Students Resisting the edTPA: How Future Teachers Are Supporting Diverse Democracies

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium features the work of future teachers in two U.S. states who are engaged in acts of resistance to high-stakes teacher performance assessments (TPAs) such as the edTPA. The resistance undertaken by these university students – ranging from submitting justice-oriented (and therefore “risky”) materials in their edTPA portfolios to organizing and holding a silent protest of an edTPA meeting on their college campus – illustrates the tension inherent in working both within and against what has been called “beginning of the end for teacher education” (Madeloni, 2013). Participants will be challenged to consider, in the context of the current national policy landscape, both the effectiveness of various forms of resistance and the viability of organizing resistance on a national level.

Sub Unit

• Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education / Division K - Section 10: Teaching and Teacher Education Policy and Research

Chair

• Deborah A. Bieler, University of Delaware

Papers

• When Justice Isn't the Aim: edTPA, Accountability, and Learning to Teach for Social Justice - Alison G Dover, Northeastern Illinois University

• With All Due Respect: An Anarchist edTPA Primer - Todd DeStigter, University of Illinois at Chicago; Russell Mayo, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Attention Teacher Educators and Future Teachers: It's Time for Direct Action - Deborah A. Bieler, University of Delaware; Ryan Faries, University of Delaware; Stephanie Jennis, University of Delaware; Sydney Palmer, University of Delaware; Samantha Scarpone, University of Delaware

Discussant

• Kevin Kumashiro, University of San Francisco