Findings Paper 2: Results of just education renewal for teachers’ learning and well-being: The Teaching School

• In Event: Toward Just Education Renewal and Neighborhood Reclamation: An Urban P-20 Partnership

Abstract

Objectives

The Teaching School (TTS) aims to extend and deepen teachers’ opportunities for professional learning by centering social justice to achieve dual goals of meaningful student and teacher learning. Within TTS model and embedded on the P-20 learning campus, beginning teachers receive induction support for their first three years as teachers of record. These embedded supports invest in both people and place by centering the school environment and surrounding community.

Theoretical Perspectives

We work from perspectives on socially just teacher education centered around “core” or “high leverage” [teaching] practices, (Ball & Forzani, 2011; Windschitl et al., 2012). Our articulation of socially just teaching practices draws on multiple perspectives on transformative pedagogies, namely culturally relevant pedagogies (Ladson-Billings, 1994, 1995), culturally sustaining pedagogies (Paris, 2012; Paris & Alim, 2017), and critical pedagogies (Freire, 1970). Additionally, we draw on sociocultural learning theories (Nasir et al., 2014; Vygotsky, 1978) and communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) in examining novices’ learning. We posed the following research questions:

1. What opportunities to learn socially just teaching are made available through TTS?
a. How do participants take up such opportunities to learn?
2. How does TTS support and constrain novice teacher development of socially just teaching practices?

Methods and Data

The study took place within TTS, a unique model of teacher education situated within a public high school in a large urban district operating in partnership with a local public research university. To date, TTS has served 11 residents over five years. This study focuses on one aspect of the partnership wherein novice teachers receive embedded, extended and place-based supports aimed at developing socially just teaching practices. Ethnographic design-based research methods were used to collect and analyze field notes, classroom recordings, journal entries, and interviews.

Results

We present findings on the following analytic themes: 1) reflection as a tool for learning, and 2) drawing on professional and social networks for pedagogical improvement. Novices’ use of critical self-reflection and participation in professional and social networks were vital components of TTS model for learning about and developing socially just teaching practices. As one novice pointed out, time to reflect with others was where “the most learning” happened. Participation in a community of practice centered on the continuous development of socially just teaching practice appeared to provide novices with the structure necessary to examine their own positioning in relation to their nascent teaching practice. As another novice said, “[socially just teaching] needs to start with consistent reflection and recognition of your own positioning” (Interview, 6/29/21). TTS structures such as seminars, co-observations, and coaching sessions were affordances in facilitating the development of socially just teaching.

Significance

Our findings highlight the possibilities of an extended, embedded, and place-based teacher education to focus on people, place, and community. Connecting and extending university and school-based support into the first three years of teaching increases the opportunity to engage novice teachers in their own form of project- and place-based learning as they work to offer socially just teaching to their students.

Authors

• Alistair Bomphray, University of Michigan

• Michaela Krug O'Neill, University of Michigan

• Bridget L. Maher, University of Michigan

• Elizabeth Birr Moje, University of Michigan

• Rachael Gordon, University of Michigan