In this dissertation, I situate discourses of whiteness, equity traps, and critical literacy as concepts relevant to the study of teacher education in predominantly white settings using methods of narrative inquiry. In Chapter Two and Chapter Three of the dissertation, I explore various discourses of whiteness present in the narratives of white preservice secondary teachers refining and revising their roles as agents in social change. In Chapter Two, I provide analyses of the rhetorical productions of the discourses of individualism, self-defense, and "Whiteness as a liability" as circulating and recirculating in the teaching and learning experiences of white preservice secondary teachers. In Chapter Three, I argue that "equity traps," or impediments to educational equity, must be identified and interrupted as an initiative for teacher education programs. In Chapter Four, I highlight the critical literacy practices of two white preservice secondary English teachers, detailing the encouragements and constraints these teachers experienced as they used literacy to disrupt familiar routines in schools and texts and to focus on social and political issues in (or absent from) texts.