Does Race Get Short Shrift in Education Research and Teacher Training? Issue Brief No. 6073

In academia today, a heightened focus on issues of diversity and race has been accompanied by claims that education research, teacher preparation, and colleges of education have shortchanged these issues. It is conceivable that teacher training programs and education research can do a better job addressing race, since they educate more than one-half million aspiring educators annually in teacher preparation programs. However those championing diversity, race, and equity do not merely argue that colleges need to do better. Rather, some of the most influential voices argue that such topics are functionally absent from the education school landscape. However the authors question whether that is actually true and if there is evidence to back up that argument. This article examines the research areas and biographies of faculty in colleges of education. For faculty who identify race, diversity, and equity as research areas, it also examined whether those areas were the primary focus of their research and whether their scholarship is rooted in critical race theory.