Nothing About Us Without Us: Grassroots Teacher Professional Development for Social Justice

• In Event: Grassroots Professional Development: Centering the Social Justice Needs of Teachers

Abstract

Objectives
Traditional professional development (PD) often focuses on implementing particular programs or skills (Cohen-Vogel & Herrington, 2005; LaGuardia, et. al., 2002) without engaging teachers in deeper reflection on the role or purpose of education in our society (Zeichner, 1993). This kind of PD leaves unaddressed the knowledge, mindsets and skillsets that develop educators to teach for social justice (Picower, 2012). Teaching for social justice requires the ability to 1) examine ones’ positionality, 2) develop a political analysis of power and inequality (Freire, 1970; Kincheloe, 2004), 3) create liberatory classroom environments with student relationships based on critical trust (Picower, 2012) and 4) develop culturally relevant, critical curriculum connected to students’ lives. This paper focuses on a teacher-led PD series called Inquiry to Action Groups (ItAGs) offered by a grassroots teacher activist group to fill the gap between traditional PD and the skills needed to teach for social justice.

Theoretical Framework
Social justice education centers on issues of equity, access, power, and oppression demonstrating that teaching is a political act situated in cultural, racial, economic, political tensions (Freire, 1998; Montano et al., 2002; McLaren, 2003; Schultz, 2008). To teach for social justice, educators must recognize the highly political educational context that masquerades as neutral (Kumashiro, 2008; hooks, 1994; Zeichner, 1993) and have a political analysis of how inequality, oppression, and power operate as a starting place for social justice teaching.

Methods and Data Sources
ItAGs have been offered annually for the last seven years. For four of those years, participants filled out anonymous surveys that captured their reflection of the impact of the ItAG on their teaching practice and educational philosophy. This qualitative data from 384 surveys were analyzed using grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006; Foss & Waters, 2007).

Results
The ItAGs provided participants with an intentional community characterized by a sense of camaraderie and professionalism. The participants appreciated the diversity of roles and experiences of their peers coupled with a shared political perspective. By providing each other with support, time for reflection and deep discussions on topics they self-selected and cared passionately about, participants felt they benefitted in three ways. Emotionally, they gained renewed motivation, energy and confidence. Intellectually, they gained content knowledge based on the topic of their individual ItAG (i.e. needs of queer students, history of organizing in their local area). Professionally, they gained tangible resources and skills to support their practice such as readings, lesson plans, contacts, etc. These benefits supported them to critically analyze and push their practice as social justice educators inside and outside of their classrooms.

Significance
In a time in which market based reforms and PD is the norm, teachers committed to SJE need to take their development into their own hands. Since it’s inception in NYC, the ItAG model has spread to five additional cities. Understanding the impact of teacher driven, grassroots PD can support others who are looking to fill the gaps left by traditional PD in their pursuit of social justice.

Authors

• Bree Picower, Montclair State University

• Natalia Ortiz, CUNY - Graduate Center