Teaching for Justice as Competency: A Conceptual Analysis for Teacher Preparation

• In Event: The Influence and Construction of Teacher Preparation Policies

Abstract

While many teacher education programs tout social justice as a goal, the meaning of justice has been under-conceptualized and under-theorized, resulting in the continued preparation of teachers who perpetuate injustice in schools. This paper offers an innovative analysis of the concept “teaching for justice” as a competency. Using Nancy Fraser’s multi-dimensional conception of justice, we consulted scholarship from multiple disciplines, in order to identify the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of teachers who promote justice in their classrooms, and frame these characteristics as a set of learning objectives that can be developed, enacted, and assessed. This innovation promises a new approach for teacher education to contribute to disrupting oppression in schools.

Authors

• Anjali Deshpande, High Meadows Graduate School of Teaching and Learning

• Meredith Cromwell Moore, Anti-Racist Academy