Preservice Teachers' Understanding of Social Justice Within the Context of Study Abroad Programs

• In Event: 34.064 - Preparing Teachers With Global Competencies for Intercultural Teaching: Internationalizing Curriculum and Pedagogy for Equitable Educational Opportunity

Abstract

Objectives
The study’s objectives were to examine: 1) how traveling across cultural borders facilitates development of social justice mindsets; and 2) how preservice teachers (PST) conceptualize social justice within the context of a college of education’s study abroad (SA) programs.

Theoretical Framework
To analyze and interpret data we used Cazden’s (2012) education-focused modification of Fraser’s (1997) framework for social justice founded on three dimensions: redistribution (equitable distribution of resources), recognition (reclaiming knowledges through counter-narratives in response to colonization), and representation (political dimensions that account for systemic forces of neoliberal globalization).

Modes of Inquiry and Data Sources
Data were collected from six SA faculty and 69 PST participants. Faculty data included questionnaires and interviews while PSTs’ data included pre-and-post questionnaires, interviews and reflective journals focused on evolving understandings of social justice. We used interpretive cross-comparative analysis (Bernard, 2002) to allow for 1) differences across SA programs that were indicative of multiple approaches to social justice as a goal; and 2) deeper understandings of PSTs’ international experiences and how various contexts and individual backgrounds interacted in cultivating social justice-minded educators.

Findings
Analyses suggest that PSTs often understand social justice as “equal treatment of all.” They reported that their understanding of social justice, while not fundamentally changed through SA, was deepened, and noted that requests to think about social justice framed their approach to readings and experiences. PSTs in a London SA referenced museum visits and readings related to British suffragette movements; students in Tanzania wrote about the lack of material resources in the schools in which they worked; and Honduras participants noted economic disparities in housing and limited school resources, as well as individual accounts of injustice explored through readings. PSTs acknowledged that there was injustice everywhere and that while social, legal, and economic inequality was undeserved, it was an accident of where one was born. This provided PSTs with a counter-narrative to the meritocracy myth that if individuals work hard, they will succeed (McNamee & Miller, 2013). This understanding of causes of injustice coincided with beliefs that social justice would never be achieved because, as an accident of nature, injustice could not be prevented.

Cazden’s (2012) aspect of representation was missing in PSTs’ reported understanding of social justice. By conceptualizing injustice as unavoidable, PSTs did not acknowledge the institutions and systems, historically established and continue to preserve injustice. Lack of recognition, combined with PSTs’ feeling of helplessness in combating injustice was disempowering, which may impact PSTs’ ability to serve and advocate for their students.

Scholarly Significance
Research exploring PSTs’ SA experiences developing teacher identities that reflect social justice aims has implications for creating international programs benefitting teacher education and the improvement of the communities eventually served by participating teachers. Social justice-minded teachers are better equipped to work in multicultural classrooms and achieve equal educational opportunity for all students (Villegas & Lucas, 2007). Findings from this study develop nuanced understandings of social justice in education and how to create programs that prepare PSTs with global competency to serve diverse students.

Authors

• Kathryn M. Obenchain, Purdue University

• Jill Annette Newton, Purdue University

• JoAnn I. Phillion, Purdue University

• Andrew Joseph Hoffman, Purdue University

• Erin Vaughn, Purdue University