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But Good Intentions are Not Enough: Preparing Teachers to Center Race and Poverty

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Abstract

Drawing from principles of critical race theory, the authors consider the curriculum of teacher education as a potential policy and practice site for centering the interconnections of race and poverty in the preparation of teachers. Several macro-level recommendations are advanced that might influence practices in teacher education and ultimately in P-12 classrooms. These policies suggestions include (1) Reform the curriculum of teacher education to emphasize a deeper study of race; (2) Reform the curriculum of teacher education to emphasize a deeper study of poverty; and (3) Reform the curriculum of teacher education to emphasize a deep study of the nexus between race and poverty. The authors conclude with the observation that although teachers and teacher educators tend to have good intentions, those intentions too often fail to meet the needs of Black and Brown students or students living in poverty.

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Notes

  1. Social class and poverty are linked (Anyon 1980; Rothstein 2004; Weis and Dolby 2012). They are not treated identically in the research literature. For instance, Weis and Dolby (2012) explained that class should be understood as “practices of living…The books we read (or if we read at all); our travel destinations (if we have them and what they look like); the clothes we wear; the foods we eat; where and if our children go to school, how far and with what degree of success, with whom, and under what staff expectations and treatment; where and with whom we feel most comfortable; where we live and the nature of our housing; where and if we attend and complete postsecondary education, and under what expectations for success and imagined or taken for granted financing (parents, public/state/national/federal money, on or off campus job) are all profoundly classed experiences, rooted not only in material realities but also in shared culturally based expectations and understandings…” (p. 2).

  2. In defining and “measuring” poverty, the U.S. Census Bureau (2012) used “a set of money income thresholds that vary by family size and composition to determine who is in poverty. If a family's total income is less than the family's threshold, then that family and every individual in it is considered in poverty. The official poverty thresholds do not vary geographically, but they are updated for inflation…The official poverty definition uses money income before taxes and does not include capital gains or noncash benefits (such as public housing, Medicaid, and food stamps)” (http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/about/overview/measure.html).

  3. Lareau (2003) demonstrated how race shows up in segregated housing patterns she observed. Moreover, her study revealed that middle class Black parents monitored the “racial composition of each activity” (p. 121) before enrolling their children so that their children were not the only Black children in particular activities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Urban Education, University of Pittsburgh, 5806 Wesley W. Posvar Hall, 230 South Bouquet Street, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA

    H. Richard Milner

  2. University of Tennessee, A418 Bailey Education Complex, Knoxville, 37996-3442, TN, USA

    Judson C. Laughter

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  1. H. Richard Milner
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Correspondence to H. Richard Milner.

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Milner, H.R., Laughter, J.C. But Good Intentions are Not Enough: Preparing Teachers to Center Race and Poverty. Urban Rev 47, 341–363 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-014-0295-4

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