Claiming Space to (Re)generate: The Impact of Critical Race Professional Development on Teacher Educators of Color

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thank you for this manuscript. It provides an overview on how whiteness harms teacher educators of color by using counterstorytelling of the 5 authors' experience in teaching teacher education. To frame the counterstories the ms applies CRT to "draw attention to the racialized context in which teacher educators operate, how whiteness is both embedded in the structures, and emboldened by the people..." It then describes Critical Race Professional Development because it "is an approach to teacher growth that takes the stance that they are critical intellectuals that have a role in transforming schools and society."

The manuscript delves a bit into the Racial Justice Institute that the authors all participate in. It states the RJI was instituted 14 years ago and was designed to conduct CRPD for teachers and students of color. Essentially, because teachers and students of color are constantly undermined in teacher education they needed a space to grow and develop that did not take a “ toll on their personal and professional well being.” Though this institute sounds amazing it does not align well with the paper because the counterstories do not necessarily stem from just their experiences in the RJI. However, if the paper focused on “the impacts of RJI” on these authors then that is a different paper and RJI becomes central to the paper. At this point the counterstories of the authors are not always from RJI and stem from their teaching experiences in their respective institutions. Perhaps two papers? Perhaps doing a more evaluative study of RJI?

Though it is vital that we support our own work the amount of self-citations detract for the message of the paper and becomes a bit too self promoting. Perhaps take a few of them and engage them more in depth that a fleeting end text citation. However, it is important to be judicious with what is selected as the entire purpose of the paper is to add to the body of existing literature out there from all.

The ms describes the whiteness of teacher education and how it is harmful. That is clear. However, it never articulates a clear research question. What is being answered by sharing the counterstories?  Is it to fully exemplify the existing lit of how whiteness harms? Also, the ms states that the body of literature “paid little specific attention to the labor of critical teacher educators of Color.”  Yet, this is not true. There are many books on the labor, emotional strife, burden, etc. of teacher educators and educators of color having to deal with whiteness. In fact, they cite some of that literature in the paragraph above to prove that whiteness harms. Also, most people they cite are scholars of color themselves, many of who are in teacher education.

The manuscript can strengthen by entrenching the counterstories in deeper literature and theories. For example, the title is all about “emboldened whiteness.” Yet, the manuscript does not engage in any whiteness literature or studies (Leonardo, Gillborn, etc.) or even whiteness studies in teacher education (Hayes, Aronson, Warren, Matias). In fact, I believe Matias has an article on “emboldened whiteness.” Perhaps that can better frame the paper showing how whiteness rhetoric shows up in teacher education. The ms states CRT but perhaps the paper would be better situated if they used an amalgamation of racial theories. It appears a bit blatant to not cite scholars of color doing whiteness studies, especially those in teacher education.

The manuscript can strengthen by using less self-citations, engaging the literature more instead of doing long end text citations, and maintaining professionalism in citations. There are times when there are end text citations of authors from different years but they don’t cite their different publications in the references. Perhaps talk about one of those citations and connect how that study or theory then applies to this study.

One of the concrete practices is decenter whiteness in teacher education but that has been studied and argued for over 20 years since Sleeter. Perhaps it can cite other scholars already doing this work just as they did for # 2, 3, 4.

This manuscript is very important. To prepare it for publication please consider reframing the paper to a finite research inquiry. Perhaps, to what extent does emboldened whiteness (this will then need its own section to frame) exist in teacher education and how does it harm TEC?  Then expand the theoretical framework to include some framework on whiteness since it does injustice to greater racial work to presume only CRT does whiteness work. It is a necessary component but there also needs to be some whiteness framing if the paper is titled as such. Hope to see this revision as it is important work.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The English on this ms is superb

Author Response

The reviewer comments are italicized.

The manuscript delves a bit into the Racial Justice Institute that the authors all participate in. It states the RJI was instituted 14 years ago and was designed to conduct CRPD for teachers and students of color. Essentially, because teachers and students of color are constantly undermined in teacher education they needed a space to grow and develop that did not take a “ toll on their personal and professional well being.” Though this institute sounds amazing it does not align well with the paper because the counterstories do not necessarily stem from just their experiences in the RJI. However, if the paper focused on “the impacts of RJI” on these authors then that is a different paper and RJI becomes central to the paper. At this point the counterstories of the authors are not always from RJI and stem from their teaching experiences in their respective institutions. Perhaps two papers? Perhaps doing a more evaluative study of RJI?

