Trouble on my mind: toward a framework of humanizing critical sociocultural knowledge for teaching and teacher education

Drawing from the work of philosophers Sylvia Wynter and Ian Hacking, in this conceptual article I argue why a humanizing critical approach to sociocultural knowledge is needed for teacher education, particularly in preparing teachers to work effectively with black students. In light of enduring concerns in teacher education with improving the educational experiences of black students – a student population that is routinely discussed in extant education literature, policy and popular discourses – as in trouble, troubling, or troubled – and the failure of teacher education programs to successfully meet this goal, I consider how regardless of their intent, these discourses exist within and help to reinscribe an already limiting notion of human constituted by historically contingent, Western epistemic notions of humanity. Highlighting both the shortcomings and possibilities that tackling dominant sociocultural knowledge might have on teacher candidates and teachers I conclude by offering a vision for how teacher education might more effectively engage in transforming such knowledge towards improving the education of black students in the US.