Scholar commentary

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis commentary reflects upon the articles and purposes of this special issue, in the context of, growing numbers of students of color (SOCs) in K-12 schools who continue to be modally placed in classrooms with White teachers (e.g., Berry and Pour-Khorshid papers of this issue). Few institutional programs of Teacher Education seem able to effectually address this longstanding demographic challenge (e.g., Whitaker, et al. paper). Fewer still, impactfully retain SOCs for careers in K-12 settings (e.g., Morales paper). Nevertheless, second wave teacher identity studies are encouraging nuanced professional learning for White and other, K-12, candidates and teachers that encourages: critical consciousness about race and whiteness, metalogic talk about colorblindness, and closing the gap between rhetoric and genuinely antiracist actions in praxis with SOCs (e.g., Alvarez & Milner; Caldas; McManimon & Casey papers. Demonstrably, second-wave analyses are revealing much about evidentiary approaches for teacher education/learning that emphasize differential capacities for teaching SOCs. Nonetheless, further research is needed on strategies for addressing formidable challenges, such as those of defensiveness and White Fragility (e.g., Blaisedell paper). The papers of this special issue indicate that combining such research with ground-breaking approaches to race-visible education offers a promising path to the knowledge and praxis needed.