 We have addressed this comment by centralizing and clarifying the focus on RJI as a space for Critical Race Professional Development throughout the paper and most significantly in:

• the title of the paper
• Introduction
• reframing the counterstories

Though it is vital that we support our own work the amount of self-citations detract for the message of the paper and becomes a bit too self promoting. Perhaps take a few of them and engage them more in depth that a fleeting end text citation. However, it is important to be judicious with what is selected as the entire purpose of the paper is to add to the body of existing literature out there from all.

We reviewed more carefully our use of “Authors” as citations.

• Where appropriate, we have removed an Author citation.
• Where Authors are cited, there is an engagement of the work.

The ms describes the whiteness of teacher education and how it is harmful. That is clear. However, it never articulates a clear research question. What is being answered by sharing the counterstories?  Is it to fully exemplify the existing lit of how whiteness harms? Also, the ms states that the body of literature “paid little specific attention to the labor of critical teacher educators of Color.”  Yet, this is not true. There are many books on the labor, emotional strife, burden, etc. of teacher educators and educators of color having to deal with whiteness. In fact, they cite some of that literature in the paragraph above to prove that whiteness harms. Also, most people they cite are scholars of color themselves, many of who are in teacher education.

• We included research questions in the Methods section.
• We carefully edited the writing to align our claims related to teacher educators of color with the literature.
• We also reviewed the writing where we utilize whiteness citations.
• We removed the language “paid little specific attention to the labor of critical teacher educators of Color”.

The manuscript can strengthen by entrenching the counterstories in deeper literature and theories. For example, the title is all about “emboldened whiteness.” Yet, the manuscript does not engage in any whiteness literature or studies (Leonardo, Gillborn, etc.) or even whiteness studies in teacher education (Hayes, Aronson, Warren, Matias). In fact, I believe Matias has an article on “emboldened whiteness.” Perhaps that can better frame the paper showing how whiteness rhetoric shows up in teacher education. The ms states CRT but perhaps the paper would be better situated if they used an amalgamation of racial theories. It appears a bit blatant to not cite scholars of color doing whiteness studies, especially those in teacher education.

Counterstories

• We have included a little more literature into the counterstories. The counterstories intentionally rely heavily on narrative.

Whiteness in TE

• We have reframed our use of whiteness within the manuscript. There is a greater focus and cohesive thread related to CRT which was our intent when drafting the manuscript.
• We have changed the title of the manuscript to more closely align with our focus.
• We wrote the Introduction and the sections “Teacher Educators of Color and the Whiteness of Teacher Education” and “Critical Race Theory” to more closely align our work with CRT.

The manuscript can strengthen by using less self-citations, engaging the literature more instead of doing long end text citations, and maintaining professionalism in citations. There are times when there are end text citations of authors from different years but they don’t cite their different publications in the references. Perhaps talk about one of those citations and connect how that study or theory then applies to this study. 

• We have maintained the use of self-citations where there is a limited amount of research to support the writing.
• We shortened some of the long end text citations.
• We aligned the in-text citations with the references.
• We have woven and engaged more with the research. especially when there were multiple end citations.

One of the concrete practices is decenter whiteness in teacher education but that has been studied and argued for over 20 years since Sleeter. Perhaps it can cite other scholars already doing this work just as they did for # 2, 3, 4. 

• Please see above regarding our revisions around whiteness.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I enjoyed reading your manuscript and believe you have something worthwhile to offer to the field. Historical background, theoretical framework, study design, and findings are clearly presented with relevant (current and historical) literature used correctly. My only suggestions are rather minor: 

1. I would suggest providing a footnote explaining your rationale for capitalizing Black and Color, while writing white in lowercase. I understand (and applaud) this perspective, but I believe it would be helpful for readers. As we know, the politics of language is pervasive. Making a bold declaration on the use of capitalization(s) is important. 

2. Since CRT is so widely misused in mainstream media, it would be helpful to assert the way(s) in which K-12 schools are vs. not using CRT. Meaning, describe the ways that CRT has been misconstrued. Instead, understudied/popular media outlets are (either purposively or haphazardly) misinforming the public and wrongfully using CRT.  

Author Response

I would suggest providing a footnote explaining your rationale for capitalizing Black and Color, while writing white in lowercase. I understand (and applaud) this perspective, but I believe it would be helpful for readers. As we know, the politics of language is pervasive. Making a bold declaration on the use of capitalization(s) is important. 

• We have included a footnote explaining our rationale for the capitalizing Black and Color.

Since CRT is so widely misused in mainstream media, it would be helpful to assert the way(s) in which K-12 schools are vs. not using CRT. Meaning, describe the ways that CRT has been misconstrued. Instead, understudied/popular media outlets are (either purposively or haphazardly) misinforming the public and wrongfully using CRT.  

• We have made clear distinctions concerning CRT in teacher education while also addressing how CRT has supported research of K12 settings.