Disrupting Labels to Re-See Students in a Justice-Oriented Light

• In Event: Unpacking Situated Perspectives on Identity, Engagement, and Motivation: Implications for Designing Equitable Learning Environments

Abstract

Objectives
This study examines how science and mathematics preservice teachers (PTs) recruited constructs related to motivation, engagement, and equity as explanatory tools to make sense of their field experience at schools serving disproportionately large populations of students of color from low socioeconomic backgrounds.

Perspective
STEM education researchers highlight the need to integrate conversations about equity and social justice in teacher education (e.g., Gutierrez, 2018; Larkin, 2013; Philip, 2011). Understanding political and historical contexts shaping learners’ experiences may prevent deficit rhetorics centered on individualistic factors (motivation, grit, mindset), rhetorics that can dehumanize certain students and portray them as inferior or incapable of academic achievement.

Methods and data sources
In this qualitative study, we conducted a thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) of PTs’ written reflections on their field experiences. We characterized two approaches in PTs’ sense-making about learners’ actions and behaviors: the first centering on individualistic factors such as personal traits, and the second pertaining to systemic factors such as racism, stereotypes, and inequities.

Findings
While an individualistic lens was more prevalent at the beginning, more PTs recruited a systemic perspective over time. For instance, at first PTs oriented towards students’ lack of motivation or effort to explain low academic achievement, centering blame on individual students in deficit ways (e.g., “I don't think my tutees have a lot of motivation towards their work…they never want to do more than what is required”; “I would say that the mindset and motivation of these students is what is holding them back from excelling”).
As they continue to interact with learners and in light of class conversations on systemic inequities, some PTs shifted towards more asset-based contextualized interpretations. One PT noted: “I have observed [students] the entire semester focus on procedural and busy work. I would see the class slack off and seem disinterested. In a way, I feel like the students act like this because they aren’t challenged and are not doing something that engages their curiosity.” We also saw the emergence of systemic perspectives where PTs made sense of students’ behaviors by critically interrogating racist and oppressive structures pervading society:
I think back to how stereotypes affect expectations and how certain races are treated differently. I see these students who are not presented with the opportunity that other students have…These stereotypes and subsequent expectations let our schools become full of students who are not enthusiastic about learning.
These contrasting orientations led PTs to differentially engage larger narratives of equity and social justice in their conceptions of teaching, conceptions that are consequential for their future instruction (Sheth, 2019).

Significance
Our findings highlight the need for teacher education to trouble individualistic interpretations that erase larger sociopolitical contexts and perpetuate dehumanizing “blame” narratives. Disrupting negative labels to re-see students in new light necessitates re-narrating stories of “motivation,” “achievement,” and “engagement” in justice-oriented ways. Those ways require an ongoing effort and commitment on behalf of both teacher educators and teachers to work towards and design more socially just and equitable learning environments.

Authors

• Lama Ziad Jaber, Florida State University

• Shannon Davidson, Florida State University

• Victor Kasper, Florida State University