Racial Realism in Canadian Teacher Education: The Potential of Cross-Racial Critical Professional Mentorship

Critical professional development (CPD) facilitates creative empowering teacher practice and racial justice accountability. This paper extends United States’ CPD literature through a qualitative critical race analysis of a one-year Canadian teacher education anti-racist cross-racial mentorship project. Focus groups with 13 teacher candidate (TC) members of the project suggest cross-racial CPD mentorship enhanced the TCs’ anti-racist 1) experiences with their teacher education program, 2) engagement with conversations, and 3) pedagogical comprehension. A fourth finding revealed the TCs recognized their lack of comprehension regarding whiteness and a desire to learn more. Through a critical race theory racial realist lens, the findings suggest practical ways in which Canadian anti-racist teacher educators can contribute to the democratic racial equity and decolonization commitments of education systems.