Learning Along the Way: Novice Teachers’ Reflections on Developing Critical Race Praxis in Urban Schools

Abstract

This qualitative study investigates how former teacher candidates, trained in critical race inquiry as undergraduates, conceptualize and enact race consciousness and racial literacy in their early years of in-service teaching. Grounded in Critical Race Praxis and Racial Literacy, the study explores how novice teachers develop and sustain identities committed to racial justice amidst the complexities of classroom practice. Through reflective narratives and mapping, the findings illuminate three interrelated conditions—consciousness, concern, and commitment—that support teachers’ development of critical race praxis. This study offers participants’ lessons learned as encouragement for teacher preparation programs to design opportunities explicitly preparing teachers to teach for racial justice.