Date of Award
2025
Degree Type
Restricted to Claremont Colleges Dissertation
Degree Name
Philosophy, PhD
Program
School of Educational Studies
Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair
Tessa Hicks Peterson
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Dina Maramba
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Emilie Reagan
Terms of Use & License Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Rights Information
© 2026 Andre ChenFeng
Keywords
critical pedagogy, educators of color, racial battle fatigue, somatics, teacher wellbeing
Subject Categories
Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education | Teacher Education and Professional Development
Abstract
Literature documents the impacts of systemic racism on Educators of Color, yet how to support these educators remains under-researched. This testimonio study examined how Educators of Color navigate racial battle fatigue and cultivate sustainable, liberatory practice. Grounded in Critical Race Theory, Chicana Feminist Epistemology, and somatics as political practice, this inquiry investigated: What conditions lead Educators of Color to cultivate embodied critical pedagogy, and what impacts emerge when they co-create embodied critical professional development? This study centered on the individual and collective experiences of participants in the Teacher Wellbeing Collective, a 5-month professional learning series. The collection of testimonios is not just documentation of conditions and experiences but a vision of what TK-16 and teacher education can be when professional learning centers their full humanity. The participants theorized that healing is not an individual necessity but a collective one. With trust, mutuality, authenticity, and vulnerability as its foundation, their collective impact extends healing ripples outward toward students, families, communities, and future generations.
ISBN
9798244833430
Recommended Citation
ChenFeng, Andre. (2025). From Surviving to Sustaining: Testimonios Examining the Need for and Impact of Embodied Critical Professional Development Among Educators of Color. CGU Theses & Dissertations, 1091. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/1091.
