scholarly journals The Social Justice Teaching Collaborative: A Collective Turn Towards Critical Teacher Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-39
Author(s):  
Brittany A Aronson ◽  
Racheal Banda ◽  
Ashley Johnson ◽  
Molly Kelly ◽  
Raquel Radina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Critical Whiteness Studies ◽  
Social Justice Teaching

In this article, we share the collaborative curricular work of an interdisciplinary Social Justice Teaching Collaborative (SJTC) from a PWI university. Members of the SJTC worked strategically to center social justice across required courses pre-service teachers are required to take: Introduction to Education, Sociocultural Studies in Education, and Inclusive Education. We share our conceptualization of social justice and guiding theoretical frameworks that have shaped our pedagogy and curriculum. These frameworks include democratic education, critical pedagogy, critical race theory, critical whiteness studies, critical disability studies, and feminist and intersectionality theory. We then detail changes made across courses including examples of readings and assignments. Finally, we conclude by offering reflections, challenges, and lessons learned for collaborative work within teacher education and educational leadership. 

Teacher Education and Whiteness and Whiteness in Teacher Education in the United States

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl E. Matias ◽  
Naomi W. Nishi ◽  
Geneva L. Sarcedo
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Critical Whiteness Studies ◽  
Preparation Programs ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The Impact

A litany of literature exists on teacher preparation programs, known as teacher education, and whiteness, which is the historical, systematic, and structural processes that maintain the race-based superiority of white people over people of color. The theoretical frameworks of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) are used to explore whiteness and teacher education separately; whiteness within teacher education; the impact of teacher education and whiteness on white educators, educators of Color, and their students; and cautions and recommendations for teacher education and whiteness. Although teacher education and whiteness are situated within the current US sociopolitical context, the historical colonial contexts of other countries may find parallel examples of whiteness. Within this context, the historical purposes behind teacher education and the need for quality teachers in an increasingly diverse student population are identified using transdisciplinary approaches in CRT and CWS to define and describe operations of whiteness in teacher education. Particularly, race education scholars entertain the psychoanalytic, philosophical, and sociological ruminations of race, racism, and white supremacy in society and education to understand more fully how whiteness operates within teacher education. For example, an analysis of psychological attachments found in racial identities, particularly between whiteness and Blackness, helps to fully comprehend racial dynamics between teachers, who are overwhelmingly racially identified as white, and students, who are predominantly racially identified as of Color. Whiteness in teacher education, left intact, ultimately affects K-12 schooling and students, particularly students of Color, in ways that recycle institutionalized white supremacy in schooling practices. Acknowledging how reinforcing hegemonic whiteness in teacher education ultimately reifies institutional white supremacy in education altogether; implications and cautions as well as recommendations are offered to debunk the hegemonic whiteness that inoculates teacher education. Note: To symbolically reverse the racial hierarchy in our research, the authors opt to use lowercase lettering for white and whiteness, and to capitalize “people of Color” to recognize it as a proper noun along with Black and Brown.

A Case for Decentering Whiteness in Education

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 19-34
Author(s):  
Jamie Utt
Keyword(s):  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
White Students ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Ethnic Studies ◽  
Traditional Curriculum ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Critical Whiteness Studies ◽  
Cultural Wealth ◽  
Critical Whiteness ◽  
Social Studies Textbooks

Ethnic Studies undermines and challenges the racism inherent in dominant education systems by centering identities and epistemologies of people of Color. While much focus has been paid to the damage done to students of Color by White teachers and the White standard curriculum, this paper addresses the intellectual and material benefit White students disproportionately gain from this curriculum. Through a mixed-methods empirical study examining social studies textbooks and standards from Texas and California, the author argues that the standard White canon acts as a form of White/Western studies that directly privileges White students. Critical Race Theory, Critical Whiteness Studies, Pierre Bourdieu cultural reproduction, and Tara Yosso’s community cultural wealth provide theoretical frameworks in calling for a broader implementation of Ethnic Studies programs and pedagogies while calling for reform of traditional curriculum and standards that act as couriers of dominant capital for White students.

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.

Critiquing Un/Critical Pedagogies to Move Toward a Pedagogy of Responsibility in Teacher Education

2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (5) ◽  
pp. 463-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina N. Berchini
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
White Privilege ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Critical Whiteness Studies ◽  
White Teacher ◽  
Critical Whiteness ◽  
Critical Pedagogies ◽  
Systemic Examination

Transformative work with teacher candidates relies on a critique of the tenets of Critical Pedagogy and subsequent Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS). I employ analyses of extant scholarship to argue that these specific domains, as popularly framed, might be responsible for uncritical examinations of the White teacher education students who devotedly enroll in our courses and trust their teachers to treat them fairly, responsibly, and with care. I then entwine relevant research on White privilege pedagogies with my own narrative to argue that taking on the problem of Whiteness in teacher education seems to have inspired an uncritical pedagogy of harmful generalizations. To conclude, I reconceptualize the application of White privilege pedagogies for more complex, systemic examination, and argue that if we are to move beyond a pedagogy of dismantling students, more work which openly and honestly grapples with paradoxes, double binds, and contexts of Whiteness is needed.

