"We Couldn't Name It in the Beginning": Collaborative Self-Study to Disrupt the Status Quo

• In Event: Disrupting Status Quo Understandings and Practices Through Self-Study

Abstract

This collaborative self- study looks at how eight literacy teacher education professionals worked together to push back against the status quo and recenter critical literacy and teaching for equity in our methods courses. Data included eight monthly video conferences; individual journal reflections; and a resource bank of shared readings, materials, and assignments for our methods courses. Findings show that our collaboration helped us more explicitly name and operationalize tenets of critical literacy, and allowed us to plan how to take our collective thinking into our teaching spaces and discussions with colleagues. Dismantling the status quo is a lifelong endeavor, our work is ongoing, and we find it is strengthened when approached both individually and collectively.

Authors

• Wendy L. Gardiner, Pacific Lutheran University

• Amy Tondreau, Austin Peay State University

• Kristen White, Northern Michigan University

• Tierney B Hinman, Auburn University

• Tess Dussling, St. John's University

• Elizabeth Stevens, Roberts Wesleyan College

• Nance S Wilson, SUNY - College at Cortland

• Sophie Degener, National-Louis University