Teachers of Color: Resisting Racism and Reclaiming Education (Race and Education) - Softcover

Kohli, Rita

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1682536378 ISBN 13: 9781682536377

Publisher: Harvard Education Press, 2021

Synopsis

AERA Division K's 2023 Exemplary Research in Teaching and Teacher Education Award​

Teachers of Color describes how racism serves as a continuous barrier against diversifying the teaching force and offers tools to support educators who identify as Black, Indigenous, or people of Color on both a systemic and interpersonal level. Based on in-depth interviews, digital narratives, and questionnaires, the book analyzes the toll of racism on their professional experiences and personal well-being, as well as their resistance and reimagination of schools.

Teacher educator and educational researcher Rita Kohli documents the hostile racial climate that teachers of color experience over the course of their academic and professional lives—first as students and preservice teachers and later in their classrooms and schools. She also highlights the tools of resistance these teachers employ to challenge institutionalized oppression and the kinds of professional development and support they need to thrive.

Analyzed through the lens of critical race theory, Teachers of Color exposes the ongoing racialization via counterstories from thirty racially, geographically, and professionally diverse educators. The book concludes with recommendations that various education stakeholders can employ to improve the racial climates of schools and support the growing diversity of the teaching force.

At this critical moment, Kohli offers readers an opportunity to strengthen their racial literacies and better understand the strengths, struggles, and power of teachers of Color.

About this title

About the Author

Rita Kohli is an associate professor of teaching and teacher education in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside (UCR). Building on her experiences as an urban public middle school teacher and a teacher educator, and on her scholarly training in critical race theory, she has spent the last decade researching race, power, and in/equity in the professional experiences and well-being of teachers of Color. Committed to praxis, she is also a cofounder and codirector of the Institute for Teachers of Color Committed to Racial Justice (ITOC; http://www.instituteforteachersofcolor.org). Through ITOC, she has applied her scholarly insights to programming that supports the retention, racial literacy growth, and racial justice leadership development of teachers of Color in K–12 schools.

Kohli is also the coeditor of the book Confronting Racism in Teacher Education: Narratives from Teacher Educators (Routledge, 2017), and her scholarly work has been recognized through several local and national awards, including the UCR Innovator for Social Change Award, the Scholar Activist and Community Advocacy Award from the Critical Educators for Social Justice Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and the Early Career Award in Division G, Social Context of Education, also from AERA.

From the Back Cover

Teachers of Color describes how racism serves as a continuous barrier against diversifying the teaching force and offers tools to support educators who identify as Black, Indigenous, or people of Color on a systemic and interpersonal level. Based on in-depth interviews, digital narratives, and questionnaires, the book analyzes the toll of racism on teachers’ professional experiences and personal well-being, as well as their resistance and reimagination of schools.

“Rita Kohli masterfully argues the persistent discriminatory and racialized experiences of teachers of Color. This book provides excellent recommendations for teacher educators and school district leaders who are working to rebuild the teachers of Color pipeline and reimagine the preparation of and support for teachers of Color in humanizing, antiracist, and justice-focused ways.”
—Dorinda J. Carter Andrews, professor and chairperson, Michigan State University

“Teacher educators today need this provocatively instructive book. Rita Kohli provides a gift to all who want—and need—to hear the voices of teachers as they tell their stories of building and practicing racial literacy, resisting racism, and finding ways to thrive. These stories matter and they need to be heard and embraced for their power to instruct and inspire.”
—Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, associate professor, Teachers College, Columbia University

“This book holds at once ‘the burning house’ that teachers of Color are recruited into and the liberatory spaces they create, never ceding collective learning to the core purpose of racial hierarchy.”
—Leigh Patel, professor of education, University of Pittsburgh

Rita Kohli is an associate professor of teaching and teacher education in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside, and the cofounder and codirector of the Institute for Teachers of Color Committed to Racial Justice. Daniel G. Solórzano is a professor of education and Chicano/a studies at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. H. Richard Milner IV is the Cornelius Vanderbilt Endowed Chair of Education at Vanderbilt University, as well as the editor for the Race and Education Series.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard Education Press
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1682536378
• ISBN 13: 9781682536377
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200