It's Not Whatever: Dangerous Teacher Development Toward the "Politically Determined Pedagogue"

• In Event: 68.022 - Cultivating Critical Educators: Ideological Shifts and Programmatic Supports of Equitable Practice Along the Teacher Continuum

Abstract

Objectives
Implementing effective teacher development is one of the most critical aspects of school improvement. This study examined the cultural and structural nature and outcomes of a politically relevant (Beauboeuf-Lafontant, 1999) teacher development process in an urban high school that has a mission for its teachers to become humanizing, critically conscious, intellectual, and reflective practitioners. This critical participant research examined how three teacher leaders and three novice teachers of color representing English, Social Studies, and Science departments were facilitated within the school to make sense of and develop into what came to be termed, “Politically Determined Pedagogues.”

Theoretical Framework
Teaching methods, lessons, and activities in themselves do not authentically prepare students for the injustices of the world (Bartolome, 1994; Beauboeuf-Lafontant,1999). It is a teacher’s politically clear philosophy of education which grounds practices that can authentically affect liberatory education. Teachers deepening their political clarity recognize that teaching is not a politically neutral undertaking, and that schools are ideological institutions built upon a structural foundation that both mirrors and reproduces society’s dominant forms of knowledge, culture, values, and norms which systematically subordinate students from nondominant groups. Teachers who clearly understand this tradition work with a commitment to transform this sociocultural reality at the classroom and school level. The classroom/school is then viewed as a site of resistance against social injustice as well as a space for emancipatory practices that build critical consciousness about oppression while challenging negative self-perceptions.

Methods
The following research question guided this study: How does the culture and structure of a school committed to social justice achieve its mission of developing its teachers to become humanizing, critically conscious, intellectually engaged, and reflective practitioners? During the 2013-2014 school year, this study examined this question through three teacher leaders and three novice teachers at a small urban charter school in California. Data collected included semi-structured interviews conducted during beginning and end of the school year. Other data included, participant self-reflections, field notes from participant meetings led by me, one-on-one “Check In” sessions with me throughout the school year, and observations of interactions with other teachers (i.e. meetings). Data analysis involved coding for instances of humanizing, critically conscious, intellectually engaged, and reflective practices, particularly as influenced by the cultural or structural conditions in the school.

Findings
The findings illuminated a dynamic process of teacher development as humanizing, critically conscious, intellectually engaged, and reflective practitioners within the context of a framework I call the “Values-Directed School Cohesion Container.” Within this framework, the process to nurture teachers’ political clarity and Politically Determined Pedagogy was operationalized. To cohesively ground these frameworks, five principles emerged that assist in continuing to develop the models and practices further.

Scholarly Significance
This research extends the literature in what teachers should learn as they develop in political clarity, how they could learn, and towards what ends. The models developed from this study could be adapted for teacher development in other schools as well as for teacher preparation programs to design ways for teachers to continually work towards becoming Politically Determined.

Author

• G. T. Reyes, California State University - East Bay