On the Harm Inflicted by Urban Teacher Education Programs: Learning From the Historical Trauma Experienced by Teachers of Color

2020 ◽  
pp. 004208592092624
Author(s):  
Mariana Souto-Manning ◽  
Christopher Emdin
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Historical Trauma ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
Teachers Of Color ◽  
Psychological Violence ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Urban Teacher Education ◽  
Urban Teacher

Throughout the country, urban teacher education programs ubiquitously employ the terms “diversity” and “social justice” on their websites. But—what do these terms mean and how do they influence (if at all) the programs represented by these terms according to the lived experiences of students of color in these programs? Through historical trauma theory, this study seeks to understand the experiences of teachers of color who graduated from urban teacher education programs that employed “diversity” and “social justice” on their websites. Through the analysis of interviews conducted with eight teachers of color, it unveils how teacher education programs dehumanize and exclude pre-service teachers of color, fostering psychological violence, promoting segregation and displacement, and cultivating economic deprivation. Findings show that the rhetorical and visual portraits of “diversity” and “social justice” on these programs’ websites are experienced by teachers of color as incongruent to their lived experiences within them. In particular, the outward facing diverse racial images do not reflect the populations these teacher education programs serve (mostly white) and the classroom and field experiences are dissonant from the commitments the programs espouse. Implications call for transforming teacher education from spaces where historical trauma is reproduced to spaces where racial healing and reconciliation can occur.

From salvation to inquiry: Preservice teachers’ conceptions of race

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 368-384
Author(s):  
Lucinda Grace Heimer
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Classroom Practice ◽  
Future Teacher ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
The Impact

Race is a marker hiding more complex narratives. Children identify the social cues that continue to segregate based on race, yet too often teachers fail to provide support for making sense of these worlds. Current critical scholarship highlights the importance of addressing issues of race, culture, and social justice with future teachers. The timing of this work is urgent as health, social and civil unrest due to systemic racism in the U.S. raise critiques and also open possibilities to reimagine early childhood education. Classroom teachers feel pressure to standardize pedagogy and outcomes yet meet myriad student needs and talents in complex settings. This study builds on the current literature as it uses one case study to explore institutional messages and student perceptions in a future teacher education program that centers race, culture, identity, and social justice. Teaching as a caring profession is explored to illuminate the impact authentic, aesthetic, and rhetorical care may have in classrooms. Using key tenets of Critical Race Theory as an analytical tool enhanced the case study process by focusing the inquiry on identity within a racist society. Four themes are highlighted related to institutional values, rigorous coursework, white privilege, and connecting individual racial and cultural understanding with classroom practice. With consideration of ethical relationality, teacher education programs begin to address the impact of racist histories. This work calls for individualized critical inquiry regarding future teacher understanding of “self” in new contexts as well as an investigation of how teacher education programs fit into larger institutional philosophies.

Teaching Diversity to Preservice Teachers: Encouraging Self-Reflection and Awareness to Develop Successful Teaching Practices

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marla S. Sanders ◽  
Kathryn Haselden ◽  
Randi M. Moss
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Professional Education ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Preparation Programs ◽  
Diverse Schools

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to promote discussion of how teacher education programs can better prepare teacher candidates to teach for social justice in ethnically and culturally diverse schools. The authors suggest that teacher education programs must develop teacher candidates’ capacity to teach for social justice through preparation programs that encourage critical reflection and awareness of one’s beliefs, perceptions, and professional practice. The authors ask the following questions: How can teacher educators provide structures in professional preparation programs that will produce reflective practitioners? How might we prepare teacher candidates who are constantly thinking about how they perceive their students and their families and how those perceptions affect the way they relate to students? Through a discussion of five case scenarios, the authors discuss prior research on preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools and offer suggestions for improving professional education programs.

