An Activist Teacher Learning Space: Curricular Praxis for Urban Secondary Educators

• In Event: Education for the People: Centering Grassroots, Self-Determination, and Justice in Education Research

Abstract

Objective
U.S. elementary and secondary (K-12) education is amidst an era of political backlash aimed at educators and school districts for teaching about race and racism (Hannah-Jones, 2021). Trump’s executive order 13950 set in motion 619 PreK-College educational measures, with over 500 in K-12 schools, proposed to ban classroom teaching, curricular content, equity and diversity policy, and training at the federal, state, and local level (Alexander et al., 2023; Alexander, 2023). In response to the attacks on K-12 curriculum, instruction, and professional development, this paper focuses on a teacher learning space known as the teacher inquiry group (TIG), a central component of a teacher-activist organization, the People’s Education Movement (People’s). The study examined how TIG members engaged in critical and culturally sustaining pedagogies in urban secondary schools.

Theoretical Framework
Building on the literature of teacher learning spaces, critical inquiry, and critical professional development that engage in theory, dialogue, reflection, curricular plans, and collective action (Kohli, Picower, Martinez, & Ortiz, 2015; Martinez, Valdez, & Cariaga, 2016; Pham & Kohli, 2018; Pour-Khorshid, 2018). This study examined how educators drew from the teacher inquiry space to inform their ability to engage in critical and culturally sustaining pedagogies (Friere, 2003; Love, 2019; Muhammad, 2020: Paris & Alim, 2017).

Methods & Data Sources
The study utilized a qualitative case study methodology (Merriam, 2009) and critical inquiry group design (Duncan-Andrade, 2007; Nieto et al., 2002). The case was a teacher-led space, the TIG, centered on people of Color and used an anti-colonial framework. The focus was on six educators from twenty-five participants bound together through their participation in the TIG. Data collection occurred over ten months and involved participant observations within a teacher inquiry group and in six urban secondary classrooms, semi-structured interviews, teacher-created materials, and student work (Bogdan & Biklen, 2003; Merriam, 2009).

Findings
The findings revealed that the educators drew from participating in the TIG to merge critical and culturally sustaining pedagogies within their academic discipline to engage in racial and social justice. Teachers integrated subject matter content, academic skills, and research expertise with students’ cultural and community-based referents to enhance their learning to deconstruct societal and local oppression while providing opportunities to become active agents. The study highlights a middle school teacher that designed and taught a “Shading and Culture” unit. Students utilized shading, composition design, visual symbolism content standards, and their conceptual understanding of cultural stereotypes, racist imagery, and symbols to create a cultural collage that authentically represents the nuances of their ethnic-racial lineages.

Significance
Teacher learning spaces like the TIG allow educators to engage in theory, discussion, and reflection to reimagine teaching and learning. Critical professional development is not only under attack but has suffered from anti-dialogical, rote, and void of meaningful learning for social justice educators (Kohli et al., 2015). The study has implications for scholars, policymakers, and educators to rethink the purpose, practice, and possibilities of teacher learning spaces, curricula, and instruction (Love, 2019).

Author

• Oscar Navarro, California State University - Long Beach