Early Career STEM Teachers Grappling With Induction and Social Justice Pedagogy During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: Social Justice Leadership and Praxis in Contentious Times

Abstract

This qualitative study focuses on how participants, early career teachers working in underserved urban schools who attended the same masters-level teacher preparation program, came together during the pandemic to learn more about anti-racist and social justice pedagogy and ultimately created a support network across cohorts. Many teachers who begin their careers in urban schools, enter underprepared to serve the needs of historically marginalized populations and in turn leave the profession (Darling-Hammond & Sykes, 2003; Howard & Milner, 2013). As such, support during the induction years is pivotal given the high teacher attrition rate between years three to five (Marent, 2019; Simon & Johnson, 2015). Teacher turnover in schools that have a large population of students of color and low-income students is particularly high, which ultimately has implications on student learning and their relationship to schooling (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Howard & Milner, 2013). For teachers who enter the field passionate to teach with a social justice framework and serve historically marginalized populations, they are susceptible to turnover as they face many restrictions in the field that lead them feeling unsupported or incapable of implementing social justice (Picower, 2011).



Data shows that participants, who are predominantly white, acknowledge the contradictions of perpetuating a predominantly white teaching workforce in schools that serve low-income students of color, as well as being trained to use critical pedagogies during a time when critical theories are being inherently banned in public k-12 schools. Participants identify grappling with their induction years during the pandemic and learning to use tools for social justice in the classroom. Participants share a lack of guidance from their educational leaders, burn-out, and no sense of classroom management (as they taught online, then had large face-to-face classes)—all of which are key indicators that lead to teacher attrition. Participants report feeling unsure of how to meet the needs of the students—during a time when the U.S. is facing a racial reckoning and educators around them embrace deficit ideologies of their own students. While participants entered their roles intending to utilize social justice frameworks, they express being met with deficit discourses. For example, participants have seen their schools highlighted in the local news for “violence” and deemed “unsafe” followed by an increased police presence in the school building. They are hesitant to teach content related to social justice or critical pedagogy given the CRT-bans nationwide. Participants share being caught trying to implement social justice tools, asset-based frameworks, in environments where they feel restricted, underprepared, unsupported, and burnt-out.



Implications from this study inform future research on induction, teacher preparation, STEM teacher retention, and social justice pedagogy. Implications inform the field of the experiences of early-career teachers during the pandemic to ensure that their needs are met. This is vital, as research shows that early career teachers tend to work in schools that serve predominantly low-income students of color. To best serve low-income students of color, we must also ensure that their teachers receive adequate support during a time of shifting policies, practices, and political discourses.

Author

• Rachel A. Ayieko, Duquesne University
  Presenting Author