Using a Book-Club Model to Support Racial Literacy Development among Teachers of Multilingual Learners

Abstract

New teachers need time, support, mentorship, and experience to build racial literacies that will transform teaching. In response, this article explores the potential of book-club–style professional development to promote racial literacy among “mainstream” teachers of multilingual learners. In presenting a qualitative inquiry of participants in an international, intergenerational, action-oriented racial literacy book club for teachers of multilingual students, we share three findings regarding how the book club functioned to support new teacher participants to grow their racial literacy and antiracist awareness for addressing injustices in their various spheres of influence: (1) the book club created an extended learning environment for new teachers to grow their racial literacy in tandem with their developing classroom practice; (2) it fostered understanding among participants living and teaching in different parts of North America regarding the ways in which issues of race and language were both common across contexts and locally inflected; and (3) it supported the development of mentoring relationships. We conclude with a discussion of implications for the broader use of book clubs as part of socially conscious teacher education and professional development.