Challenging the Status Quo: Critical Professional Development in K–12 and Teacher Education

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

White supremacist, misogynistic, and neoliberal policies and practices are deeply embedded in U.S. K-12 and teacher education, creating institutional spaces that derail efforts to enact social and racial justice. In this session, we examine how critical professional development (CPD) can prepare and support educators as they strategically critique and interrupt unjust policy and practice in their local context. Collectively, papers in this session span the developmental trajectory of teacher education, exploring applications of CPD with preservice teacher candidates, teacher education faculty, and veteran teachers of Color in K-12 schools. Throughout, presenters model and engage participants in microacts of CPD, inviting participants to repurpose the session as an opportunity for collective social justice learning.

Sub Unit

• Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education / Division K - Section 04: Multicultural, Inclusive, and Social Justice Frameworks in PK-16+ Settings

Chair

• Bree Picower, Montclair State University

Papers

• ExPANDing Practice: Cultivating Preservice Teachers' Critical Dispositions - Julie Gorlewski, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Critical Case Studies, Critical Professional Development, and Fostering Hope Among Justice-Oriented Teacher Educators - Ruchi Agarwal-Rangnath, University of San Francisco; Erica K. Dotson, Clayton State University; Alison G Dover, California State University - Fullerton; Nick Henning, California State University - Fullerton

• Lessons for Teacher Education: The Role of Critical Professional Development in Teacher of Color Retention - Rita Kohli, University of California - Riverside

Discussant

• Bree Picower, Montclair State University