Qualitative analysis shows cross-racial mentorship improves anti-racist engagement in teacher education, suggesting paths for decolonization and racial equity.
Critical professional development (CPD) facilitates creative empowering teacher practice and racial justice accountability. This paper extends United States’ CPD literature through a qualitative critical race analysis of a one-year Canadian teacher education anti-racist cross-racial mentorship project. Focus groups with 13 teacher candidate (TC) members of the project suggest cross-racial CPD mentorship enhanced the TCs’ anti-racist 1) experiences with their teacher education program, 2) engagement with conversations, and 3) pedagogical comprehension. A fourth finding revealed the TCs recognized their lack of comprehension regarding whiteness and a desire to learn more. Through a critical race theory racial realist lens, the findings suggest practical ways in which Canadian anti-racist teacher educators can contribute to the democratic racial equity and decolonization commitments of education systems.
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Gillies et al. (2025) studied this question.
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