Reimagining Science Teacher Preparation Through Abolitionist Teaching: A Narrative Inquiry Study

• In Event: We Make the Road by Walking: Emancipatory Teacher Preparation and Activism

Abstract

This narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2004) study leverages abolitionist teaching (Love, 2019) to examine novice science teachers' experiences navigating the first two years of teaching while participating in a federally funded fellowship. Data sources include semi-structured interviews and archival data collected from the teacher preparation courses. Significant findings of this study revealed that (a) the novice science teacher's decision to leave the STEM profession was attributed to a need to provide an equitable education for all students, (b) novice science teacher's experience within the methods course prepared them to deconstruct Love's (2019) educational survival complex within their classroom and school and (c) the fellowship provided a community of learners for the novice science teachers to lean on.

Authors

• Vanessa Nizeyimana Louis, University of Michigan
  Presenting Author

• Natalie S. King, Georgia State University
  Presenting Author