Teachers Talking Difference: teacher education and the poetics of anti-racism

This paper reports on a case study which explores the experiences of two teachers of ethnic difference working in secondary schools in rural Australia. In seeking an alternative way of telling their stories, transcript poems have been constructed from data obtained through semi-structured interviews with the teachers. The poems highlight the teachers' experiences of marginalisation and racism and their responses to their positioning in mainly white Anglo-Australian school communities. The study raises particular concerns about the effects of professional and cultural isolation on young and inexperienced teachers of ethnic difference as well as the need to view teacher education as an important site for the development of greater cultural awareness in "mainstream" teacher education students.