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Equity & Excellence in Education

ISSN: 1066-5684 (Print) 1547-3457 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ueee20

Racial Pedagogy of the Oppressed: Critical
Interracial Dialogue for Teachers of Color

Rita Kohli

To cite this article: Rita Kohli (2012) Racial Pedagogy of the Oppressed: Critical Interracial
Dialogue for Teachers of Color, Equity & Excellence in Education, 45:1, 181-196, DOI:
10.1080/10665684.2012.644187

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EQUITY & EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION, 45(1), 181–196, 2012
Copyright C© University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Education
ISSN: 1066-5684 print / 1547-3457 online
DOI: 10.1080/10665684.2012.644187

Racial Pedagogy of the Oppressed: Critical Interracial
Dialogue for Teachers of Color

Rita Kohli
Santa Clara University

Brazilian education activist Paulo Freire (1970) argues that to create social change, oppressed people
must have critical consciousness about their conditions, and that this consciousness is developed
through dialogue. He theorizes that dialogue allows for reflection and unity building, tools needed to
transform society. When considering racial oppression in K-12 schools, racial minority teachers have
an often-untapped insight and power to transform classrooms and schools (Kohli, 2009). Connected
through a commonality of racial oppression, it is important for teachers of color to engage in cross-
racial dialogues about manifestations of racial injustice in K-12 schools and to develop strategies for
change. Utilizing Freire’s conceptual lens and a critical race theory (CRT) framework, this article
highlights critical race dialogue about the educational experiences and observations of 12 black,
Latina, and Asian American women enrolled in a teacher education program. Through cross-racial
discussions, the women were able to broaden their multicultural understanding of racial oppression
as well as strategize solidarity building among diverse students in urban classrooms. This study
demonstrates knowledge and insights of teachers of color and highlights the importance of interracial
dialogue in school contexts.

Several years ago, I was invited to attend a professional development session at a middle school
in South Los Angeles serving mostly black1 and Latina/o students. The goal of the workshop
was to guide teachers in resolving racial fights between youth on campus. In addition to student
tension, dialogue revealed that the staff, made up of mostly teachers of color, also carried tension
with their peers of differing racial and ethnic groups. While they were concerned about the student
fights, the staff rarely interacted cross-racially and many teachers at the school had deep-rooted
stereotypes and misconceptions about other races. They were unable to see commonalities of
their oppression and, thus, had limited abilities to support students in solidarity building. All
of these factors raised several questions for me: While teachers of color often have insight to
racism in schools because of their own racialized realities (Kohli, 2009), how can they facilitate
cross-racial understanding and unity among students without having cross-racial understanding
themselves? And more importantly, how can teachers of color challenge racial oppression if they
do not recognize racism as a systemic problem that impacts all people of color?

Over the past decade, there has been increased recognition of and need for teachers of color
(Ladson-Billings, 2001; Villegas & Irvine, 2010). Teachers of color comprise only 10% of

Address correspondence to Rita Kohli, Santa Clara University, Liberal Studies, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA
95053. E-mail: [email protected]

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182 KOHLI

the teaching force (National Collaborative on Diversity in the Teaching Force, 2004) and are
drastically underrepresented even in districts serving almost entirely students of color (California
Department of Education, 2011).

Many researchers have highlighted proven models for increasing the presence of teachers of
color, including “homegrown” programs, in which students from urban communities are recruited
to teach in the same or similar school district (Hudson, 1998; Irizzary, 2007; Lau, Dandy, &
Hoffman, 2007; Sakash & Chou, 2007). This focus on recruitment, however, is complicated
by low retention rates for teachers of color. Because teachers of color are placed at higher
rates in underserved schools with many structural challenges, they experience faster burnout
rates than white teachers (Achinstein, Ogawa, Sexton, & Freitas, 2010). Additionally, having
limited networks of support in addressing school challenges can take its toll on the retention of
teachers of color (Achinstein et al., 2010; Dingus, 2008; Hernández Sheets, 2001, 2004; Kohli,
2009).

Even with concern around retention, scholars have repeatedly demonstrated the benefits of
having teachers of color in classrooms serving students of color, including heightened cul-
tural understanding, connections to the community, and culturally relevant teaching (Kambutu,
Rios, & Castaneda, 2009; Martinez, 2000; Quiocho & Rios, 2000; Williams, Graham, McCary-
Henderson, & Floyd, 2009). Sleeter (2008) argues that the more students encounter teachers from
similar racial and cultural backgrounds, the more culturally relevant and meaningful their educa-
tion will be. This cultural match has been connected to many benefits, such as increased equity
for bilingual students and college access for underrepresented students (Cammarota, 2008).

