Practitioner Inquiry: Researching How Teacher Candidates Learn to Teach for Social Justice Using Inquiry

• In Event: Preparing Preservice Teachers to Teach for Social Justice

Abstract

Using qualitative and practitioner research approaches, we explored twenty-two TCs’ understandings about teaching for social justice within the context of action-research projects conducted during their full practica. Through qualitative content analysis, we found that while engaging in teacher-research helped TCs develop complex understandings of differentiated instruction and pupil agency, the project-focused approach resulted in some TCs struggling to marry teacher and researcher roles. Further, TCs’ conceptions of teaching for social justice emphasized distributive justice (Fraser & Honneth, 2003; Young, 1990) without questioning goals of education more broadly. Course revision resulted in the creation of a model integrating an explicit conception of teaching for social justice through inquiry within multiple cycles of teaching-analysis-reflection as part of a collaborative inquiry community.

Authors

• Maria Beatriz Fernandez Cofre, Boston College

• Anne Homza, Boston College