Reflecting on the Development of Critical Consciousness in Pre-Service Teachers: Troubling "Teacher Knows Best"

• In Event: Disrupting the Default: Preservice Teachers and the Making of Critical Educators

Abstract

In this paper, two doctoral students explore the development of critical consciousness in pre-service teachers—understood as the ability to recognize how personal circumstances are shaped not only by individual actions but also by social, political, economic, and historical forces—and the formation of their teacher identity during a semester-long introduction to elementary education course. Using qualitative research methods, including narrative inquiry and post-intentional phenomenology, the authors highlight moments of dissonance and the ways pre-service teachers respond to them. They ask: How can we, as teacher-researchers, collectively create moments and spaces for dissonance that lead to justice-oriented action? How can we support pre-service teachers in challenging the status quo, especially when their beliefs, educational experiences, or positionalities benefit from it? This research asserts the importance of critical consciousness as a non-linear process and the accountability needed to remain engaged. Conversely, it also illuminates power dynamics in the field experience, which may hinder this.

Author

• Syra Yang, University of Minnesota