Conceptions and Models of Teacher Education

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maureen Robinson ◽  
Rada Jancic Mogliacci
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Teacher Identity ◽  
Applied Science ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Conceptual Base ◽  
Science Approach ◽  
The Relationship

Initial teacher education programs across the world bear many resemblances to one another in respect to their overall design features. Students generally follow courses that teach them foundational knowledge pertaining to education, like psychology or sociology, disciplinary knowledge in particular subject areas, and general and specific pedagogical knowledge. In addition, students are exposed to varying degrees of school placements. Despite these similarities in overall structure, the curriculum content and activities of teacher preparation may vary considerably, dependent on the underpinning conceptions of the goals and purposes of the program. Historical and geographical contexts also influence the choice of particular goals for teacher education. Conceptions of teacher education can be clustered in a number of major approaches, each with its own subcategories. Although different terminologies may be used in the literature, the six major categories are as follows: a social justice approach, a master-apprentice approach, an applied science approach, a teacher identity approach, a competence approach, and a reflective approach. Each approach has certain key features and implications for curriculum design in teacher education, including vision, goals, content, teaching and learning methodologies, and the relationship between schools and colleges/universities. An example here is the difference between an applied science approach, based on the notion of teachers putting theories into practice, and a reflective practice approach, where teachers are encouraged to construct personal theories in and from practice. A second example of the different emphases is the extent to which education is located within its larger social context, with the relationship between school and society being more explicit within a social justice than a competence approach to teacher education. Conceptions may be implicit or explicit; in reality, most programs embody hybrid models with emphasis in particular directions. The articulation of the key concepts, principles, and assumptions that underpin the design of teacher education programs contributes to the field in various ways. Promoting an understanding of different traditions of teacher education helps establish a shared vocabulary and knowledge base; this can improve the quality of teacher education through deepening academic debate and enhancing program coherence. In addition, strengthening the conceptual base of teacher education supports the professional autonomy of teacher educators, through advancing debate on the purposes, ethics, and politics of education and providing tools to discuss the curriculum implications of policy reform.

Voices of Aspiring Teachers of Color: Unraveling the Double Bind in Teacher Education

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (8) ◽  
pp. 927-956 ◽  
Author(s):  
Conra D. Gist
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Double Bind ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
Teachers Of Color ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Double Binds ◽  
Group Data ◽  
Focus Group Data

This article centers and investigates the voices of teacher candidates of color to examine how double binds influence their teaching and learning experiences in teacher education programs. Interview and focus group data from teacher candidates of color at two teacher education programs are analyzed to unpack the types of personal and systemic ties they experience as well as the strategies they utilize to escape them. Implications for eliminating the double bind in teacher education programs through the tailoring of transformative and critical preparation experiences for teacher candidates of color are explored.

Mapping Culturally Relevant Pedagogy into Teacher Education Programs: A Critical Framework

2017 ◽  
Vol 119 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayana Allen ◽  
Stephen D. Hancock ◽  
Tehia Starker-Glass ◽  
Chance W. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Culturally Relevant ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Relevant Pedagogy

Background/Context Teacher education programs are charged with the daunting task of preparing the next generation of teachers. However, the extant literature has documented that teacher education programs have struggled to effectively arm teacher candidates with effective pedagogies to meet the needs of our increasingly diverse student population. Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) is a social justice framework posited to support academic achievement, cultural competence, and critical consciousness for all learners. To this end, this article examines the integration of CRP into teacher education programs. Purpose In this article, we discuss CRP and interrogate teacher education programs in the critical areas of governance and accountability, policies and programs, curriculum and instruction, and teacher educators. Furthermore, this article presents a conceptual framework for the integration of CRP into teacher education programs. Research Design This article is a conceptual paper that builds upon the hallmarks of CRP, which are rooted in a critical race paradigm that centers on exposing and challenging racial policies that maintain the status quo in teacher education programs. We present a critical framework to support the mapping of CRP into teacher education programs through critical reflection, social justice action, and critical questioning. Conclusion/Recommendations A teacher preparation program that does not critically interrogate race, power, and privilege in the context of schools does not maintain a social justice mission and consequently does not meet the tenets of CRP. A critical examination of race and other sociocultural concepts that disenfranchise K–12 students in schools must be an integral and reflective practice for teacher candidates. Requiring teacher candidates to gain skills in critical reflection and critical consciousness in an effort to deconstruct the existing social order is imperative to support culturally relevant pedagogy in teacher education curriculum.

