Improvement Science in Action: Interrogating Data on Racial Justice in Teacher Preparation to Dismantle Inequities

• In Event: Topographies of Antiracist Teacher Preparation: Insights and Interrogations Across Four Universities

Abstract

Objectives and Theoretical Framework
This paper will describe how the NIC is translating data into action. Symposium attendees will learn how the NIC has drawn from multiple sources of evidence and applied improvement science to test interventions in IHEs working across different geographic, structural, and sociopolitical contexts toward a shared goal of preparing racially just teachers who are able to dismantle inequities in their schools and classrooms.

The NIC seeks to create teacher preparation programs that welcome and affirm BIPOC communities –and ensure that candidates are prepared to establish racially just classrooms. These efforts build on the works of scholars who advocate for all teacher candidates to develop racial literacies (Sealey-Ruiz & Greene, 2015), embrace the use of culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris & Alim, 2017), and understand their roles of teaching for racial justice (Picower, 2021; Souto-Manning & Emdin; Solorzano, 2019).

Methods and Data Sources
The NIC’s use of qualitative and quantitative data is enabling the IHEs to identify strategies that promote racial justice in teacher preparation and develop additional interventions when evidence pinpoints areas in which changes are needed. For example, all of the members have taken steps to recruit more faculty of Color. More specifically, they have incorporated language explicitly related to racial equity and social justice in job postings for teacher preparation faculty and college of education administrators. By changing the language in job postings, extending recruitment outreach more broadly, and including diverse faculty on search committees, three NIC IHEs were able to hire faculty of Color for about 60 percent of the postings for a two-year period. For the dean search at one university, all finalists were scholars of Color.

Results and Scholarly Significance
Evidence emerging across the NIC has led to a range of structural changes that underscore the scholarly significance of the work and place the participating IHEs at the forefront of efforts to dismantle systems that propagate structural racism and replace them with programs, policies, and processes that promote racial equity. For example, one university redesigned its teacher preparation program to make racial equity content more central to its early foundations course and spiral that content throughout the programs to connect with discipline-specific methods courses. Another is developing a new doctoral program grounded in the tenets of critical race theory, antiracism, and justice in education. The third opened enrollment in its course on critical race theory to all undergraduate students and explored options for sharing this content with P-12 partners. The fourth u added an extensive orientation for the first rotation in its teacher preparation program to engage candidates in interrogating and understanding the roles of racial equity and social justice in teaching. All four universities are strengthening cohort programs and other strategies that promote a sense of community and belonging among teacher candidates, particularly candidates of Color.

The paper will elaborate on these and other examples of structural and systemic changes that are unfolding at the NIC IHEs. In addition, symposium attendees will have opportunities to discuss why and how the IHEs made changes with authors of the paper.

Authors

• Laurie D. Inman, California State University - Dominguez Hills
  Presenting Author

• Terrance Burgess, Michigan State University
  Presenting Author

• Anne M. Galletta, Cleveland State University
  Presenting Author