‘White ways of being isn’t the only way’: disrupting dominance in elementary language/literacies education

This critical race teacher action research study explores how eight elementary teacher candidates (TCs) in a Canadian post-baccalaureate programme enacted antiracist language and literacies pedagogy during their student teaching. Building on coursework that introduced an antiracist genre pedagogy framework, the study examines how TCs internalized and applied principles, such as countertext selection, critical text analysis, and scaffolding of language and sociopolitical consciousness. Critical race thematic analysis of focus group transcripts revealed that while TCs increasingly valued antiracist praxis as they gained classroom experience and attempted to include marginalized perspectives and language scaffolds in their student teaching, their enactment was impacted by time pressures, perceived curricular limitations, hesitancy due to their newness with coursework principles, and concerns about balancing rigorous content teaching with language teaching and social justice work. As well, most avoided naming race or racism, acknowledging their positionalities, or emphasizing explicit language teaching as part of their praxis, suggesting a tendency toward passive antiracism in the student teaching role. Findings highlight the need for sustained mentorship and further integration of antiracism into methods coursework, supporting TCs to notice and name positionalities, principles, and practices, and take pedagogical risks to disrupt raciolinguistic dominance in elementary education.