56.049 - Preparing Candidates to Fight Back: Enacting Justice-Oriented Agency in Neoliberal Times

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

High-stakes accountability mandates are dramatically impacting K-12 and teacher preparatory contexts alike. In addition to scripted curriculum and standardized tests that narrow and confine teaching in K-12 classrooms, preservice teachers in many states face a new set of high-stakes teacher performance assessments (such as edTPA) that further undermine the autonomy and integrity of their teacher education experience. Described as a “war against teachers,” these types of neoliberal policies can make it difficult for teachers and teacher educators to enact social justice-oriented agency with and on behalf of themselves, their students, and the communities in which they teach. In this interactive symposium, scholars from five states examine strategies for engaging in and supporting curricular, pedagogical, scholarly, and political acts of resistance.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Critical Educators for Social Justice

Chair

• Alison G Dover, California State University - Fullerton

Papers

• The Hydra of Teacher Education: Understanding the Context of Teacher Preparation in Neoliberal Times - Alyssa Hadley Dunn, Michigan State University

• (Dis)positioning Educators: Using Narrative to Rewrite Reform - Julie Gorlewski, Virginia Commonwealth University

• We Fight Alongside You: Teacher Educators, Agency, and Strategic Resistance to Teacher Performance Assessments - Erica K. Dotson, Clayton State University; Alison G Dover, California State University - Fullerton; Nick Henning, California State University - Fullerton; Ruchi Agarwal-Rangnath, University of San Francisco