Centering the Development of Socially Just Teachers in a Professional Development School Partnership: An Activity Theoretical Analysis

• In Event: Advancing Social Justice and Cultural Competency in Professional Development Schools

Abstract

Professional development school (PDS) research has made strides to explicitly center social justice (see Zenkov et al., 2013b). This study takes the first step in examining what happens when a new object of activity – becoming a socially just teacher – is introduced in a PDS partnership that has traditionally oriented to teacher inquiry as its object of activity. The author developed an activity theoretical intervention (Engeström, 2015) comprised of bi-monthly co-teaching in the interns’ weekly seminar and classroom observations and debriefs with five interns. Preliminary findings document the PDS activity system prior to the intervention. Further analysis will document contradictions that emerge from competing objects in the PDS to contribute to the literature on systematically centering social justice in PDS partnerships.

Author

• Megan Elaine Lynch, The Pennsylvania State University