A Working Theory of Action for Supporting Teacher Candidates to Disrupt Patterns of Injustice in Practice

• In Event: Exploring Pedagogical Possibilities at the Intersections of Justice and Practice-Based Teacher Education

Abstract

Objectives, Methods, & Data Sources

Justice-driven teacher education highlights the vital importance of developing teacher candidates’ critical sociopolitical knowledge and commitment to fighting oppression (Brown, 2013; Milner & Laughter, 2015). Simultaneously, a practice-based orientation to teacher education (e.g., Ball & Forzani, 2009) prompts us to wonder: What might it take to support teacher candidates to meaningfully act on critical knowledge and commitments in their own teaching practice? The work of connecting and aligning what teacher candidates come to know, believe, and intend with the practices they ultimately enact is an open problem for teacher educators seeking to integrate justice-oriented and practice-based approaches. Recognizing that there are no easy answers, we have developed a theory of action through our work in elementary mathematics teacher education. In this paper, we share our working theory of action, explain the premises that underlie our approach, and provide case examples of our work with teacher candidates on two patterns of practice that reproduce injustice in mathematics teaching –– (1) views of “ability” and (2) punishment practices (Milner, 2018).

Perspectives & Warrants

Our work is framed by a set of premises about the historical, political, and social contexts of schooling, teaching and learning, and subject matter—and the ways in which these permeate normalized practice. We argue that even when efforts are made in teacher education to introduce teacher candidates to justice-oriented knowledge bases, the power of the unquestioned everyday nature of practice often overtakes the translation and use of that knowledge in action. Teacher candidates may learn about structural inequalities in foundations courses, but rarely is attention to subject matter (such as mathematics), justice, and teaching systematically and critically intertwined in their opportunities to learn. Also lacking are connections between macro-level structures (e.g., institutional racism), meso-level analyses (e.g., school culture, relations between families and schools), and micro-level interactions (Philip, 2011). When these connections are left to beginning teachers to figure out, the practice they enact is often rooted in their own individual experiences and beliefs, and not in the knowledge and skill needed to do something different from dominant, culturally embedded habits of teaching and learning (Britzman, 2003). Because teaching is dense with discretionary spaces (Ball, 2018), teachers’ individual actions are inevitably shaped by habits of racism (Ngo, 2012; Noel, 2018) that permeate our society.

Significance

Our work focuses on specific patterns that connect macro- and meso-level analyses with the micro-level dynamics of classrooms. We view our approach as one possible route toward integrating justice-oriented and practice-based teacher education. By supporting teacher candidates in both learning to see specific ways in which oppression is stitched into normalized practices of teaching and learning, and in developing skill to enact alternative practices that counter oppressive patterns, we work to enable teacher candidates to enact teaching practices that align with commitments to justice. This work is imperative because oppression can be reproduced not only in dominant practice (e.g., tracking, classroom management, “differentiation”) but also in equity-oriented reforms (e.g., student-centered group work, place-based and community-embedded curriculum).

Authors

• Rosalie DeFino, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Gabrielle Elizabeth Bernal, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Darrius D Robinson, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Charles Wilkes, University of Michigan

• Lindsey Mann, University of Michigan

• Deborah Loewenberg Ball, University of Michigan