Although the presence of teachers of color is extremely important for the holistic success of
students of color, as demonstrated in the example above, not all teachers of color are culturally
equipped to serve multiracial classrooms and promote racial justice. In prior articles, I have
argued that critical race reflections of their schooling can support the development of race-
conscious practices in teachers of color (Kohli, 2008, 2009). This article broadens this argument
to demonstrate how critical interracial dialogue between teachers of color can be instrumental in
their growth as educators in multicultural contexts.

To prevent racial climate issues similar to the school I describe above, teachers must have
cross-racial understanding. Teachers of color also must have an independent space to dialogue
about manifestations of racial injustice and strategies for change. This does not mean that white
educators cannot work to challenge racial inequity in schools (Picower, 2009), but rather that,
at times, separate spaces are needed to discuss racial privilege and oppression (Kohli, 2009).
Utilizing Freire’s (1970) concept of critical consciousness and a CRT framework, this article
highlights insights gained through the dialogue of 12 black, Latina, and Asian American women
enrolled in a teacher education program. The discussions broadened the participants’ multicultural
understanding of racial oppression and encouraged a pedagogy of cross-racial solidarity building.
This model can inform teacher preparation and school professional development practices.

FREIRE’S CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Brazilian education activist Paulo Freire (1970) argues that to create social change people must
have conscientization or critical consciousness. Freire defines critical consciousness as a state
in which people are aware of social inequality, understand their place in that inequality, and
take action against oppressive elements in society. He theorizes that critical consciousness is

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INTERRACIAL DIALOGUE FOR TEACHERS OF COLOR 183

developed through a “problem-posing” method, where learners come to their own understanding
of injustice through a facilitators’ questioning. This study takes a Freirian approach to developing
a critical cross-racial understanding about racial oppression with teachers of color from varying
racial, ethnic, and cultural groups. Facilitated with a problem-posing framework, participants
were given space to reflect on their own experiences, build cross-racial connections, and think
through how to respond to racial oppression in school.

CRITICAL RACE THEORY

Critical race theory (CRT) also is used to frame this study. Developed in the 1970s in the field of
law, CRT helped to bring racism into central focus through the experiences of people of color.
As it extends into other disciplines, including education, it shifts analysis of racism from an
individual problem to a structural issue, replicated by institutions within our society. CRT in
education is guided by the following five tenets (Solórzano & Delgado Bernal, 2001):

1. Centrality of Race and Racism: All CRT research within education must centralize race and
racism, as well as acknowledge the intersection of race with other forms of subordination.

2. Challenging the Dominant Perspective: CRT research works to challenge the dominant nar-
ratives, often referred to as majoritarian stories.

3. Commitment to Social Justice: CRT research must be driven by a social justice agenda. Crit-
ical race theorists define social justice research as work that (a) responds to the oppression
of people of color, which includes intersections between racism, poverty, sexism, and dehu-
manization; (b) aims to eliminate those oppressive conditions; and, (c) is centered around the
empowerment, healing, and liberation of people of color (Solórzano & Delgado Bernal, 2001;
Yosso, 2005).

4. Valuing Experiential Knowledge: CRT scholars believe in the power of story. Building on
the oral traditions of many indigenous communities of color around the world, CRT research
values the experiences and narratives of people of color when attempting to understand social
inequality.

5. Being Interdisciplinary: CRT scholars believe that the world is multi-dimensional and research
about the world should reflect multiple perspectives.

In this study, these five tenets are used as a framework to engage the voices of women of color
educators with a focus on race, racism, and its intersection with gender, culture, and class. All data
in this article were collected through qualitative focus-group interviews. Drawing on the fields of
Ethnic Studies and education, this project utilizes theory and empirical research to demonstrate
how critical race dialogue of diverse teachers of color can improve their understanding and
articulation about racial inequity and, in turn, how this critical consciousness can influence their
pedagogy. In 2002, Smith-Maddox and Solórzano paired CRT with problem-posing methods and
case study to build racial consciousness with, as they described, mostly privileged students. This
study uses these two frameworks to strengthen race consciousness in racially oppressed people.
As women of color, the participants share struggles and strengths that are often undertheorized
within teacher education. This project challenges dominant narratives that lead communities to
believe that racial divisions among people of color are normal and acceptable. Instead, this article

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184 KOHLI

emphasizes the unifying dialogue between women from multiple racial and ethnic groups as an
example of solidarity building against racial injustice in schools.

