Audrey Fernandes-Satar

When working with teacher education students one of our aims is to look at ‘race’ and racism, and the implications that ‘being white’ has for teachers’ practice. Hence we develop conversations around who we are as gendered and racialised subjects who occupy specific socio-economic positions. Our students find this disconcerting, however, as educators we find the journey equally challenging, even painful. When students personalize their discomfort by attacking us, it is not easy to simply shrug off hurtful comments. What we want to do in this paper, therefore, is to share the stories of our ‘tragedies and triumphs’ and present a number of impressionistic snapshots that illustrate the effects that teaching about social justice issues has on us as teachers. The issues mentioned in our title form the basis of our narratives: we are firmly committed to retaining our focus on equity as a guiding principle without sacrificing academic rigour, while at the same time addressing student resistance and the sense of entitlement that some bring to the unit.