Expanding and Refining: Preservice Teachers' Developing Conceptions of Literacy and Social Justice

• In Event: 61.053 - Strengthening Urban Teachers: Social Justice, Activism, and Ideologically Aligned Professional Communities

Abstract

This paper reports on a study of nine preservice teachers (PSTs) enrolled in a specialized teacher education program (TEP) that prepares social justice educators to work in urban schools. The PSTs engaged in three interviews over the course of one academic year that chronicle their development, paying particular attention to their perspectives on social justice and on literacy teaching and learning. As literacy has long been a gate-keeping mechanism for students from historically marginalized groups, the connection between literacy and social justice is well established. Findings show that while PSTs’ perspectives on literacy expanded, their conceptions about social justice solidified, as they were better able to articulate what it means to be a social justice educator.

Author

• Kathryn Struthers, Bank Street College of Education