Transformative vs. Performative: Positioning Teacher Educators in the Development of Culturally Responsive Teaching Standards

• In Event: Justice-Oriented Practices and Racial Justice in Teacher Education

Abstract

Teacher professional learning standards can be supportive or disruptive tools in the development of teachers’ abilities to understand and engage with racial and cultural diversity. However, little is known about how teacher educators -- as enactors of these policies -- are positioned by the policy developers. This qualitative study examined how teacher educators were discussed by the individuals tasked with developing a new set of culturally responsive professional teaching standards. Participants were concerned that what they had seen in policy enactment elsewhere (i.e., performativity, demoralization, etc.) would emerge here and undermine the potential of the standards to grow a culturally responsive teacher workforce. Analysis also revealed how gaps between research, policy, and practice began to define the possibilities of reform.

Author

• Meghan A. Kessler, Illinois State University