Pushing Back: An Investigation of Teacher Education for Critical, Anti-Oppressive Practice

• In Event: Teacher Education as a Lever for Equity and Social Justice

Abstract

Rather than being somehow “neutral,” commonplace teaching practices often serve to reinforce the marginalization of minoritized students. If teacher education (TE) is to act as a lever for educational equity and justice, then teacher educators must develop approaches that prepare teachers to enact practices that push back on the oppressive features of schooling. In this paper, I investigate the work involved in teaching novice teachers the equity-focused practice of assigning competence. I detail three features of TE work that were especially salient to this work: selecting examples, navigating anticipated and actual novice responses to instruction, and forging meaningful connections between coursework and the field. This study contributes to efforts to design TE that prepares novices to enact critical, anti-oppressive practice.

Author

• Rebecca Gadd, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor