism as theoretical lens and questionnaire as method to document and learn from their beliefs, experiences, and insights. Findings unveil the troubling positionings and tenuous location of these de facto school-based teacher educators to be rife with contradictions. While teacher education programs benefit from the labor of cooperating teachers of color, this labor is often unpaid and unsupported. Further, their location is an extractive site for the enactment of predatory inclusion.