ABSTRACT
In a profession seeking to nurture young minds moving towards a better, kinder future, our experiences as educators have led us to wonder in what ways, and why, those who study to become teachers, experience considerable microaggressions during their teacher preparation period. Using survey data at one teacher education institution, this chapter investigates microaggressions committed by and against pre-service teachers at the Faculty of Education, Beni-Suef University in Egypt. The data exposes a broad range of abusive incidents (verbal and otherwise) occurring during teacher preparation. Microaggressions occur between student teachers and their instructors; between student teachers themselves; and between student teachers and pupils during practice assignments. Survey data yields insights of strategies used in response to microaggressions. Drawing from the data, possible causes for microaggressive acts included that microaggression is accepted as a form of traditional teaching and classroom management. The findings underscore the possibility these behaviours are perpetuated in classrooms by the very student teacher who suffered through them during their education programme. This chapter disentangles the narrative of microaggression in teacher preparation programmes with the hope of finding a way forward to a more caring teaching environment.
