Supporting the Development of Novice Teachers’ Critical Consciousness: Themes and Variations (Poster 2)

• In Event: Justice-Centered Pedagogy: Context-Specific Adjustments and Cross-Cutting Constants

Abstract

This study investigated novice teachers’ critical consciousness, and how it might connect to experiences they had in their methods courses. I define critical consciousness as an understanding of historical and sociopolitical systems and how they maintain oppression (Freire, 1970/2000). In particular, I was interested in teachers’ critical consciousness of science (for example, that what we think of as “science” is rooted in whiteness; Mensah & Jackson, 2018) and of teaching (for example, how schools perpetuate deficit narratives about students of Color and their communities; Ladson-Billings, 1995).
Teachers’ critical consciousness matters because it is essential for teaching science for social justice, which I understand as a collection of other concepts. It has roots in multicultural science education (Atwater, 1993), sociotransformative constructivism (Rodriguez, 1998), and culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995). I also draw from more recent scholarship, such as justice-centered science pedagogy (Morales-Doyle, 2017) and rightful presence (Calabrese Barton & Tan, 2020). Based on this literature, I see teaching science for social justice as a multifaceted science teaching philosophy with the goal of disrupting systems of oppression.
Interviews with three novice teachers were qualitatively analyzed. I began with inductive coding (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015) to identify moments where the participants demonstrated critical consciousness. I then looked across these moments to identify themes, and put together “profiles” for each participant. I approached data analysis in this way in order to support taking an asset-based view of the teachers (rather than beginning with a list of a priori codes which may have led to a focus on what teachers didn’t say). Finally, I used inductive coding to identify common experiences teachers discussed from their methods courses.
My first finding was that different teachers demonstrated critical consciousness in different ways. For example, one teacher focused on how her students’ experiences outside of school may make it more difficult for them to engage with school, and on making sure science class was relevant to these students and their lives. Another teacher wanted students to learn about societal issues that relate to science, and see that science can do harm as well as lead to progress. While the teachers were critically conscious of different aspects of science and/or teaching, they all engaged in teaching science for social justice in some way. My second finding was that the teachers all talked about similar experiences from their methods courses: seeing examples of teaching science for social justice; rehearsing a justice-oriented science unit; writing teaching philosophies; and building a community of like-minded teachers.
These findings highlight tensions between generalizability and context-dependence. If critical consciousness is essential for teaching science in a justice-oriented way, are there particular things that all teachers should be critically conscious of? Or, does any form of critical consciousness support teaching science for social justice? The findings also suggest that there are some teacher preparation experiences that are particularly valuable for developing critical consciousness. However, these experiences may also be context-dependent, which leaves questions about how to best support novice teachers in teaching science for social justice.

Author

• Megan Walser, Michigan State University