Reclaiming Student-Teacher Affinity Spaces as Creative Sites of Racial Justice

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 1:45 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Place-Based Educational Ontologies: Teaching for Justice, Remedy, and Repair (Table 8)

Abstract

Teachers who have been treated unjustly often enter the profession with commitments to make strides towards more emancipatory futures. Whereas the justice development of practicing teachers has been explored, less attention has been paid to student teachers. Student teachers have opportunities to enact their dreams for justice during student teaching. This qualitative paper presents the possibilities of and activities within affinity spaces that can promote justice focused thinking and action. We capture the impact of the space through three cases of student teachers. In line with this year’s call for work that repairs past harm and renews educational possibilities, we end with possibilities for teacher preparation programs to support marginalized teachers' dreams for justice.

Authors

• Socorro Cambero, University of California - Irvine

• Doron Zinger, California State University - Dominguez Hills

• Naehee Kwun, University of California - Irvine

• Phoebe Arista, University of California - Irvine

• Tanya Guzman Dominguez, University of California - Irvine