Planting Critical Seeds and Pursuing Humanizing and Antiracist Pedagogies Through Teacher Inquiry

• In Event: Exploring Antiracist and Social Justice Teaching

Abstract

Recognizing teacher education as one space that often falls short to empower preservice teachers (PTs) to take on more humanizing and anti-racist pedagogies, we aim to explore PT inquiry projects as a possible avenue to engage in humanizing and antiracist pedagogies during student teaching experiences. Drawing on data from a longitudinal study following three English education PT cohorts, our collaborative analysis identified three new understandings: PTs' inclusion of select elements of humanizing pedagogies, focus on affective elements of the classroom community, and their overall lack of explicit criticality. We invite discussion and future research into teacher education programs explicitly building both knowledge and courage for PTs to see themselves as change agents during student teaching and beyond.

Authors

• Charlotte L. Land, Pennsylvania State University

• Kelsey Jones-Greer, Pennsylvania State University

• Michelle Knotts, Pennsylvania State University