Exploring Abolitionist Teacher Praxis: A Study Group With Abolitionist Teachers

• In Event: AERA Graduate Student Research in Progress Roundtable Session Two
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Preparation: Abolitionist Praxis, Learner-Centered Pedagogy, and Social Issues and Action (Table 15)

Abstract

In their scholarship on the connections between schools and prisons, education researchers have recently taken up the theoretical frameworks of abolition and abolitionist teaching, but have yet to conduct empirical studies with abolitionist teachers. This qualitative research study utilizes a study group with K-12 teachers to explore how theories of police and prison abolition inform their thinking and their practice. Findings suggest particular ways of thinking and being that abolitionist teachers might attempt to cultivate in their classrooms and demonstrate that the work of abolitionist teaching requires navigating complex tensions and contradictions.

Author

• Noah Jefferson, Westfield State University
  Presenting Author