Building a critical teacher-researcher partnership: Anti-racism pedagogies and practices in a first-grade classroom in the Midwest United States

Oona Fontanella-Nothom; Cynthia Martin

doi:10.37291/2717638X.202563672

Authors

Oona Fontanella-Nothom California State University, Dominguez Hills https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2840-7123
Cynthia Martin District of Columbia Public School https://orcid.org/0009-0005-5064-1724

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638X.202563672

Keywords:

Critical race theory, Counterstorytelling, Early childhood, Anti-racism, Partnerships

Abstract

This study investigates our ongoing, multi-year partnership as a university professor and classroom teacher/administrator enacting anti-racist practices and pedagogies in a first-grade classroom in the Midwest area of the United States. Grounded in Critical Race Theory and a critical counterstorytelling methodology, we investigated what our counternarratives could illustrate about how we sustained our anti-racist work with young children. Through our analysis, two insights emerged as important: the importance of engaging with slowness in developing a critical race partnership and developing critical race criteria for selecting children’s books about race and racism. We describe these insights and discuss the implications of this work, while providing suggestions for others interested in developing critical race partnerships.

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