What Can We Learn From Teachers? Critical Teacher Learning and the Housing-School Nexus

• In Event: Placing Housing at the Center Toward an Equitable Education System in the 21st Century

Abstract

Overview
Over the past six years, the academic literature has documented learning spaces for justice-oriented teachers. Such spaces, termed critical professional development or CPD (Kohli, Picower, Martinez & Ortiz, 2015) stand in contrast to school and district professional development (PD) that tend to push liberal and neoliberal education agendas. The CPD literature illustrates the importance of supporting teachers’ teaching towards racial and social justice, particularly in this moment of heightened racial awareness, the resurgence of the movement for Black lives against anti-Black police violence, and states banning critical race theory in schools. CPD literature has studied teacher learning spaces centered around decolonizing education (Fernandez, 2019), healing for sustainability (Pour-Khourshid, 2018), the experiences of teachers of color (Kohli, 2019), and teacher educators working in higher education (Dover, Henning, Agarwal-Rangnath, 2016). However, little has been written about critical teacher learning spaces centered on housing. By examining a specific teacher learning space on race & housing--a week-long summer institute put on by U.C. Berkeley's Othering & Belonging Institute (OBI)--this paper articulates the importance of teachers' role in the housing-school nexus.

Theoretical framework
This paper draws upon critical theories including critical race theory (Ladson-Billings, 1998), racial capitalism (Robinson, 1983), and critical pedagogy (Giroux, 1988). Firstly, in line with Ladson-Billings (1998) on critical race theory in education, teachers in this study participate in learning that "unmask[s] and expos[es] racism in its various permutations" (p. 11), making CRT a useful frame for analyzing the content of the summer institute. Secondly and more specifically, racial capitalism captures the central theory undergirding this teacher learning space, as histories of racial dispossession in housing intertwine the capitalistic-driven housing market with racist policies and practices. Thirdly, critical pedagogy and Giroux's (1988) notion of "teachers as transformative intellectuals" orients us towards viewing teachers as political agents responsible for and invested in shaping society. Together, these theories frame this work.

Methods and Data
This study draws upon qualitative data including interviews, field notes, institute-related artifacts, and analytical memos. Data was analyzed thematically (Saldaña, 2013) using inductive and deductive coding (Creswell & Poth, 2018). Methodologically, this study centers teachers' voices to illuminate the significance of such teacher learning spaces as well as to inform programmatic design and practice.

Findings
Through examining the significance of this institute for teacher participants, this study speaks to context-based teacher learning by showing how teacher learning on housing helped teachers better understand their own life experiences, causing foundational shifts in perspective and prioritization in teachers' lives. Additionally, this study finds that the summer institute's structural, historical, and racial perspective on housing shaped teachers' interactions, framings, and choices with students and families, having important implications for students and families' awareness of structural forces that impact their lives. Finally, through studying a topic that created and maintains socio-racial inequities (housing), teachers deepened their systems thinking and contended with their role in systems change. The demands on teachers, however--and justice-oriented teachers in particular –remind us of the danger of relying solely on teachers and schools to address the issues their students face.

Author

• Daniele Fogel, University of California - Berkeley