Challenging Colonialism in Middle Level Teacher Preparation

This dissertation explores the ways in which challenging colonialism in middle level teacher preparation can impact the foundation of schooling in a settler colonial society. This works investigates the structure (Wolfe, 1999) of colonization in the United States, defines key terms related to anticoloniality, investigates anticolonial pedagogies in middle level teacher preparation and produces vignettes that highlight the experiences of Chicana maestras during clinical teaching. These papers collectively work towards a holistic understanding of the possibilities for middle level teacher preparation that centers anticolonial theories and pedagogies as a foundation for the future of education. This interdisciplinary case study research centers anticolonial theories and Chicana feminist epistemology (Bernal, 1998) as a way to interrogate the experiences of Chicana maestras during their clinical teaching semester. The experiences of Chicana maestras is often silenced in educational research, but most especially in the research of prospective middle grades educators. This work seeks to challenge the often-colonizing practices of teaching and research and seeks to serve as a model of the possibilities for research in middle level teacher education. The findings of this research highlight the collective power of Chicanas experiencing teaching and learning as a collective through the creation of vignettes. These vignettes illuminated the themes of maestras and comunidad, exploring and solidifying identity, colonialism is thriving, clinical chingonas, and sharing our knowledge. Each of these themes, and the collective work that went into this research, demonstrate the importance of Chicanas and middle level education.