Disrupting Niceness in Literacy Teacher Education: Non-Linear Trajectories Toward Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Many teacher educators seek to implement culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) in their courses. However, enactment is often mediated by our socialization into whiteness and niceness. This study investigates how our self-study community of practice (SSCoP) of eight White female literacy teacher educators at different institutions collaborated to narrow the gap between our aspirations for implementing CRP and enacted practice. Through analysis of collaborative journal entries, we interpret tensions between what niceness and whiteness demand of us and what enactment of CRP requires: (a) between centering equity in our courses and addressing equity on the margins, (b) between enactment of critical pedagogy and maintaining status as “nice” educators, and (c) between the expectation of expertise and the necessity of a learning stance. We argue that teacher educators might use SSCoP spaces to navigate the complex interplay between their identities and the sociopolitical context of teacher education to more fully enact CRP.