Engaged Pedagogy and Critical Race Feminism (Essay‪)‬

We're still blaming teachers. At conferences and in publications, we 're still blaming teachers. In the news and at school board meetings, we're still blaming teachers. We're still talking about what teachers aren't doing and what they don't know. Teachers are faulty and broken. And everyone has something to say about how to fix them. Yes, it's the teachers who are broken, faulty, and require fixin'. But I submit to you that teachers, like the students they serve, are victims. They get smashed by school districts with wrecking balls of bureaucracy, limited resources, and inadequate pay. They get smashed by impractical professional development that does little to support the realities of day-to-day school life. But sadly, they are also wrecked by us: teacher educators. But we are victims, too. We suffer the indignities of a political tenure track system that rarely values collaborative work in schools and school communities. We suffer the injustice of state and NCATE standards that devalue true social justice and academic freedoms that embrace a true and authentic meaning of curriculum.