Towards a new understanding of the contemporary Texas classroom: critical participatory action research and a social justice teacher education project

• In Event: Reckoning with Ignorance: Mapping Authentic Arenas of Resistance

Abstract

This study will employ critical participatory action research (CPAR) to examine how social justice professional development (PD) will influence the ideologies and teaching practices of in-service secondary school teachers (grades 5-12) in a Central Texas public school district. The researcher will work alongside participants to establish a Social Justice and Equity (SJE) Committee which will serve as a vehicle for professional learning that informs praxis and consciousness (Freire, 1970). Guided by social justice education (Adams et al., 2023) and Freirean pedagogy (1970), this CPAR project will extend from a history of activists who have centered education to transform social structures. With urgency, this CPAR project will seek to enact transformative change driven by collective inquiry and self-reflection. Potential implications suggest that the frameworks of action research and social justice education can each be effective methods of learning for secondary teachers.

Author

• Emilio Gonzales, The University of Texas at Austin