Transformation from Within and Outside of Schools: Residency-based preparation for education professionals supporting systemic change

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium examines a justice-oriented, interdisciplinary graduate program preparing aspiring teachers and education policymakers/advocates. Papers in this symposium explore the institutional context that facilitates or hinders the program’s success. Presented here are an analysis of the program’s foundational critical theoretical underpinnings and structures developed to support collaborative learning and growth among the students and the exploration of possibilities and tensions surrounding the context-embedded training through a residency model, race-alike affinity groups with graduate students, and collaborative inquiry in the program capstone course. The central assertion is that equity-oriented educational transformation is contingent upon actors within and outside schools. Therefore, an integrated approach to graduate education for aspiring educational professionals can contribute to the creation of systemic positive change.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Experiential Education and Community Engagement: Scholarship and Practice

Chair

• Sabrina L. Wesley-Nero, Georgetown University

Papers

• Critical Foundations: Building a shared understanding and collective practice for justice-oriented education reform - Sabrina L. Wesley-Nero, Georgetown University

• Institutional Prerequisites and Obstacles to Building a Program Committed to Educational Transformation - Douglas S. Reed, Georgetown University

• Building “Brave Spaces” Toward Anti-racism through Race-alike Affinity Groups - Kristin Sinclair, Georgetown University

• Affordances and Challenges of the Residency Model Embedded in the City’s Education Landscape - Mingzhu Deng, Georgetown University

• Blurring the Boundaries between Teaching and Advocacy: The Capstone as a site of collaborative inquiry - Kevin Donley, Georgetown University

Session Organizer

• Sabrina L. Wesley-Nero, Georgetown University

Discussant

• Alisha Butler, Wesleyan University