Finding Your People: Induction as a Social Justice Teacher-Leadership Incubator

• In Event: Becoming Educators: Mentorship and Justice-Oriented Praxis

Abstract

Teachers prepared through clinically rich programs that de-center university-based knowledge (Beck, 2018; Daza et al., 2021; Klein et al., 2016) and utilize cohort models that become spaces for freedom dreaming (Kelley, 2002) leave their programs hoping to find similar emancipatory communities of practice to fuel the social justice orientations that brought them to and through their preparation programs. Early-career teachers, particularly early-career Teachers of Color, soon realize, though, that “finding your people” is a daunting task in predominantly white school systems. We argue that abolitionist teacher induction programs can incubate early-career teachers’ commitments to social justice and foster teacher-leadership. Through vignettes, evidence from our attempts to ignite this work, and our collective efforts to freedom dream around early-career teacher thriving, we articulate how such induction programs can be spaces that foster critical, transformative teacher leadership opportunities (Bradley-Levine, 2018) and nurture social justice motivations for novice and experienced teachers alike.

Authors

• Amanda Winkelsas, University at Buffalo, SUNY

• Halley Maza, University at Buffalo

• Lindsey Hanes, SUNY Buffalo & Randolph Academy