Staking Claims: Preservice Teachers Moving Beyond Empathy in Culturally Diverse Literature Courses and Public Media Spaces

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: Finding the Words for Freedom and Justice: Negating Silence and Misinformation in Teacher Education

Abstract

This paper explores how pre-service teachers respond to a social media project asking them to enter a public discussion surrounding an issue of culturally diverse literature, equity, and social change. Using a critical literacy framework (Haddix & Price-Dennis, 2013; Morrell, 2008), we found that these projects were spaces of limitation and possibility for the construction of identities as “critical change agents.” Specifically, these projects demonstrated that: (1) Students often hedged their claims by negotiating their identities and their audience on social media and (2) The project encouraged risk-taking, allowing students to engage in the public space in meaningful ways. This research has implications for K-12 and pre-service teacher curricular spaces focused on culturally diverse literature.

Authors

• Mary L Neville, Michigan State University

• Ashley Johnson, Michigan State University

• Michael Macaluso, University of Notre Dame