Thin or Strong? Equity, Social Justice, and the "New" Teacher Preparation

• In Event: Teacher Preparation at New Graduate Schools of Education: Findings From a National Study

Abstract

Purpose
nGSEs evolved as an innovation in the field of teacher preparation, dually rejecting some of the traditions and priorities of university-based knowledge while at the same time adopting some of their central facets. Like many university-based teacher education programs, many nGSEs invoke an equity and social justice agenda as central to their mission and values. The purpose of this paper is to analyze underlying notions of equity and social justice at nGSEs.

Perspectives/Theoretical Framework
Drawing on the distinction between thin and strong equity (Author, 2018a) this paper is informed by the literature on social justice education/teacher education. In order to create more equitable conditions in schools, scholars have argued that teacher education must prepare teachers consistent with the mission of social justice education (Cochran-Smith, 2010; McDonald & Zeichner, 2009; Zygmunt & Clark, 2016) including distributive and redistributive justice (Bell, 1997, 2016; Fraser, N., 1995) and the ideals of democracy (Author, 2017; Author, 2018a; Zeichner, Payne, & Brayko, 2015; Sleeter, 2008). Creating equitable schools that enact social justice values is one of today’s most persistent educational challenges (Bell, 2016); reform initiatives have included non-university teacher preparation providers (Author, 2018b, 2020; Zeichner & Pena-Sandoval, 2015) that claim to be designed to address educational inequity (High Tech High, n.d.; Sposato Graduate School of Education, n.d.).

Methods/Modes of Inquiry
This study employed cross-case analysis to identify how/if social justice and equity were enacted across four nGSE case sites. Using Sandaña’s (2015) approach to coding, data were segmented and categorized for thematic analysis, resulting in coding categories within- and across-case comparisons to examine how concepts of equity and justice were represented vs. enacted.

Data/Evidence
Data were derived program artifacts and participant/leader interviews across four nGSE case sites, including data from internally generated and publicly-available external documents.

Findings/Interpretations
Achieving equity and justice requires dismantling not only the structural and systemic aspects of teacher education—but also of society—that reproduce inequity and injustice. Findings revealed a wide scope of approaches to equity and social justice orientations across the four sites, with explicit attention to equity and justice ranging from minimal to progressive: such ideals were either not visibly embedded within preparation or were linked to individuals’ equal access to educational opportunity, with the exception of one case, where emerging notions of equity and justice were articulated both horizontally and vertically. Analysis indicated that, across the nGSEs, conceptions and underlying notions of equity and justice varied considerably. However, underlying teacher preparation programs at most nGSEs was a thin equity approach, which assumes equity has to do with “individuals’ equal (or the same) access to ‘high-quality’ teachers, curriculum, and school opportunities” (Author, 2018a, p. 30).

Significance
Although many education/teacher education reforms are oriented around equity and social justice, there is little consistency about how the concepts are situated in practice. This analysis raises questions about how teacher preparation at nGSEs serves the larger field of education and whether their new brand of teacher preparation addresses the educational inequities that in some cases they aim to solve.

Author

• Elizabeth Stringer Keefe, Stonehill College