Preparing Preservice Teachers for Justice Work: The Role of Critical Social Justice Teacher Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: Social Justice for What? Race, (In)Equity, Teaching, and Just (Teacher) Education

Abstract

Racial and political tensions in the U.S. continue to impact the PK-12 educational sphere and, by extension, teacher preparation programs, leaving teacher education faculty balancing responding to public opinion, the academic needs of their students, and incorporating critical pedagogy. We use a mixed method approach to understand how teacher education faculty experience and respond to these tensions in their own courses. Initial findings suggest that faculty have been evolving in their understanding of critical teaching and pedagogy and have a commitment to critical social justice education. However, we also find that this work is deeply connected to faculty and student identities, institutional leadership, and the sociopolitical realities of their institutions and broader community in which the institution is situated.

Authors

• Charlene L Evans-Smith

• Meredith Wronowski, University of Dayton