Putting Equity Front and Center in Teacher Education: Innovative Program Design and Research

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Teacher preparation programs need to change dramatically if they are to succeed at preparing 21st century teachers who can work effectively with all students, particularly those traditionally marginalized. Although there have been innovative preparation programs with equity goals in countries throughout the developed world, educational inequality and inequity continue to be major problems. This symposium analyzes and critiques an innovative equity-centered program in Auckland, New Zealand, where there is an especially large gap between high and low achieving students, many of whom are low-income Mãori and Pacific Islanders. The session also explores how research can be used for continuous program improvement and contributes to broader understandings of the contexts that support teacher candidates’ learning to enact equity practices.

Sub Unit

• Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education / Division K - Section 9: Teacher Education Program Design and Innovations

Chair

• Ana Maria Villegas, Montclair State University

Papers

• Conceptualizing Equity-Centered Teacher Education - Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Boston College

• Enacting Equity-Centered Teacher Education in an Innovative Program - Lexie Barbara Grudnoff, The University of Auckland; Mary F. Hill, University of Auckland

• Emerging Understandings and Questions About Practice and Inequity in a Mathematics/Literacy Course - Fiona Ruth Ell, University of Auckland; Mavis Haigh, The University of Auckland

• Teaching for Equity Enactment Scenarios: An Application of Rasch Measurement Principles - Larry H. Ludlow, Boston College; Wen-Chia Claire Chang, Boston College

Discussant

• Ana Maria Villegas, Montclair State University