The incomplete journey toward social justice: Defining antiracism with white in-service educators

The teaching population—from teacher preparation to in-service K-12 educators—consists overwhelmingly of white women (NCES, 2018; NCES, 2020). Paired with increasingly diverse student populations, scholars have pointed to how this results in ever-widening gaps (racially, ethnically, culturally, linguistically, etc.) between teachers and the students they teach (Baldwin, Buchanan and Rudisill, 2007; Gay and Howard, 2000; Mosley Wetzel, 2020; Zumwalt and Craig, 2005). These gaps become disconcerting when those who enter the field exhibit a false confidence (Burriss and Burriss, 2003; Matias, 2016) for teaching diverse communities, especially if they have had little to no experiences with them (Bell, 2002; Brown, 2004; Frankenberg, 2019; James- Gallaway and Harris, 2021; Matias, 2016).Because of these noted issues in the literature, as well as the current sociopolitical context we are navigating with divisive concept bills that restrict learning and target social justice-oriented education, it is imperative that we provide concerted efforts to prepare all educators to meet the needs of diverse student populations and mitigate harm by fostering antiracist orientations to teaching and learning. This study draws from critical race theory to better understand how self-identified white antiracist in-service educators have and continue to develop along their antiracist journey by examining their life experiences, conceptualizations of race and anti/racism, and the enactment of

these understandings through their teaching practices and pedagogy. The findings illuminate the ongoing, non-linear, and incompleteness of this journey toward antiracism as well as the ways we may serve to protect whiteness even when we avow to be antiracist.