The Role of Teacher Educators’ Personal Histories and Motivations in Shaping Opportunities to Learn about Social Justice

2018 ◽  
Vol 120 (7) ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Mike Metz
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
Opportunities To Learn ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Audio Recordings ◽  
Personal Histories ◽  
The Impact

Background As social-justice-focused teacher education programs continue to gain prominence, a wealth of research explores approaches for preparing teachers for social-justice-minded teaching. This study looks closely at a key aspect of teacher education programs frequently absent from the research—the teacher educators (TEs) themselves. Focus of Study The study intentionally expands the consideration of TEs’ identities beyond reductive demographic characteristics to explore how the personal histories and motivations of TEs impact teacher candidates’ (TCs’) opportunities to learn about teaching for social justice. Setting and Participants The study follows two parallel sections of a single teacher education course taught by two different TEs. Because the TEs taught from the same syllabus, within the context of the same program, the impact of each TE's instructional choices is revealed. Research Design Using a comparative case study design, data sources included field notes, audio recordings of class meetings, course readings and materials, and two interviews with each TE. Audio recordings were transcribed and analyzed following a micro-ethnographic discourse analysis approach. The second interview took place after initial analysis of the data, allowing the TEs to respond to initial findings. Findings Although both TEs focused on social justice topics, in alignment with the program goals, their choices of what topics to focus on differed greatly. One TE used the course readings to open up discussions of gender and sexuality, critically examining heteronormative ideals and a dismissive attitude toward adolescent relationships and sexuality. The other TE used the same readings and assignments to create inquiry into complicated issues of racial and ethnic identity with implications for classroom teaching. In each case, the choices by the TEs in how they framed discussions and assignments and what ideas they took up and built on during class interactions shaped the curriculum in unique ways. These instructional choices corresponded to each TE's own personal experiences and motivations. Conclusions The findings suggest that research on teacher education programs must look beyond course syllabi or the structural components of a program to understand the opportunities to learn provided to TCs. Decisions by TEs during classroom instruction shape very different opportunities to learn. These decisions are based, at least partially, on TEs’ unique personal histories and motivations. When considering how teacher education programs address the issue of social justice, a TE's own history and motivations will impact the enacted curriculum as much as, if not more than, the written curriculum. As we continue to wrestle with how to prepare teachers for a diverse and inequitable society, teacher education programs and teacher education research would benefit from more nuanced consideration of the role TEs play in what gets taught in teacher preparation courses.

Multicultural Curricular Frameworks for Preservice Teachers

2014 ◽  
pp. 247-264
Author(s):  
Anita Rao Mysore
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Culturally Responsive Curriculum ◽  
Social Justice Orientation ◽  
Immigrant Studies ◽  
The Us ◽  
K 12

One in four children in the US has a parent who is an immigrant. Studies indicate that by and large such students are at-risk for learning and their increasing numbers continue to significantly impact the labor force and the future of the country in multiple facets. Additionally, teachers shoulder a huge responsibility in educating immigrant learners, and their performance is a function of how well teacher education programs prepare them for their work. In contemporary scenario, the performance of teachers depends on how their teacher education programs prepare them for multicultural Pre K-12 classes. To this end, a social justice orientation is useful for teachers working in multicultural classrooms because it allows teachers to strive for equity by employing culturally responsive curriculum. The chapter author presents multicultural frameworks and models with a social justice orientation that could assist preservice teachers to become more effective in their instructional practices.

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