Teaching/Learning Relational Dynamic

Abstract

The authors contend that relationships are the basis for the teacher transformation that can occur in antiracist teacher professional development. Because self-understandings are developed contextually in relationship with others, sensitive instructor attention created the trust that was essential for teachers to critically examine long held assumptions about race, themselves, and their students. Furthermore, instructors designed the program to build trust among the teachers as teachers additionally learned through interactions with each other. Intentional community building also developed the community of practice that allowed for teachers' gradual participation in the critical work of antiracist education both in the program and in their own classrooms.