Learning to Teach for Equity, Social Justice, and Diversity: Do the Measures Measure Up?

• In Event: Teacher Preparation Evaluation Systems: What Would It Take to Put Equity at the Center?

Abstract

Since the late 1970s, there have been many initiatives in teacher education designed to address multicultural education, diversity, equity, and justice. To create systemic change that transforms the educational experiences of marginalized communities, some teacher educators argue that the most pressing concerns in teacher education have to do with preparing teachers to work with diverse school populations in the context of endemic inequalities, systemic racism, and acute polarization (e.g., Brown, 2013; Sleeter, 2017). Reflecting this long-standing interest in teacher education and the more recent shift to outcomes in teacher preparation, multiple assessment tools have been developed to capture aspects of teaching and learning to teach for equity, social justice, and/or diversity. This paper reviews and critiques 45 relevant assessment tools developed between 1980 and 2021 to examine whether these existing measures “measure up” as tools that support equity and justice goals.

Author

• Wen-Chia Claire Chang, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University