Teachers of Color Resisting Racism and Reclaiming Education

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.

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.