63) "Disrupting Whiteness in Teacher Education" (Dr. Bree Picower)

In this episode, I had the incredible honor of welcoming Dr. Bree Picower to the podcast.  In our conversation, she shares her personal journey in education, her inspiration behind publishing her newest book, "Reading, Writing & Racism", how she has evolved as a social justice teacher educator over the span of her 20+ year career, and so much more!  To learn more about Dr. Picower's work, you can visit her website at breepicower.com or follow her on Instagram (@bossssy13), Twitter (@drbreebree), and Facebook!

BIO: Dr. Bree Picower is an Associate Professor at Montclair State University in the College of Education and Human Development. She is the Co-Director of the Urban Teacher Residency, Newark Teacher Project and the Critical Urban Education Speaker Series with Dr. Tanya Maloney at MSU.  Her newest book, Reading, Writing and Racism, is an unflinching examination of recent examples of viral racist curriculum and what it means for our educational institutions to take responsibility for addressing teachers’ understandings of race.

Along with co-editors Edwin Mayorga and Ujju Aggarwal, she released a 2nd edition of  What’s Race Got To Do With It? How current school reform maintains racial and economic inequality.  Her co-edited book with Rita Kohli, Confronting Racism in Teacher Education: Counternarratives of Critical Practice, examined patterns of institutional racism by amplifying the voices of non-dominant teacher educators.  In her first book, Practice What You Teach: Social Justice Education in the Classroom and the Streets, she explored a developmental continuum toward teacher activism.

Published widely in academic journals, her scholarship focuses on issues of race, racism and education.  Her students’ social justice curriculum is featured at UsingTheirWords.org.  Across all areas of work, Dr. Picower works to create spaces for educators to sharpen their political analysis and act for educational justice and was awarded the Scholar Activist of 2013 by the Critical Educators for Social Justice SIG of the American Educational Research Association.  She has taught in public elementary schools in Oakland, California and New York City.

---

Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/identitytalk4educators/support