Recognizing All Students’ Assets: The Role of Profound Interruptions

This text explores roles that radical empathy and profound interruptions play in altering prospective teachers’ thinking and practices. Linking these concepts, I demonstrate how three teacher candidates drew on intersectional experiences in volunteer work, reading fiction and non-fiction, viewing films of “heroic” teachers, and personal writing to understand the assets and possibilities of diversely populated youth in the United States whom they are being educated to serve. Each prospective teacher’s personal stories are coupled with insights gained from reading, film viewing, and interactions with students to showcase their development of fresh outlooks on low-income youth of color, contrasting those of many of their teachers.