METHODS

CRT and Freire’s theory of critical consciousness also guide the design of the study. These
frameworks encourage researchers to not see participants as data sources alone. Rather those who
share their stories in interviews are people with voices, complex lives, and struggles (Pizarro,
1998). CRT and Freirian methods demand that research must benefit the participants and their
communities (Kohli, 2009; Pizarro, 1998; Smith-Maddox & Solórzano, 2002).

Focus group interviews explored the narratives of women of color enrolled in an urban
social justice-based teacher education program in Los Angeles, California. These interviews
were designed as dialogues to learn about the impact of racism in schools from a multiracial
perspective and provided a safe space for women of color educators to build community and
develop as teachers. The women were prompted to reflect on the role of race and racism in their
educational experiences with the goal of heightening their consciousness about racial injustice.
Additionally, because teachers in multicultural schools need to understand how racism overlaps
and diverges for different racial, ethnic, and cultural groups, the focus groups also were structured
for participants to improve their cross-racial understanding.

Sample

Focus group interviews were conducted in 2007 with Latina, black, and Asian American female
teachers. Human subjects approval was granted before any recruitment or data collection took
place. I recruited from teacher education courses and potential participants were asked to fill out
a form of interest after a short presentation. The 12 participants were narrowed from a larger
pool of 43, based on racial and ethnic diversity and interest in the study. The women taught
a range of subjects and grades, were between the ages of 22 and 26 years old, and varied in
their comfort discussing race and racism. Each woman was purposefully assigned to a six-person
group with two black, two Latina, and two Asian American participants to ensure diversity of
race and ethnicity. Participants were engaged in three focus group interviews. All names used in
this article are pseudonyms or were kept the same at the request of the participant. (See Appendix
A for demographic details.)

Positionality

Although there has been an effort to recruit racial minorities into the teaching profession, the
majority of teacher education faculty continues to be white (Ladson-Billings, 2001, 2005). In
addition, most education research and teaching strategies are written by and for white teachers
(Bennett, Cole, & Thompson, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 2005). As a South Asian American woman
and former teacher, I had a unique positionality in facilitating dialogues with women of color
preservice teachers. Within the focus group interviews, many of the women articulated that very

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INTERRACIAL DIALOGUE FOR TEACHERS OF COLOR 185

little of their teacher preparation was taught by faculty of color and felt “relieved” to have a
“safe space” to discuss their lived experiences with race and racism. I also hold a Ph.D. in Race
and Ethnic Studies in Education and I am well versed in the shared realities with racism that
communities of color have and continue to endure; thus, I was able to facilitate connections
among the experiences of women from varying racial and ethnic groups.

In constructing interracial dialogue about topics of such a sensitive nature, my identity seemed
to bring strengths to the work as articulated above. However, there were also several limitations
involving my role as sole investigator. Being the only facilitator of the focus group interviews, the
dialogues were shaped both by my perspective about race and racism and my facilitation style.
Additionally, beyond member checking practices, the analysis was mine and was limited by the
biases of my positionality.

Data Collection and Analysis

While many traditional research paradigms offer a firmly structured interaction between re-
searcher and participant (Berg, 2011), there are emerging design structures that promote inter-
group dialogue (Zúñiga, Nagda, Chesler, & Cytron-Walker, 2007; Zúniga, Nagda & Sevig, 2002)
and active intervention through models of action-research (Cammarota & Fine, 2008; Pizarro,
1998). Building on these frameworks, I designed and facilitated all focus group interviews as
critical interracial dialogues—discussions between diverse participants that analyze inequity and
injustice—as it relates to race and schooling. The first focus group was a discussion of race and
racism in the preservice teachers’ own K-12 educational experiences; the second addressed their
observations with race and racism in the schools in which they work; and the third was a space
for them to strategize how to address race and racism in their classrooms. Although one goal was
to collect data, framed by CRT and Freire’s theoretical lens, the questions were also posed as a
way for the women to learn from each other’s reflections and to gain interracial understanding
about racism and schooling. Some sample questions included:

1. What experiences did you have with discrimination in school in your K-12 education?
2. How did these experiences impact your self or worldview?
3. Many of you mentioned that you wanted to hear how others defined race and racism. So, let’s

discuss this, what is race? What is racism?
4. Do you see race and racism playing out in the school that you currently work in?
5. Does it manifest in similar or different ways from your childhood experiences?

