Exploring International Educators’ Learning About Local and Global Social Justice in a Virtual Community of Practice: A Focus on Racial Identity

• In Event: Exploring Race and Identity in International Education Experiences

Abstract

Objectives:

In this paper, we report how a virtual, international, intercultural community of practice, Global Social Justice in Education (GSJE) engaged in activities that provided participants including U.S. preservice teachers and international educators from China, Kenya, Nepal, Tanzania, Turkey, U.S., and Zambia with opportunities to advance understandings of social justice. The objective of the GSJE research team was to explore the use of a set of frameworks: (a) United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN, 2015), (b) Social justice in education (Cazden, 2012), (c) Intercultural competence (Deardorff, 2006), and (d) Communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) to identify themes from activity responses and reflections.

Methods and Data Sources:

Based on four iterations of GJSE engagement in 2020-2021, with more than 150 participants, we analyzed activities and reflections to identify emergent social justice themes applying interpretive qualitative approaches (e.g., Merriam & Tisdell, 2016), thematic analysis (e.g., Peel, 2020), and top-down and bottom-up interactive analysis methods (e.g., Chi, 1997) to analyze data in a three-round meaning-making process (e.g., Smith & Osborn, 2008). In round one, community members completed activities, shared experiences, learned about others’ experiences, and reflected on their learning. In round two, author teams used descriptive coding (Saldaña, 2016) to identify aspects of social justice and intercultural competence. In round three, we reviewed findings from author teams, noted overarching themes, and synthesized results across analyses (Peel, 2020).

Findings:

GSJE community members’ responses and reflections about local and global social justice showed race as a dominant issue. For example, the What’s in a Name Activity often yielded mentions of social justice issues related to naming associated with race and ethnicity. These accounts represented first-hand experiences, observations of others, and insights shared in discussions. A Black U.S. student shared her first-hand experiences with “hiring and housing discrimination based on my non-White-sounding name.” A White U.S. pre-service teacher recounted observations related to discriminatory practices in her high school including “white-washing ethnic names,” highlighting their “less likely chance of receiving jobs, scholarships, or other opportunities.” Likewise, in the Exploring Privilege in International Contexts Activity, community members noted privileges associated with skin color and tone in their countries. Finally, in the Exploring the Role of the Arts in Social Justice in Global Contexts Activity, members used poetry and songs to highlight social justice related to particular identities and intersections of identities (e.g., gender, race, immigrant status, SES).

Scholarly Significance:

Our research led to significant findings related to (a) realizing the potential of multiple frameworks to enhance virtual communities and analyze data, (b) harnessing powerful impacts from seemingly simple activities, and (c) opportunities associated with research conducted by an international multidisciplinary team. Most importantly, we argue that educators’, including preservice teachers increased understandings of global social justice enable them to negotiate personal and professional identities and enhance empathy toward marginalized populations, ultimately preparing them to create more humanizing educational experiences for all learners.

Authors

• Bima K. Sapkota, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

• Muna Sapkota, Purdue University

• Xuwei Luo, Purdue University

• Jill Annette Newton, Purdue University

• JoAnn I. Phillion, Purdue University