ABSTRACT
Khaki Drag is a doctoral student working in a teacher education program at an elite university. For most of the teacher candidates, the majority of whom are White women, these neighborhoods are vastly different from the ones they grew up in. Schools reward conformity to Whiteness and binary gender norms at every level from preschool to university. Peter did not get any opportunities to observe a male teacher of Color that summer, nor were there any men of Color on the staff of our elementary education program for him to talk to. Given the personal nature of teaching, candidates need mentors who know something about what it is like to be who they are in a classroom. As teacher educators, the authors must guide their students to build classrooms that create space for children and teachers to explore and express more of who they are, not less.