All data were transcribed throughout the study and were reviewed by participants. Grounded
theory argues for themes to emerge from data (Flick, 2009); CRT research encourages a co-
construction of sense making of data with participants (Pizarro, 1998). Building on these method-
ologies, participants were asked to reflect on sessions at the end of each focus group to gauge their
interpretation of the dialogues. In compiling the findings, I read and re-read all the transcripts,
noted reoccurring themes and themes related to the research questions, and sorted the data into
categories (Flick, 2009). For this article, I am sharing select findings from the larger study.

In particular, the women articulated that this study proved important for their personal and
professional growth, helping them develop a more complex understanding of racism in schools. I
highlight two main ways in which participants described critical interracial dialogue as beneficial

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186 KOHLI

to their development as educators: (1) enhancing cross-cultural understanding of racial oppression
and (2) re-thinking race in the classroom.

ENHANCING CROSS-CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING
OF RACIAL OPPRESSION

Even though many women in the study shared that discussions of racial discrimination with
family and friends were commonplace, most revealed that those conversations tended to happen
in racially insular settings. Many of the women had parallel experiences with racism within their
education, however very few had ever discussed these events in multiracial settings. Without
experience talking about race and racism with people who differ racially or ethnically, a majority
of the women felt that they had limited understanding of manifestation of racism in communities
outside their own.

Because the focus groups were the first time many women had participated in cross-racial
sharing of racialized experiences and perspectives, it improved their multicultural understanding
of racial inequity. The participants articulated that this was important to their development
as critical educators of multiracial or multicultural classrooms. In this section, I share several
examples of cross-cultural engagement and understanding that occurred within the interviews,
through discussions of: (1) names and ethnic pride, (2) accents, and (3) knowledge of self.

Names and Ethnic Pride

The dialogue often revealed differences or parallels in the racialized experiences of the mul-
ticultural group of women of color. While each woman has a unique and complex story, the
conversation allowed for black, Latina, and Asian American educators to understand that racism
is something that affects all of their lives. Regardless of whether the conversations were specif-
ically tied to the classroom, by learning where their racialized experiences diverge and overlap,
participants were able to gain valuable exposure to multicultural perspectives.

One’s identity and self-concept are developed through parents’ accent, intonation, and pro-
nunciation of their name (Sears & Sears, 2003). Additionally, names can connect children to their
ancestors or their country of origin or ethnic group and often have deep meaning or symbolism
for parents and families (Kiang, 2003; Kohli & Solórzano, 2011). Elaine shared in a focus group
that she witnessed a teacher who was mispronouncing the names of one of her recent immigrant
students. She expressed how the teacher’s disregard for the student’s name and identity reinforced
to the student that his culture was not important. Sharing this encounter with the focus group led
into a personal discussion about names, in which Elaine and Janet both revealed that they did not
have names representative of their ethnic heritage because their parents were afraid of situations
similar to what Elaine had seen while student teaching. Even though they understood that their
parents were trying to protect them from racism, they both expressed how their names made them
feel disconnected from their culture and roots. Janet shared,

I still complain to this day, “Why didn’t I get a more Mexican name?” People always ask me, “Wait,
you’re Mexican and your and your name’s Janet. . .? Not even Janette. . .?” and I’m like, “No, Janet.”

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INTERRACIAL DIALOGUE FOR TEACHERS OF COLOR 187

Don’t ask me what my dad was thinking. He’s been here since he was seven, so I think for him it
was more that he went through a lot growing up, and [he] didn’t want [me] to have to go through the
same. (Janet)

Empathizing with Janet’s longing to have a name reflective of her cultural heritage, Elaine
responded, “I don’t even have a Korean name . . ., my name is [Elaine] . . . I never really under-
stood why [my mom] didn’t go for a Korean name, but it’s probably also to make it easier.” Like
Janet, Elaine shared that her mom had a lot of problems because of her Korean name when she
moved to the U.S. and most likely did not want her daughter to experience the same difficulties.
Elaine, however, endured a different set of challenges; she felt her “easier,” non-Korean name
disconnected her from Korean culture and the Korean community. Despite their different back-
grounds, an open discussion about these experiences allowed Janet and Elaine to see cross-racial
commonalities in their personal struggles with ethnic identity.

