Using Bafa Bafa to help pre-service teachers experience microaggressions in the classroom

Abstract

Implementing an equity agenda in the classroom is both necessary and challenging for classes containing pre-service teachers. For this intervention, we chose to begin our History of Mathematics course for pre-service middle school teachers with a cultural simulation training exercise: Bafa Bafa. After participating in the exercise, pre-service teachers were asked to write a reflection paper and were later interviewed about their experiences in the course. Although participants found Bafa Bafa an uncomfortable experience, it was not an unsafe one, and the pre-service teachers agreed that this exercise helped them better understand, articulate, and notice experiences with microaggressions.