Dissonance for understanding: Perspective shifts of White early childhood teacher candidates engaging with anti-bias pedagogy

This study explores how a group of eight White early childhood teacher candidates (TCs) engaged with anti-bias focused critical reflection, professional development, teaching placements, and service learning in high needs, diverse public school early childhood settings through a program known as Collaborative Partnership Institute (CPI). CPI is a carefully designed program of study for ECE teacher candidates that brings together opportunities, provocations, and practical experiences to challenge the biases of predominantly White, female-identifying, and middle-class TCs. In this paper, we take up the notion of dissonance as a tool in teacher education that can seek to inform and develop anti-bias identities and practices in new educators. We explore how these eight TCs in the CPI program experienced dissonance through critical reflection, engagement with critical provocations, and experiences in diverse school settings, all of which sought to challenge their prior beliefs. Findings indicate that focused critical anti-bias work in teacher education can shift TC perspectives and increase their preparedness to use anti-bias teaching methodologies to uplift future students, combat inequities, and teach for social justice. Conducting an analysis of our robust data set of interviews, self-reflections, and monthly CPI meeting transcripts, we focus on how moments of dissonance can provoke understanding that challenges TCs to meet the goals of becoming educators who can effectively teach in high-needs, diverse schools using culturally appropriate and responsive frameworks.