Conflict: A Generative Resource for Developing English Candidates' Socially Just Instruction

• In Event: 64.054 - Social Justice–Focused Content Areas

Abstract

Calls for the preparation of teacher candidates (TCs) who can enact socially just instruction have refocused attention on the challenges of accomplishing this goal. In this qualitative study, Daybook Defenses served as a pedagogical and discursive space to help TCs negotiate conflicts, an inherent part of learning to teach English language arts (ELA) and the work of social justice. Using illustrative interactions, we elucidate how our analysis revealed five discursive moves that characterized how TCs used Daybook Defenses to explicitly co-construct a framework for and enact socially just ELA instruction in relation to the various contexts of their learning. The study offers possibilities for modeling with and for TCs how their teaching can work to disrupt systems of inequity.

Authors

• Danielle Lillge, Illinois State University

• Amy Knowles, Missouri State University