ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that teacher preparation programs have not yet adequately grappled with religious identity, both as a part of the teacher identity preservice teachers bring with them into teacher preparation programs, but also in the way that these programs prepare preservice teachers to deal with religious identity in their own classrooms. Throughout the interviews, evangelical preservice teachers shared a sense of being misrecognized, and the anxiety of misrecognition by peers was far greater than the sense of being misrecognized by instructors. Although there are educational researchers who center students’ religious beliefs and practices as part of an intersectional identity that is deeply rooted in family and community, it is important to note that these researchers are particularly discussing the religion of K-12 students. Students with strongly held religious beliefs are likely entering teacher preparation programs without feeling as if their backgrounds are being seen by instructors and their classmates.
