Can—and Should—We Assess Social Justice Teaching?

• In Event: Roundtable Session 91
  In Roundtable Session: How Do We Reconcile NCATE (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education) and Social Justice (Broadly Defined)?

Abstract

Debate concerning use of the term “social justice” in teachers’ professional standards often concerns the definition of this term and how and whether it should be identified in teachers’ practice. This paper draws on five years of secondary English student teachers’ community-based lesson plan projects to identify the specific knowledge and skills that candidates need in order to create such lesson plans, which many scholars consider to be a critical feature of social justice education. Findings indicate that teachers may need to be proficient in at least three specific knowledge/skill sets in order to engage in social justice-oriented instructional planning. The study suggests that new standards could better scaffold pre-service teachers’ developing awareness of and response to local community concerns.

Author

• Deborah A. Bieler, University of Delaware