Chapter 8: To What Extent am I Part of the Problem?: Strategizing Identity Politics While Instructing a Multicultural Teacher Education Course

For more than a dozen years now, I have devoted much of my energy and myself to matters of social justice in education. What precisely that has meant, however, has not always found its way to the printed page. Perhaps this is because my approach to such matters habitually evolves, adapting as circumstances demand. I am forever in a state of flux.

Although I have had ample opportunity to explore how the principles of social justice education play out in theory and practice (particularly in K–16 settings), my most recent work has been of particular interest to me. When the occasion arose for me to teach a graduate-level course in multicultural education, I jumped at the chance. After all, I thought to myself, for years now, so much of my heart, hands, and habits of mind have been tilling this soil already. I was enthusiastic about what the course might offer as well as how both the class and I stood to learn a great deal from one another. Little did I know this experience would catalyze a renewed process of critical self-reflection in me like no other teaching experience had.