"Race Space" Critical Professional Development: Actualizing Third Space With Urban Teachers Committed to Social Justice

• In Event: 61.030 - Going Rogue and Building Bridges: Teacher Learning for Justice and Equity

Abstract

Teachers committed to social justice need professional development spaces that honor their experiences, expertise, and passions while pushing them towards their “possible selves” (Bruner, 1990). The field of teacher learning and professional development is not well-informed about supporting teachers who are committed to social justice, who require support that is different from teachers who do not embody a commitment to social justice. In this paper, I discuss how the actualization of a Third Space within ‘race space’ Critical Professional Development supported teacher learning, action, and social justice teaching. Studies of professional development that actualize a Third Space to empower, comfort, challenge, and heal teachers committed to social justice are crucial to leveraging educational research in the current ‘post-truth’ era.

Author

• Tiffany M Nyachae, Buffalo State - SUNY