"I've Always Wanted to Talk About This Stuff": Connecting Critical Theory and Classroom Practice

• In Event: 58.047 - Power, Culture, and Inclusivity: Critical Dialogues Promoting Teacher Reflection and Action

Abstract

Responding to the AERA’s call to consider how we as teacher educators and researchers might better use our scholarship towards more equitable practice, we examined the experiences of three inservice teachers, Norah, Gabriela, and Sylvia, in a university-based graduate course. This case study draws on the concepts of critical encounters and critical narrative analysis. Each teacher used personal narratives to bring problems of practice from their classrooms into their coursework, allowing them to consider these problems with their peers while developing critical understandings of race, language, and power in schooling. Our findings speak to the tensions teachers experience as they move across contexts, applying concepts of critical pedagogy learned in university spaces to their own classrooms.

Authors

• Saba Khan Vlach, The University of Texas - Austin

• Laura A Taylor, Rhodes College

• Melissa Mosley Wetzel, The University of Texas - Austin