"That's Just WEIRD": Opportunities and Challenges in Incorporating Equity-Focused Educational Psychology in Teacher Education

• In Event: Discussing Race, Ethnicity, and Culture While Teaching Educational Psychology

Abstract

Educational psychologists have increasingly sought to attend to the sociocultural context of learning and its impact on understanding learning and motivation theory (Esmonde & Booker, 2016; Turner & Nolen, 2015; Usher, 2018). Thoughtful, critically reflexive scholarship (e.g., Eccles & Wigfield, 2020; Fong et al., 2019; Gray et al., 2018; Young & Cunningham, 2020) has demonstrated serious limitations of theory divorce from context and the importance in attending to this added complexity. This move towards a more culturally situated, sensitive, and sustaining educational psychology is of particular importance as we look to prepare pre-service teachers for the 21st century classroom. Impressing upon these future educators the importance of sociocultural context when considering educational psychological frameworks is an important step towards supporting them in better meeting the needs of all students.
Despite advancements in the field, much of our understanding of motivation and learning is still WEIRD - Western/White, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, & Democratic (Graham, 1992; Usher, 2018). Although contextualizing these theories is needed, a significant body of research exists that highlights the utility of these frameworks in guiding instruction and supporting student learning through targeted interventions (Shuell, 1996; Slavin, 2019). As the field continues to attend to the added complexity of situating psychological frameworks within the broader sociocultural context, there remains a question on how best to teach theories still grounded in WEIRD contexts, particularly within equity focused teacher education programs. Teaching these theories requires supporting students in carefully considering both the utility and limitations of these frameworks.
Simultaneously, many critical frameworks are under attack. Key political figures (e.g., Lee, 2021), news pundits (e.g., Carlson, 2021), and state legislatures (e.g., HB 3979) continue to push policies that explicitly seek to curtail any consideration of culture or race in education. Resultantly, faculty who teach educational psychology within teacher education programs need to both assist students as they navigate their understanding of the intersection of sociocultural and psychological theories and support students in navigating the larger cultural conflicts and discussions they may face as they become teachers. Doing so requires faculty engage in a thoughtful critique of the “who, where, when, and how” (Usher, 2018, p. 136) of contemporary educational psychology research and highlights the importance of critical scholarship.
Currently teaching educational psychology requires walking a razor’s edge between highlighting the utility of psychological frameworks and acknowledging the need for sociocultural critique of those frameworks all while maintaining an awareness of a larger social conversation that rejects the basic premises of critical work. It also requires that we highlight the added value of research grounded in social context and how attending to this added complexity can better support future educators in meeting the needs of the diverse students they will serve. Drawing from our teaching (i.e., teaching pre-service teachers) and research (i.e., research centering social justice and teaching) experience, this presentation will provide suggestions for walking this razor’s edge.

Authors

• Matthew C Graham, University of Oregon

• Jenefer E. Husman, University of Oregon