Making Justice Fundamental: Teacher Educators' Journey to Reimagine Accountability

• In Event: Raising Critical Consciousness: Deconstructing Ideologies and Dismantling Programmatic Practices for Justice

Abstract

This paper describes two methods course instructors’ journeys to reconstruct our knowledge about grading and shift justice from ornamental to fundamental in our teacher preparation. This work attempts to answer the call from scholars, who have been advocating for educators to be more prepared to meet the needs of a diverse student population (Ladson-Billings, 2006; Cross, 2003; Sleeter, 2017). Despite these long-standing calls from scholars, teacher education programs continue to uphold whiteness (Ladson-Billings, 2006; Sleeter, 2017). We utilize a narrative self-study methodology to reimagine our grading practices from perpetuating whiteness to centering justice. We designed a new accountability measure to invoke action and hold pre-service teachers accountable for growth toward anti-oppressive dispositions.

Authors

• Rebekah May Degener, Minnesota State University - Mankato

• Karen R. Colum, Minnesota State University - Mankato