Examining how power is used in instructor feedback to preservice teachers to encourage asset-based thinking

Teacher preparation coursework globally includes courses designed to develop intercultural competence in preservice teachers (PTs). This Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices (S-STTEP) applied critical pedagogy to analyze power embedded in the feedback provided to 27 (26 female, 1 male) PTs from an online learning platform at US university. The instructor's feedback was the main source of data. Findings were framed within Bizzell's (1991) framework of power positioned as coercive, authority, or persuasive and Giroux's spectrum of power. The eight categories of feedback (asserting, affirming, challenging, evaluating, advising, personalizing, extending, and eliciting) were then ranked in levels of power. •Teacher preparation programs pedagogy for preservice teachers understanding and learning about diversity, race, class, religion to establish intercultural competence was contextualized.•A Self-Critical pedagogical frame explored the axis of the relationship between instructor’s feedback and power.•Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices (S-STTEP) data was analyzed an instructor’s use of power presented in Bizell’s framework of coercion, authority, and persuasion.•Instructional discourse around preservice teacher deficit and asset thinking related to intercultural contexts guiding course learning.