Teaching for Social Justice: Exploring the Perspectives of Preservice Teachers Through Participatory Video

• In Event: 14.029 - Critical Eduation as Praxis

Abstract

With increasing attention to social justice education (SJE), but lack of consensus on what social justice means, this study examines how pre-service teachers think about SJE. To examine their thinking, we used a participatory video approach, a visual method that involves participants creating a video together to capture their experiences or concerns, viewing and discussing their products and then being interviewed. This enables more depth in their thinking about issues, and in the collection of data. The four topics brought forward by the participants relate to English language learners, inadequate preparation for college, gender and sexuality, and gentrification and stratification. Analysis focuses on two underlying issues: engaging students vs. content taught, and gender stereotypes relative to school environments.

Authors

• Karen Monkman, DePaul University

• Kyung-Hwa Yang, The University of British Columbia