Chapter 29: When and Where we Enter: African American Students' Marginalization in the Context of a Predominantly White Multicultural Education Course

Although many African American teachers continue to be educated at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) (Hope, 1993), there are also many African American pre-service teachers who currently attend Predominantly White Colleges and Universities (PWCUs) (Allen, Epps, & Haniff, 1991; Feagin, Vera, & Imani, 1996) and who receive their degrees from these institutions. Plans to recruit and retain African American students and other students of color into teaching are often predicated on a philosophy that the increased presence of ethnically diverse teachers is integral to ensuring the academic and social success of students of color (Sleeter, 2001). More specifically, it may be thought that the presence of teachers of color will also encourage White teachers and administrators to engage in productive discussions about the increasing diversity of American society (Price & Valli, 1998), which in turn might lead to individual and social change within the nation's schools. This philosophy trickles down to African American students who enroll in multicultural teacher education courses, since it is often assumed that the presence of these students will support the development and learning of their White, female, middle-class peers (Bollin & Finkel, 1995; Bondy & Ross, 1998). Ironically, in an effort to bring the experiences of people of color into dialogues about effective educational practices for diverse students, African Americans within these courses can find themselves relegated to an existence in the margins. Kumashiro (2000) defines this process of marginalization as a term applied to: