Examining Racial Literacy: Teachers’ Knowledge Across Preparation Pathways and Racial Identities in a National Survey

Initial teacher preparation has the potential to address and disrupt deep structural inequities and racism by supporting teachers’ racial literacy development. However, little is known about how racial literacy knowledge is patterned across specific structural mechanisms within teacher education, including licensure pathways and different racial identities. This descriptive study presents results from a national survey of 448 novice teachers (NTs) about their racial literacy knowledge. Using an asset-based lens, this study applies QuantCrit principles to critically and reflexively examine NTs′ applied and conceptual racial literacy knowledge. Findings indicate that NTs demonstrate stronger applied than conceptual racial literacy knowledge, a pattern evident in both composite and item-level responses. This suggests that NTs may feel prepared to teach in racially literate ways even when their knowledge of systemic racism is limited. However, the extent of differences varied by licensure pathway and program level, with graduate NTs often showing lower conceptual racial literacy knowledge than undergraduates, particularly in public university and community college programs. Item-level analyses revealed widespread agreement with applied practices but more varied responses for conceptual knowledge. These patterns highlight that composite scores can obscure important differences and examining both composite and item-level data offers a fuller picture of NTs’ racial literacy knowledge across licensure pathways and their racial identities.