When Justice Isn't the Aim: edTPA, Accountability, and Learning to Teach for Social Justice

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

Abstract

1. Objectives & Theoretical Framework

High stakes, standardized teacher performance assessments (TPAs) are being piloted in or required for teacher licensure in 40 states (AACTE, 2015). However, despite advocates’ claim that TPAs bring necessary rigor and accountability to the field of teacher education by requiring objective measures of teacher quality, critics challenge argue that TPAs undermine the integrity and authenticity of teacher preparation by institutionalizing a narrow, artificially decontextualized conception of competence (e.g. Au, 2013; Berlak, 2010; Cochran-Smith, Piazza & Powers, 2013; Madeloni, 2015).

In this paper, faculty and teacher candidates in a Hispanic Serving Institution with a deep commitment to preparing first generation and underrepresented candidates for careers as justice-oriented, urban educators, examine the ways TPAs, as part of a broader neoliberal reform agenda, are subtly—and not so subtly—transforming rhetorical, pedagogical, and practical aspects of teacher preparation. In so doing, we seek to “shine the light on educational issues and inequities so as to analyze, inform, educate, understand, act, and advocate for change and possibility” (AERA 2016 Call for Submissions, p. 25).

2. Methods & Data Collection

The data presented in this paper is drawn from a wider, mixed-method study examining the impact of edTPA implementation at our university. As part of this study, all Spring 2015 student teachers (n=121) created and submitted edTPA portfolios for local scoring and analysis; candidates portfolios were also submitted to Pearson for anonymous national scoring, as required by state mandate. Candidates and their student teaching supervisors completed detailed questionnaires regarding their educational philosophy, edTPA-related learning, challenges encountered during implementation, and experience with institutional support. We also conducted a content analysis of candidates’ edTPA portfolios, examining candidates’ approach to an array of constructs, including contextual relevance, culturally responsive pedagogy, and social justice. In this paper, we focus specifically on candidates’ perceptions of how edTPA impacted their ability to enact culturally responsive, justice-oriented curriculum, using examples from candidates’ portfolios to illustrate their approach to reconciling their social justice visions with the demands of edTPA.

3. Results and Significance

Despite candidates’ stated commitment to social justice and culturally responsive pedagogy (79%), few (34%) considered themselves able to address these principles during their edTPA experience. Even more troubling, 46% of candidates’ open-ended responses to questions regarding which aspects of edTPA supported their development at teachers indicated that it had no educative value whatever.

In the full paper, we present the results of our candidate surveys and a content analysis of their portfolios, focusing on the breadth and depth of candidates’ attempts to reconcile their commitment to social justice with the demands of edTPA. While some candidates were successful in their attempt to develop justice-oriented curriculum that met the demands of edTPA, overall the edTPA process had a reductive and standardizing effect on candidates’ teaching.

Research on edTPA is still in its infancy, and lags far behind state-sanctioned TPA policy. By examining how edTPA affects candidates’ ability to enact their justice-oriented visions, this research underscores the tremendous implications of allowing TPA policies to go unchallenged.

Author

• Alison G Dover, Northeastern Illinois University