Healing and Justice Renewal in Education: Transforming Teacher Education Through Reflexive Practice

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  In Roundtable Session: Collaboration, Kinship, and Healing: Subversive Compliance in Curriculum Studies (Table 9)

Abstract

Purpose
To work toward healing and justice renewal in education, it is necessary to attune ourselves to the complex life worlds of our preservice teachers. As teacher educators who infuse our curriculum and pedagogy with a deep understanding of equitable and liberatory praxes, we struggle to reconcile our views on what constitutes a “good teacher” with the social foundations of our students. The purpose of this paper is to explore how we meet students where they are, and work with pre-service teachers whose socialization may conflict with our efforts to create affirming educational environments and foster belief in education justice.

Context
This conceptual paper draws from the authors’ experiences as teacher educators as they endeavor to make sense of what healing and justice renewal means to them personally, with the pre-service teachers in their classrooms, and the classrooms these pre-services teachers will go on to build.

Theoretical Frameworks
Drawing from Barad's concepts of becoming and diffraction alongside posthumanism, this paper re-conceptualizes preservice teachers' learning as an ongoing process of dynamic self-differentiation. Becoming highlights dynamicity and multiplicities, viewing individuals as continuously evolving. Barad's notion of diffraction iteratively re-turns and intra-acts to see the world anew. Haraway's concept of response-ability is explored for its implications in fostering collective knowing and ethical responsiveness. Utilizing dialogic reflexivity, we engage with preservice teachers' narratives to connect dynamic theorizing and reconfigure perspectives on reality, as discussed by Butler (1993, cited in Author & Author, 2005, p. 193).

Data sources
The primary data for this conceptual paper are conversations about our experiences teaching pre-service teachers whose beliefs about equity, justice, and liberation diverge from ours, and reflexive journaling after encounters that caused reflection. Our journaling included excerpts from students’ work, classroom interaction descriptions, theoretical insights, and interpretations to make sense of these encounters.

Methods for analysis
Recognizing ourselves and our preservice teachers as dynamic entities in continual transformation, we embraced Karen Barad's concept of becoming. We shared stories of tension in our praxis. Our methodological approach, drawing from Author et al. (2021), involved dialogic reflexivity to explore diverse identities and differences in our students' experiences. By delving into their stories, we aimed to "work difference" (Ellsworth & Miller, 1996) and establish connections for deeper understanding. This process integrated diverse perspectives, recognizing identity construction’s dynamic nature and its potential to reconfigure reality, expanding understanding of equitable, just, and liberatory praxes.

Significance
This work explores the complexities of social foundations in education, focusing on teacher educators' beliefs and practices. It examines how educators intersect with students' social foundations, highlighting challenges in student-centered approaches. The study deepens understanding of navigating tensions with pre-service teachers' socialization. Although not explicitly centered on justice and equity, the instructor's commitment underscores transformative pedagogy's potential. This work contributes to discussions on pedagogy and equity, offering insights for research and practice in classrooms as sites of healing and educational justice.

Authors

• Elena H. Silverman, Indiana University - Indianapolis

• Sophia Jeong, The Ohio State University