Educator as Youth Ally: Building Identity Resources to Engage Educators as Agents for Change

• In Event: The Teacher as Student: Creating Social Justice Allies Through Teacher Education

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the practice-linked identity (Nasir & Hand, 2008) of ally was defined and afforded within a collaborative inquiry group of middle school educators. Through engaging in inquiry that centered reading and discussing young adult literature, educators across roles and divisions within one school began to take actions toward justice on their own and in partnership with one another. Through framing the inquiry around allyship, educators increased their understanding of systemic oppression and gained confidence and courage to engage in civic activism and actively ally with youth. Educators drew on and contributed material, relational, and ideational resources (Nasir & Cooks, 2009) that together made possible an identity of educator as youth ally.

Author

• Rebecca G Kaplan, University of Colorado - Boulder