Policy, Power, and Personality: Preservice Teachers Learning to Teach Literacy for Social Justice

• In Event: Clinical Practice and Content-Based Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Situated within a social justice-oriented teacher education program and student teaching placements in high-poverty schools, this qualitative nested case study investigates three preservice teachers’ learning around teaching literacy for social justice. Using Cultural Historical Activity Theory, findings point to the unique interplay between personal and environmental aspects that led to individualized outcomes for preservice teachers, even when placed in very similar situations. Implications include how conceptualizing preservice teachers’ learning from an activity theory perspective can facilitate teacher educators’ targeted mediation of preservice teachers’ learning, such as by considering specific environmental factors that shape the development of preservice teachers’ literacy perspectives and practices in unique ways.

Author

• Kathryn Struthers Ahmed, Hunter College