Critical Professional Development and Vulnerability: Centering the Holistic Needs of Educators Committed to Social Justice

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Building upon Kohli et.al.’s (2015) model of critical professional development (CPD), this session conceives of teachers as socially conscious actors who have a stake in transforming inequitable schooling, and illuminates the possibilities of justice-oriented teachers when CPD attends to their holistic needs. Comprised of four empirical studies, the panel will: 1) investigate how CPD (re)positions teachers and researchers as political actors and change agents in institutionalized contexts; 2) examine a teacher-led inquiry group as a model for sustaining and enhancing social justice teaching; 3) advance a model for ‘race space’ CPD wherein teachers learn about race, racism, and social justice teaching; and 4) describe how a grassroots critical affinity group developed their own learning and support group.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Critical Educators for Social Justice

Chair

• Bree Picower, Montclair State University

Papers

• Beyond Survival: Teachers of Color Moving Schools Towards Spaces of Possibilities - Josephine Pham, University of California - Los Angeles; Sara Diaz, Environmental Charter Schools

• A Model for Sustaining and Enhancing Social Justice Teaching: Trust, Vulnerability, and Accountability - Oscar Navarro, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo

• "Why Can't I Feel Good About Being White?" Race Space Critical Professional Development, Vulnerability, and Omnipresent Whiteness - Tiffany M Nyachae, Buffalo State - SUNY

• Centering "Radical Vulnerability and Soul Care" as an Act of Political and Pedagogical Warfare - Farima Pour-Khorshid, University of California - Santa Cruz

Discussant

• Rita Kohli, University of California - Riverside