Centering Care to Promote Justice: Teacher Educator Perspectives on Care in a Teacher Credential Program

• In Event: Centering Care, Healing, and Representation: A Response to the Emotional Experiences of Learning (to Teach)

Abstract

This research focuses on dismantling spaces of oppressive teaching in teacher education settings through intentional acts and practices of care. In this work, a team of teacher educators used Walker & Gleaves (2016) theoretical framework to identify aspects of care present in their teacher educator identities, and to design and implement courses that centered care in authentic ways. The authors found that four components of care allowed them to consider care in their own courses in ways that centered equity, and in ways that allowed future classroom teachers to see care modeled in educational settings. The authors present findings related to care as a tool to dismantle inequitable education practices, including caring as resistance and caring as less than.

Authors

• William Toledo, California State University - Fullerton

• Kira LeeKeenan, California State University - Fullerton

• Gavin Tierney, California State University - Fullerton