Integrating Critical Pedagogy With Teaching Statistics for Social Justice

2019 ◽  
pp. 538-561
Author(s):  
Basil Conway IV ◽  
Kristin Lilly
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Content Knowledge ◽  
Middle Grades ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Pedagogical Content ◽  
Critical Thought ◽  
Teaching For Social Justice ◽  
K 12

The following chapter describes the creation and implementation of a “Content Underpinnings” course for graduate students in middle grades statistics that required students to complete a teaching for social justice lesson in a K-12 classroom. The content underpinnings course consisted of three major goals that promoted critical thought: critical race theory (CRT) and teaching for social justice (TSJ), statistical pedagogical content knowledge, and statistical content knowledge. A review of research related to each these goals is integrated with student implementation of a CRT/TSJ lesson, along with details on how this research guided the course creation and implementation. Implications and suggestions for including CRT and TSJ in mathematics are suggested as a tool to promote equity, access, and empowerment for democracy in teacher education.

Feeling Black: A Conversation About Justice Imperatives in Education, Disability, and Health

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Samuel R. Hodge ◽  
Louis Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
African American ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Disability And Health ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Gender Culture ◽  
American Students ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Conducting Research

The purpose of this paper is to engage the reader in a conversation about justice imperatives in education, disability, and health. As counternarrative to structured majoritarian scholarship and positioned in the expressed intent of the National Academy of Kinesiology’s 90th annual meeting theme of Kinesiology’s Social Justice Imperative, we express feelings about the urgency for social justice in teacher education. To start, we operationally define social justice as advocacy, agency, and action. Next, we recommend the application of critical theoretical frameworks in conceptualizing and conducting research involving historically marginalized and minoritized populations (e.g., African American students). This conversation is theoretically grounded in intersectionality to offer a nuanced understanding of social constructions, such as ethnicity (e.g., African American) and race (e.g., Black), gender, culture, disability, and sociometric positioning regarding justice imperatives in education, disability, and health.

Race-Visible Teacher Education: A Review of the Literature From 2002 to 2018

2020 ◽  
pp. 002248712094804
Author(s):  
Elyse Hambacher ◽  
Katherine Ginn
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Hand Search ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Teacher Professional

In this review of the literature, we draw on critical race theory, critical whiteness studies, and critical pedagogy to examine teacher educators’ race-visible efforts in preservice teacher education and inservice teacher professional development. Our review specifically centers on race and racism in teacher education because race is often silenced or largely unaddressed in teacher education programs and teacher professional learning. Through a systematic search of electronic databases and a hand search of journals in this research area, we located 39 peer-reviewed articles published at the intersection of race, white teachers, and teacher education. Findings reveal the kinds of race-visible instructional practices used by teacher educators to scaffold race consciousness as well as larger themes teacher educators and education researchers encounter in their work related to race with preservice and inservice educators. We conclude with a discussion of our findings and offer future directions for continued research and practice.

scholarly journals Why Does Digital Learning Matter? Digital Competencies, Social Justice and Critical Pedagogy in Initial Teacher Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Coker
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Digital Learning ◽  
Digital Competencies ◽  
Conventional Classroom ◽  
Digital Landscape

Digital tools and spaces are becoming prevalent in schools across the world requiring the development of digital skillsets for student-teachers. Digital technology, in enabling education to extend beyond the space and time boundaries of the conventional classroom (Seifert, T., Sheppard, B. Wakeham, M., 2015) , brings the digital landscape into the classroom and firmly into the frame of reference for those preparing student-teachers to enter the profession. For Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes which foreground social justice, the digital (technology which is linked to the internet) goes far beyond a skillset or a discrete subject. Engaging with digital learning encompasses the 21st century context - both local and global - in which student-teachers and their future pupils are situated. Developing a critical pedagogic approach involves understanding the context in which one lives and enabling learners to challenge or change it (Freire, 1996) . For those working in ITE a postdigital lens provides a means to understand the context in which they are situated. Critical pedagogy enables student-teachers to understand that context and challenge the inequities which persist, preparing them not simply to navigate the digital landscape, but to engage with it critically. Reflecting on student-teacher learning this article explores the digital dimension, highlighting the importance of digital learning when engaging with critical pedagogy and social justice in ITE.

scholarly journals Opening the “Can of Worms”: Preparing Teachers to Address Issues Relating to “Race”

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Davies
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Critical Whiteness Studies ◽  
White Teacher

This paper reports the findings of a study which involved a critical examination of “race”-related provision on initial teacher education (ITE) programmes in England. It draws upon data collected as part of a national survey of ITE provision which included interviews with providers and students, and case studies of ITE providing institutions. The study utilized aspects of Critical Race Theory and Critical Whiteness Studies as a theoretical framework with which to analyse the data. The paper explores the nature of provision relating to “race,” suggesting that teacher educators and student teachers are often ill-equipped to address the complexities relating to this area and, as a result, they can fail to recognize the importance and potential impact of their professional practice, and their pedagogical decisions. It suggests that ITE practices are often underpinned by dysconscious racisms and manifestations of Whiteness, leading to a marginalization of “race” input, with opportunities for deeper interrogation missed, or actively avoided. The paper explores some of the constraints impacting on ITE namely a lack of time; a lack of confidence on the part of a predominantly White teacher educator workforce; a lack of recognition of the importance and significance of “race” on the part of White student teachers, and an emphasis of superficial measures of student satisfaction at the expense of deeper interrogation and deconstruction of hegemonic norms. It makes recommendations relating to how practice can be improved within the current challenging global contexts in relation to “race” equality. It calls for teacher education to aspire to produce novice teachers willing and prepared to embrace “race”-related challenges in their teaching careers, and to contribute to curricula which acknowledge and address inequality.

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