The Community Teacher: How Can We Radically Reimagine Power Relations in Teacher Development?

ABSTRACT There is a paucity of conceptual scholarship on community teacher development initiatives that prepare community members to become teachers and are designed to shift power relations in teacher development systems. Community teacher development initiatives designed as equity and justice programs committed to broadening community members’ access to the profession create space for radical reimagination in order to reorient our perception toward what may yet be possible. Thus, this article endeavors to consider how teacher development designs can take up space to begin this work by: (a) examining themes in community teacher development research; (b) exploring how facets of power can function as critical conceptual tools for radically reimagining teacher development for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) community teachers; and (c) considering implications for teacher development designers and researchers committed to building community teacher development initiatives.