Critical Turn in Teacher Residencies

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Teacher residencies are increasingly recognized as clinically rich, practice-based pathways for teacher education that include immersive, year-long apprenticeships with experienced mentor teachers and foster deep integration of theory and practice (National Center for Teacher Residencies, 2021; Silva et al., 2014). Many are grounded in a commitment to educational equity and justice in K-12 schooling, espousing purposeful intentions to prepare educators who can effectively teach all students in demonstrably culturally and academically responsive ways (Darling-Hammond, 2012; Guha et al., 2017a; Matsko, Ronfeldt, & Nolan, 2022; NCTR, 2015).

As residencies work to build a more diverse teaching force (Guha et al., 2017a; Guha et al., 2017b) and longer retention of new teachers in the profession (Guha et al., 2017a, Silva et al., 2015), these programs are increasingly being replicated across the nation (NCTR, 2020). Research shows that the model is working to increase recruitment and retention, particularly for teachers of color; however, the efficacy of residencies for preparing strong educators who are prepared to dismantle structures of inequity through their teaching is less well evidenced or explored. This is particularly true when a social-justice orientation is defined as the antiracist, antiableist praxis of teaching all students across all markers of difference in classrooms that center belonging as a precursor for learning.

While many residency programs are built around justice-oriented or equity-driven missions, disability has historically and contemporarily been left out of these conversations, and ableism remains pervasive in schooling structures and educator practices (Connor, 2013; Valle & Connor, 2019). By centering antiableism, antiracism, and their intersectional interdependence, residencies and their K-12 partners can prepare their emerging teachers to become truly justice-oriented, inclusive pedagogues, committed to teaching all of their learners and actively disrupting structures and systems of oppression inherent to traditional schooling (Connor, 2019). We believe a wide range of highly-committed candidates can, with efficacious preparation and robust mentoring, become strong and effective teachers, once residencies ground themselves in antiableist as well as antiracist pedagogy and practice.

This paper explores the multiple mentorship model that operates within a teacher residency dedicated to preparing diverse, resilient, and caring educators. The program prioritizes recruiting and supporting teachers of color, with a focus on dismantling oppressive systems and fostering culturally sustaining practices. Central to this work is a multiple mentor model emphasizing relational, community-centered, and race- and disability-conscious mentorship, designed to challenge traditional hierarchical and race-evasive approaches.

The study’s scholarly significance lies in the view it offers of the complexities of preparing aspiring teachers to bring antiracist and antiableist stances to their work in underserved communities. By supporting them to navigate racialized and ableist barriers, we argue, teacher residencies can prepare diverse and committed teachers who are equipped to make a difference for the students who need them most.

Sub Unit

• SIG-School-University Partnership Research

Chair

• Thomas Albright, Georgia State University

Papers

• Mentoring Antiracist, Antiableist Teachers in Ways that Forefront Antiracism and Antiableism - Diana Turk, New York University; Rachel Elizabeth Traxler, New York University; Sarah L. Schlessinger, New York University

• Enacting CritPartnership: Centering Criticality in a Teacher Residency Program - Jori S. Beck, College of William & Mary; Kala Burrell-Craft, Grambling State University

• Three Approaches to Teacher Residencies: A Critical Turn? - Valerie Hill-Jackson, Texas A&M University

• An Abolitionist Teacher Residency - Stephanie Behm Cross, Georgia State University; Camea Davis, Research Partnership for Professional Learning

• One City One Goal: Preparing Teachers Alongside Community Scholars - Kay F. Fujiyoshi, University of Chicago

Discussant

• Naureen Madhani, Columbia University