Deanna and Alexis, the two black women in the group listened carefully as Janet and Elaine
spoke. They then shared that because African Americans were robbed of cultural names due to
slavery, the women could not exactly relate to Janet and Elaine’s struggles. They felt this was
important to consider when understanding the names of many African Americans. Alexis shared,
“[For us] it’s even more complicated because we were brought here as slaves, and we were given
new names, so none of can really be like, ‘Oh, I’m from the Zulu tribe.’ No [African American]
really knows what their ancestors’ names are, so there’s nothing to reclaim from that.” Deanna
agreed. She furthered the conversation by explaining that some African American parents try to
connect to their heritage by naming their children words from an African language. While she had
a name that was commonly used in her community, she wanted others in the group to understand
that when African American parents give their children names that may seem “arbitrary,” they
are often trying to distance themselves from the European names imposed through slavery.

Although Alexis and Deanna had different experiences with the importance and origin of
names than Janet and Elaine did, they all felt that names have an important connection to culture.
The women agreed that whether names were stripped during slavery or rejected today out of
fear of discrimination, names are a subtle way in which the European culture is prioritized over
the culture of racial minorities. They expressed that hearing each other’s stories helped them to
realize that this is not an individual experience but rather plays out in multiple racial and ethnic
communities and is tied to racism.

Accents

An accent is a way of speaking, typically tied to a particular geographic location, often intersecting
with factors, such as race, class, culture, and language. Speaking like the community in which
you are part of has value and capital; it can play a major role in acceptance into that community
or context (Perry & Delpit, 1998). In our education system, however, the way a student speaks is
often wrongly tied to intelligence, and Standard American English (SAE) is typically valued and
deemed superior (LeMoine & Hollie, 2007; Perry & Delpit, 1998). During one of the focus group
interviews, several of the women began to engage in a discussion about their “accents.” They
shared that their manner of speech often played a role in the way they were stereotyped in school.

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188 KOHLI

Unfortunately, many participants felt they had internalized the racist ideology embedded in these
stereotypes, and this had affected how they saw themselves both culturally and intellectually.

JoAnn grew up in a working-class Latina/o neighborhood in the South side of East Los
Angeles. Although she spoke English, when she got to her predominantly white college, she
received many comments about her “accent” from her white peers. These remarks made her very
self-conscious, and she felt inferior to her peers.

Through elementary, junior high, and high school, we all kind of had the same accent. We all sounded
the same. When I started college, I would get white guys telling me, “Oh, you sound like a chola, but
don’t worry, it’s cute!” They already start putting you in a box, and you begin [to] internalize that.
Like, I don’t speak Standard English, I don’t have a white accent. I’m never gonna fit in.

Although JoAnn identified as a scholar, she was labeled a chola when she got to college. “Chola”
is a Spanish word used to describe a female “gangster.” It bothered JoAnn that even though
she had worked very hard in school, her peers reduced her identity to a stereotype about her
community. This experience made a lasting impact on JoAnn, and began to affect her academic
engagement. When one endures racism, the impact does not always end when the incident is over.
Racism can seep into the psyche, and affect the way a person sees him- or herself and the world
around him or her, a phenomenon defined as internalized racism (Cross, 1995; Kohli, 2008; Perez
Huber, Johnson, & Kohli, 2006). JoAnn began to internalize the racist stereotype that her East
Los Angeles Chicana/o speech was connected to violence rather than to schooling. She began to
feel that she was not as smart or competent as her peers and, thus, stopped participating in class.

After JoAnn shared this emotional story about internalizing racism, Juliana responded by
describing her own negative experiences with accents. She explained that growing up as a Latina
in a predominantly black neighborhood, she dropped Spanish and practiced speaking English in
order to fit in. But as a light skinned woman without a Latin American accent, whenever she said
that she was Mexican, no one believed her.

I don’t speak Spanish that well. I always practiced my English because I grew up in a predominantly
black neighborhood in Watts. That used to keep me from some communities growing up. [People]
would tell me I wasn’t Mexican enough because I didn’t speak Spanish that well. I remember always
feeling, where do I go then? I’m not really accepted anywhere.

Much like the borderlands feeling Anzaldúa (1999) describes for Mexican Americans …