"The Problem Is Bigger Than Us": Grappling With Educational Inequity in TeachFirst New Zealand

• In Event: 18.071 - Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: 18.071-9 - Global Challenges and Opportunities in Teacher Education: Equity, Inclusion, and Entry Into the Profession

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the role of the alternative teacher preparation program TeachFirst New Zealand (TFNZ) within the global landscape of education reform and to consider how international policy initiatives like TFNZ are understood and interpreted by participants in the program. By drawing on phenomenological research conducted over a six-month period in New Zealand, I illustrate the ways in which TFNZ participants 1) understood their role as individual teachers working in a complex, educational system marked by a history of colonization and systemic racism, 2) grappled with the ability of an individual teacher to effect lasting change, and 3) navigated these tensions in their daily work with students.

Author

• Katherine Crawford-Garrett, University of New Mexico