My Life in Teaching: On an Evolving Teacher Education Praxis for Social Justice

• In Event: Transforming City Schools Through Art: Approaches to Meaningful K-12 Learning

Abstract

Teaching is demanding and complex and teaching art in an urban school can be overwhelmingly so. Preparing novice teachers for a life in urban art education, therefore, presents tremendous challenges and hard-won rewards. I believe teacher educators who work in urban schools have a moral imperative to join with novice and seasoned teachers, alike, to become seekers of truth about themselves, others, and the society in which we live. We must work together to be change agents and champions of justice.
In this chapter, I use my teacher autobiography as a way to sketch the contours of what I believe to be priorities of high quality urban art teacher education. In particular, I focus on my own process of ongoing critical reflection to discuss what I have come to regard as important theoretical, philosophical, and practical features in the preparation and professional development of teachers of urban children and youth.
Cochran-Smith (2004) describes using personal narratives as a teacher education strategy that brings about meaningful reflection. According to Cochran-Smith (2004), such essays allow “prospective teachers as well as experienced teachers and teacher educators…opportunities to examine much of what is usually unexamined in the tightly braided relationships of language, culture and power in schools and schooling” (p. 49). In the following, I share my own teaching autobiography to illustrate the development of my stance toward what matters in the preparation and ongoing education of teachers in urban schools.

Author

• Kim J. Cosier, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee