Social Justice Orientation of Students and Faculty in ... · 15.12.2008 · Social Justice...

RUNNING HEAD: Social Justice in Teacher Education

Social Justice Orientation of Students and Faculty in Teacher Education Programs

EDUC 893: Seminar in Educational Anthropology

Dr. Jorge Osterling

Breana Abbott Bayraktar

12/15/2008

Social Justice in Teacher Education 2

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“Schools have always been both mirrors and molds of society" (Hargreaves, p.50).

Introduction

In a time eerily similar to today, the Putney Graduate School of Education (Rodgers, 2006) was

created with a radical sense of social justice and of training teachers to be social justice advocates. In

the midst of the cold war and strongly shaped by the civil rights movement, and situated within the

larger context of a strong need for trained teachers, the school, which was in operation from 1950 to

1964, sought to inspire future teachers not only to care deeply about issues of class, race, poverty, and

justice, but to prepare them to act on these issues during their tenure in schools.

The Putney School faced similar challenges that schools of education face today. Modern

emphases on assessment, accountability, technical knowledge seen as necessary to maintain national

economic standing, turning out skilled and prepared workers, (Cochran-Smith, 2004) and the desperate

need for more and better-prepared teachers have their counterparts in the policies of the 1950s. As the

school-age population is becoming increasingly diverse, in every way imaginable, questions around

multiculturalism, equity, and teacher preparation become all the more vital. Now, there is a real and

urgent need for more longitudinal research into preparing teachers to work with increasingly diverse

student populations.

This mixed-methods research study will look first at multicultural awareness and activism as a

core value of teacher preparation programs. It specifically aims to address if and how one teacher

education program incorporates multicultural perspectives into their curricula, through an examination

of the programs' core values, published materials, course listings, and syllabi, and through baseline and

final surveys, focus groups, and individual interviews with current and past program participants and

faculty. The purpose of this study is therefore, first, to provide a descriptive account of one teacher

education program with a focus on social justice, focusing on how teacher educators integrate social

justice in their teaching and how programs adapt policies and structures to support the integration of


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social justice; and second, to portray the experiences of preservice and inservice teachers and analyze

how their experiences across courses and in clinical placements complement or conflict with their

program’s social justice orientation.

Definitions of key terms

Social justice refers to the concept of providing to individuals and groups fair treatment and an

impartial share of the benefits of society. Teaching for social justice is an educational philosophy that

provides equity, or which gives learners equal access to and equal consideration from the educational

system. The practice can be applied across all grade levels and educational settings, and a key

component is that its nature is to challenge educators themselves as well as students (Maina, 2002).

Attention to social justice issues incorporates a broad range of sociological dimensions in teaching, and

education more generally, including attention to fairness and equity with regard to gender, race, class,

disability, sexual orientation, etc.

In this paper, the terms "preservice teachers," and "teacher candidates" are used

interchangeably to describe post-baccalaureate students in a certification or master's-level program in

the school of education. "Student teacher" is someone who is completing their year- or semester-long

supervised teaching internship; they may also be a "teacher candidate" if they are still completing

coursework as well as their student teaching. "Teacher" and "in-service teacher" are used to denote one

who has completed certification and is a full-fledged, not student, teacher.

Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework for this study is based on sociocultural theory, the theory of social

justice as set out by Iris Marion Young, Robert Kegan's stages of adult development, and Jack

Meizrow's theory on transformational learning.

Sociocultural theory is a way at looking at an individual’s development that draws heavily from

Vygotsky’s theories of the zone of proximal development and of learning as being a fundamentally


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cultural experience (Vygotsky, 1986). This theory applies to the study of teacher education specifically

in looking at how teacher candidates’ learning results from the interaction between their prior

experiences and their opportunities to learn in university courses and field experiences (Engestroom &

Meittinen, 1991, as cited in McDonald 2007). Sociocultural theory is particularly relevant to this study

from the perspective of how teacher candidates negotiate the mélange of their coursework, practical

experience, and prior knowledge; also in how these teacher candidates learn to facilitate the learning

experiences of their own students with an appreciation for the diverse backgrounds, experiences, and

situations of the students.

The theory of social justice as posited by Iris Marion Young (Young, 1990, Justice and the

Politics of Difference) is premised first on the distribution of goods equally to all members, which is also

a hallmark of other, more traditional theories of social justice, but more importantly Young’s theory

recognizes individuals as members of social groups whose opportunities and experiences are informed,

but not determined by, their group affiliations. Young’s theory introduces the ides that actors within

the learning environment (e.g., teachers, administrators, curriculum developers) must pay attention to

these social group differences without reinforcing or negating them. Working within this theory of

social justice necessitates acknowledging that simply treating all students the same does not provide

true equity in terms of access to education or achievement in the classroom; but rather that each

student has the right to be provided with opportunities which will ensure his or her academic success,

and that these opportunities might be very different from one student to another (Young, 1990).

Robert Kegan has written extensively on the stages of adult development, and many

researchers in adult education have relied heavily on his framework, which posits that growth and

development are lifelong processes that are gradual and in the direction of greater complexity. Adults'

ways of knowing, or the underlying meaning system through which all experience is processed, shape

how they look at themselves as learners and as professionals (Drago-Severson et al., 2001). Kegan


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characterizes transformational learning as the learner's capacity to reflect on his or her own core

assumptions, beliefs and values, so that he or she is more able to be more self-directed in his or her

learning and work. (Kegan, 1982). Also important is Kegan’s interpretation of the cultural surround on

one’s development, “[s]ociety’s agenda or curriculum of claims, demands, prescriptions, and

expectations are understood to be not only in the form of what humans should know but also on how

we should know, or what level of complexity of frame in consciousness we should bring to the task of

meaning making” (Gerald Young, p.47) (emphasis in original).

Jack Mezirow’s theories of transformational learning situate adult learning at the nexus of each

student’s past experiences, academic endeavors, and personal development, where students come to

think critically about the ways in which their preconceptions affect their ways of knowing, seeing, and

understanding the world. Key to his theory is the idea of learning through critical reflection, which

results in “a more inclusive, discriminating, and integrative understanding of one's experience. Learning

includes acting on these insights” (Mezirow, 1990 p.xvi). Part of critical reflection is recognizing and

thinking deeply about when transformative events occur, for “anomalies and dilemmas of which the old

ways of knowing cannot make sense become catalysts or "trigger events" that precipitate critical

reflection and transformations” (Mezirow, 1990 p.14).

Within this conceptual framework, then, the literature reviewed looks at (1) what it means for a

teacher preparation program to claim social justice as a core value, (2) the relationship between teacher

preparation, social justice, and student achievement, and (3) the importance of course work and field

experience (e.g., practica, internships, student teaching) in social justice-oriented teacher education

programs.

Social justice as a core value in education

Social justice as a core value in teacher preparation programs, or in education more generally, is

a concept that has come in and out of favor over the history of modern American schooling.


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Traditionally, there is a long-running debate over whether social justice in schools means encouraging

each individual to achieve his or her highest potential, or whether it means providing opportunities for

traditionally disadvantaged groups to gain equal access to education as traditionally privileged groups.

This individualistic vs. group approach is compellingly laid out in CITE ARTILE ON HISTORY OF SOCIAL

JUSTICE. While educators obviously want to see their individual students succeed, individual success

cannot be the measure by which we determine that social justice and equitable education has been

achieved; individuals can always succeed despite systematic and systemic inequalities, and the success

of individuals does not mean that the opportunities provided are equitable.

More recently, controversy of a social justice orientation has entered the national arena, such as

in NCATE's debate over the inclusion or exclusion of language which directly referenced social justice as

a core value. As reported in 2006 in the Chronicle for Higher Education, The National Council for

Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) changed the wording of teacher candidates' "dispositions"

as "guided by beliefs and attitudes such as caring, fairness, honesty and responsibility, and social

justice" to the new wording of "demonstrate the content, pedagogical, and professional knowledge,

skills, and dispositions necessary to help all students learn" (Tuesday, June 6, 2006; accessed from

http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/06/2006060602n.htm on 10/18/2008).

In response to the controversy, in a 2007 Call for Action, NCATE said:

"We recognize the existence of an unacceptable achievement gap based on race, ethnicity, disability/exceptionality and socioeconomic status. The gap is exacerbated by some children being assigned well-prepared teachers and other children being assigned unprepared and under-prepared teachers. Closing the achievement gap requires that all children be educated by teachers and other professional personnel who meet rigorous professional standards. We renew our commitment to social justice in schooling for all children by demanding well-prepared educators for all children." (November 13, 2007 NCATE Issues Call for Action; Defines Professional Dispositions as used in Teacher Education, retrieved from http://www.ncate.org/public/102407.asp?ch=148 on 10/15/2008)

As this one example shows, far from being a widely accepted component or value in teacher

http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/06/2006060602n.htm%20on%2010/18/2008


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education programs, social justice in education remains a topic under much debate. Rather than getting

caught up in the theoretical debate over whether or not to adopt a social justice orientation, this paper

aims to address the question of: once a teacher education program has adopted social justice, how is

this value implemented in the program?

According to the graduate school of education through which the students in this study

matriculated, social justice is one of five programmatic core values: "Social justice embodies essential

principles of equity and access to all opportunities in society, in accordance with democratic principles

and respect for all persons and points of view. We commit ourselves to promoting equity, opportunity,

and social justice through the college's operations and its missions related to teaching, research, and

service." Adopted in 2004, after nearly a year of debate among the faculty over its inclusion, social

justice as a core value within the programs studied is a topic that has not been examined.

A strong commitment to social justice ideals, not only from the individual perspective (i.e., this

is what is best for each of the individuals students whose learning I am charged with), but also from the

community perspective (i.e., supporting these students and teachers in their quest for equitable

education) benefits all students, all teachers, the school and the greater community (Eifler, Kerssen-

Friep & Thacker, 2008). Key to a true social justice perspective is a sense of social responsibility towards

others and towards society as a whole that leads to "personal and professional transformation...[and] a

deeper sense of agency and social responsibility" (Osterling, unpublished paper, 2008).

Educating teacher candidates about multiculturalism is important because these future

teachers will have enormous impact on their diverse student population. The effects of a diverse,

inclusive classroom depend on the perception of those in authority, that is, on how teachers see

diversity in their classroom: as a challenge to maintaining control and to their authority, or as a resource

for students to interact with and learn from (Easter, Shultz, Neyhart & Reck, 1999). In order to develop

teachers who respect and appreciate differences as learning opportunities, teacher preparation


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programs must place a high value on multiculturalism and social justice that is reflected in the theory

studied, the learning activities undertaken, and the selection of students and faculty for the program.

Flores’ research on teachers in their second, fourth, or fifth year of teaching supports the

contention that high quality education by nature incorporates social justice components, such as a

focus on educating the whole child through democratic education which “fosters equity and is

empowering” and which “values students for who they are” (Flores, 2007, p. 112).

Diversity doesn't just happen in the classrooms in which these preservice teachers will soon find

themselves; it is, or should be, a component of their own learning environment. Successful social

justice-oriented programs don't just teach about diversity, they practice it, from selection of students

and faculty to texts read, activities undertaken, and sites of field experiences. The road to integrating a

diverse teacher population is far from smooth, however. Agnew, Mertzman, and Longwell-Grice (2008)

recently looked at the interactions of race and gender in the teacher preparation cohort environment.

Their study focused on preparing preservice teachers to work in urban school districts. The researchers

examined the dominant values of the cohort concerning urban education, how these values were

constructed and reproduced within the cohort, and how members felt (accommodated, excluded,

neutral) about the values. One of their central conclusions was that faculty held a great deal influence

over how students in the cohort expressed their opinions on race, culture, gender, ethnicity, and

language in positive, constructive ways, with the corollary being that the students often felt that the

professors were not doing enough to model inclusive urban education in their own classrooms (Agnew,

Mertzman, & Longwell-Grice, 2008). Obviously, more is required of teacher preparation programs than

simply including a course or two on multicultural issues. For there to be real exchange of ideas on issues

of race, culture, gender, ethnicity, and language, authentic voices of educators working in multicultural

settings and involved with social justice issues must be included. Here the theme of the authority figure

is voiced; in this iteration it is the authenticity of the authority that is in question, with implications for


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the larger teacher preparation program in which that authority operates.

Although we often think of social justice as helping the traditionally under-privileged, the true

goal is to make the classroom a welcoming place where all learners can find success. It is the skill of

being able to reach all students that is at risk with fast-track and alternative certification programs

which allow content-area experts into the classroom without sufficient pedagogical training. (Darling-

Hammond, 2005; Cochran-Smith, 2004; White & O’Neal, 2002). Teachers must not only be experts in

their content area(s), but also must be aware of, and practiced at working with, the specific intellectual

and emotional characteristics of diverse learners (White & O’Neal, 2002). There are two major

components to any teacher education program: the conceptual, coursework and class activities, and

the practical, field experience/internships. The research shows that the most effective teacher

education programs work equally at integrating multiculturalism into coursework and practical

experiences, with the overall result of improving the connection between each component to

multiculturalism, and of each component to the other. The quality of a teacher's preparation is

tentatively linked to student achievement by several researchers, and this idea is examined in depth in

the following paragraphs.

Teacher preparation and student achievement

The key rationale for developing teachers' awareness of and skill in negotiating multicultural

classrooms is to improve the academic performance of the students in these classrooms. On how to

accomplish this point, the research is broad, but divided. With the knowledge that, in many cases, new

teachers will begin their careers in diverse schools, working with students from very different

cultural/ethnic, socio-economic, geographic, and perhaps language backgrounds than themselves

(Flores, 2007; Gitomer, 2007), many research projects have compared teacher preparation and student

achievement, with the aim of finding a link that would point towards some best practices in the area of

teacher education. Of those, only a few have concentrated on teachers in high-minority schools.


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Overwhelming research shows that the quality of classroom teachers in directly linked to the quality

and equitable delivery of education, and to student academic achievement (Darling-Hammond, 1997a,

Flores-Gonzales, 2002; Ladson-Billings, 2000; Nieto, 2000; National Commission on Teaching, 1996;

Ukpokodu, 2007).There are clearly two main problems in looking at teacher and student diversity and

student achievement, namely (1) finding ways to increase the number of teachers of diverse racial,

ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and class backgrounds; and (2) better preparing the vast majority of white,

female teachers to teach students of these diverse backgrounds. Much research has been done on both

diversifying the teacher candidate pool (e.g., Garmon, 1996; Garmon, 2004; Ladson-Billings, 2000) and

on preparing the pool that we have (e.g., Cochran-Smith, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 2000). In some ways, it

is the proverbial chicken-and-egg discussion: Do we invest in diversifying the teacher workforce? Or in

better-preparing the White, female majority who is willing to accept the low-pay, low-status teaching

positions available? In the end, all teacher educators and education researchers can do is to attack the

problem at both ends, aiming to meet somewhere in the middle.

Many researchers frame the issue of teacher preparation around the social justice value of

equitable educational opportunities for all students, emphasizing that only by providing well-prepared

teachers to all students will the achieve gap between groups be addressed (Darling-Hammond,

Holtzman, Gatlin, & Heilig, 2005; Darling-Hammond, 2005; Cochran-Smith, 2004; White & O'Neal,

2002; Russell & Chapman, 2001).

In assessing the effectiveness of different teacher preparation programs, Linda Darling-

Hammond's work figures prominently. In one study (Darling-Hammond, 2005), she examined the

effectiveness of Teach For America (TFA) teachers. The researchers conducted a multi-year study of

student test scores in Houston, Texas, to compare the achievement of students under standard

certified teachers, uncertified teachers, uncertified TFA teachers, and certified TFA teachers. Broadly,


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they concluded that students performed best with certified teachers, and there was little difference

under uncertified TFA teachers versus other uncertified teachers. The over-arching concern, of course,

is that these teachers who are only minimally qualified, and most likely to leave teaching within a few

years, are being assigned to schools which arguably have the greatest need for highly qualified

teachers. It is a vital component of social justice that all students have access equally high-qualified

teachers, which Darling-Hammond's research shows is often not the case.

Sheets (2004) examines in particular the development of teachers of color, noting that how well

a student does and how equitable their access to the classroom and to academic success is highly

dependent on how well the teacher understands what a particular students needs, and how well the

teacher can provide for those needs. Sheets advocates that to improve schooling of diverse students,

more attention must be paid to the "diversity ideology" of teacher preparation programs.

In her 2007 article, Morva McDonald speaks of a "demographic imperative," or the convergence

of a quickly changing population that is becoming more diverse linguistically, culturally, and ethnically,

with the increasing homogenous teacher population that is unable or unwilling to undersand the lived

experiences of their diverse students, and the disparity in educational outcomes of the students of

color, low-income students, and their white, middle-class peers. McDonald writes about how students

are "border crossers" between home and school, and the importance for teachers to support them in

negotiating their sometimes multiple identities.

For prospective teachers with non-minority backgrounds, coming to understand and appreciate

the lived experience of their minority students can be a long and difficult process. It's both easier and

harder, in different ways, for teachers of mixed background, or those who are living in the "middle

spaces" of White/Non-white identity (Lund & Nabavi, 2008). Situating the self somewhere between

"oppressor" and "oppressed," "majority" and "minority," can be a difficult thing for many students and

educators. Rather that there being a dichotomous, binary identity, many feel themselves to at times


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belong with one group, at times another, and often multiple, overlapping groups. For educators who

are most often in the "majority" position, this means always having to learn about the lived experiences

of racism from students and colleagues. In the struggle, though, it is as much personal as political, and

these two aspects must co-exist, and be given constant, equal play, in order for individuals to feel that

their personal experiences are being given proper weight.

Song and Catapano (2008) and Catapano (2006) argue that teachers need to know how to

include families in the classroom in ways that resonate with the families. Teachers also must support

the social and academic development of all children (Catapano, 2006). Rather than focusing on

teaching tolerance or diversity, Catapano's research and teaching focuses on helping teachers learn

how to identify problems and come up with solutions for reaching urban students. Her examination of

solutions-oriented mentoring of new teachers highlights the issue of the dichotomy between the

teacher population and the student population discussed above.

Importance of coursework: the conceptual side of multicultural education

Integrating multiculturalism into the conceptual, theoretical, side of teacher education is vital

to adequately preparing preservice teachers for the populations with whom they will soon be

working.Beyond just exposing teacher candidates to issues of multiculturalism and diversity, teacher

preparation programs have a vital role to play in shaping the views of preservice teachers, namely, in

regards to their social justice orientation. Research has shown that preparation programs are powerful

shapers of teacher's intellectual and ethical development. To cite one example, using Danielson's

framework of teaching performance and Perry's intellectual and ethical development pattern, Song

(2006) examined teacher artifacts and reflective writings of 282 preservice teachers to assess their

teaching performance and intellectual and ethical development. Danielson's four teaching domains and

Perry's nine positions of intellectual and ethical development were used to develop a conceptual model

of performance and development to show the differences between 3 groups of preservice teachers at


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different stages in their education; Song concluded that as preservice teachers progressed through

their teacher education program, their intellectual and ethical development progressed apace.

Although Song's research did not specifically address the question of social justice orientation in

preservice and inservice teachers, it does show that preservice teacher's intellectual and ethical

development is highly influenced by both the theory and practice they are exposed to in their

preparation program, and it seems likely that this general development and refining of intellectual and

ethical perspectives would hold true for the defining of preservice teachers' orientation towards social

justice in their practice.

Speaking specifically towards the issue multicultural awareness, Gayle-Evans' study (2006) of

preservice teachers showed, through a pre- and post-test assessing knowledge of multicultural issues

administered to 32 students in a course on multiculturalism, that this course, and by extrapolation

multicultural training in general, during preservice teachers' degree program improves their

understanding of and commitment to multiculturalism in the classroom. The responses to the open-

ended question, "Would you include multicultural education in curriculum? Explain why or why not?"

showed that at the conclusion of the course, students had begun to recognize the social change

implications of their practice. This study supports the contention that multiculturalism must be a

focused part of teacher training for the concept of social justice to be considered a core value of the

preparation program.

In her research on teacher education programs, Morva McDonald (2007, 2008) conducted a

series of focus group meetings with alumni from a diversity-infused program with significant ELL-

teaching preparations. Among her findings was that students who matriculated out of this program

were shown to equally valued theory and coursework as they valued their "practical" experience, i.e.,

practica, internships, and student teaching, in contrast to popular belief that students views their

practical experiences as being more valuable than coursework. One key finding was the importance of


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learning how teaching is always situated in specific socio-political contexts; the alumni were very clear

in stating that this was one of the most important things they learned as new teachers (McDonald,

2007).

Importance of field experiences: the practical side of multicultural education

Although coursework on multicultural education--and an integration of social justice

throughout the teacher education curriculum--is clearly important, research on social justice in

education has shown that the field experiences undertaken can often be transformational. Anatheses

and Martin's research focused on the participation of "equity mentors" (Anatheses & Martin, 2006)

during teacher practica/internships and the student teaching year, and they found that these mentors

are extremely effective at providing scaffolding for new teacher, helping them to see the value of a

social justice approach and how to integrate principles of equity into their classroom settings. Many

researchers cite the need for a more integrated, purposeful teacher education program with deliberate

multicultural and social justice emphases. Shaila Rao (???) wrote of the need for a three stage plan for

multicultural teacher education which included a capstone course concentrating on multicultural issues,

a well-supervised practicum that emphasizes development of understanding of how multicultural

issues play out in the classroom, and a student teaching year that allows the teacher candidate to

incorporate the conceptual theories and practical strategies learned in their coursework and practica.

Other research shows that a strong and committed university-school partnership is essential to

recruiting and retaining students of color into program (Irizarry, 2007), but that despite the best

partnership efforts, students of color still faced many problems at host institution regarding racism and

integrating into the university culture. Universities and teacher education programs with a strong

history of supporting social justice as a core value (i.e., historically Catholic institutions) are often better

prepared to support social justice-oriented programming. Overall, Rao and Irizarry, like many others,

emphasized the importance of a strong university-school partnership as essential to effective teacher


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education.

A focus on service learning, one incarnation of student teaching internships or practic, and

another important cultural value at many institutions with a history of social justice work, can form an

important component of the teacher education curriculum. However, service learning activities can

bring up uncomfortable concerns around how far to take ethical action/activism, and differences of

opinion regarding the positioning of teachers. In Donahue’s case study (1999) of four preservice

teachers working on a social justice-inspired curriculum development project, he found that the

different teachers positioned themselves differently is regards to willingness to create an activist

curriculum for students to follow. Although on the face of it, each preservice teacher embraced the

ideals of social justice, they split greatly in opinion over the appropriateness of encouraging action on

the parts of the students, and on what form that action should take.

Undertaking service learning can be a powerfully transformative experience for teacher

candidates. More than simply participating in an internship in an outside organization or student

teaching, service learning is about taking on a project or a role where the key ingredient is the idea of

service to another. In their research on a service learning mentoring program, Eifler, Kerssen-Friep and

Thacker concluded that, when participating in a service learning experience, "teachers and institutions

are transformed in fundamental ways. This is shown in the teaching jobs they take, the choices they

make within those classrooms, and their attitudes and actions toward marginalized people. These

instances of grace point to the power of 'engaging in social justice to teach social justice' " (Eifler,

Kerssen-Friep &Thacker, 2008, p. 68). The lesson to be learned, and applied more generally to the

development of a social justice orientation in a teacher education program, is that preservice teachers

can be exposed to multicultural and activist-oriented ideas, and can be encouraged to reflect on their

own background and experiences which have shaped their learning and teaching, but cannot be

compelled into adopting a program's orientation towards social justice as their own.


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Teacher candidate development

Osterling (unpublished paper, 2008) postulates four distinct phases teacher candidates move

through as they develop into social justice educators: (1) pre-awareness, characterized by a lack of

critical reflection around issues of equity; (2) critical reflection and dialogue; (3) epiphany; and (4) taking

action for social justice. These phases hearken back to Meizrow's theory of transformational learning,

and also to the phases set forth by the authors of Women's Ways of Knowing (Belenky, Clinchy,

Goldberger, & Tarule, 1997), namely: (1) Silence: total dependence on whims of external authority; (2)

Received Knowledge: receive and reproduce knowledge; (3) Subjective Knowledge: truth and

knowledge are conceived of as personal, private, and intuited; (4) Procedural Knowledge: rely on

objective procedures for obtaining and communicating knowledge; (5) Constructed Knowledge: view all

knowledge as contextual; value subjective and objective strategies.

As teacher candidates explore their own background, their preconceived ideas about learners

and learning,and come into contact with the experiences and ideas of classmates, successful students

move, or begin to move, through the four stages of pre-awareness critical reflection, epiphany, and

taking action as outlined above. Although a program with a social justice orientation aims to guide

students into taking action, research shows that students are often reluctant to take action, particularly

as new teachers.

Research has shown that as teacher candidates move through a teacher preparation program

they develop in ways which have a positive affect on their teaching proficiency. Murphy, Delli and

Edwards (2004) found that many beliefs that preservice teachers have regarding what makes a good

teacher could be traced back as early as second grade, while the inservice teachers studied differed

more concretely from their preservice colleagues. In this study, which compared the viewpoints of

preservice teachers and inservice teachers, it seemed that the key difference that contributed to

development of beliefs about good teaching was moving into practice from a teacher preparation


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program.

Even when concentrating on the conceptual (theory) versus practical (experiences), teacher

candidates often fall short of expectations around their understanding of and appreciation for diversity

and multiculturalism in the classroom. When looking at the language used by preservice teachers in

their education coursework, Brown (2004) discovered that while the students were able to parrot the

words of their professors, they did so in ways which showed the students had no real understanding of

the meaning the professors intended to convey; that many of the students used shallow comparisons

that didn't demonstrate any deeper understanding of multicultural issues, or of the advantages or

disadvantages of working within a multicultural framework.

Upokodu suggests that we need look no further than the faculty members to find reasons for

teacher candidates limited understanding of multicultural issues. She claims that, "teacher educators

talk of diversity and even reflect it in their program's conceptual framework but fall short in

implementation” (Ukpokodu, 2007, p.9). Her research on incorporating social justice as a component of

teacher education programs led her to conclude that the inclusion of one or more courses within a

teacher education dedicated to issues of equity, multiculturalism, and social justice is necessary to

deepen teach candidates' ability to understand, integrate, and apply concepts of social justice

(Ukpokodu, 2007). Taking a still broader view, other researchers advocate more for a consistent

treatment of social justice throughout all the program's courses (e.g., Nieto, 2000)

Cho and DeCastro-Ambrosetti's research into preservice teacher attitudes (2005) found that

majority of teacher candidates felt that parents' lack of value for education was why students weren't

successful; they concluded that a participation in a course in multicultural issues improved preservice

teacher's self-efficacy in teaching diverse groups of students but didn't remove their most ingrained

attitudes about minority students' home life.

Development of a community of practice is essential to both the initial development of teacher


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candidates as well as to their ongoing professional development and commitment to teaching. The

dangers of teaching without a strong community are succinctly described by Ujpokodu, "Too often,

most k-12 teachers are strangers to each other within their own building. They function in isolation.

They lack the empowerment and desire to work together cooperatively and collaboratively to dialog

and solve critical, social, and academic problems." (Ukpodoku, 2007).

McDonald (2005) found that the majority of the courses she studied in her research emphasized

the conceptual over the practical, giving prospective teachers opportunity to develop their thinking on

broad principles rather than specific strategies for working with ELLs.

Reed & Black urge teacher candidates to challenge all forms of oppression, including, in their

view, "standardization, tracking and testing" which "continue unimpeded in the overall school system"

(p.35). Their research on the World Educational Links program at Keene State College showed how

teacher educators tried to help students come to understand that oppression can be incorporated in

many forms, embedded even into the structure of the schools. For the Keene State faculty, the goal

was for teacher candidates to begin to see themselves as advocates. Reed and Black found that the

graduates of the WEL program, overall, did take with them into their teaching practice some of the

conceptual models and activist-oriented thinking learned during their time in the program,and the

researchers concluded that "initial lessons have been learned about fostering the development of a new

consciousness and about helping interns transform knowledge into action" (p. 38).

The communities of practice theory (Wenger,1998, as cited in McDonald, 2007) supports the

idea of teacher educators working together to implement a social justice infused curriculum based on

"mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and shared repertoire" (McDonald, 2007, p. 2053). This is in

direct contrast to distributive theories of social justice, which concentrate on redistribution of

opportunities in an attempt to level the playing field, but which concentrate on the individual view over

a more nuanced understanding of where each student fits into their cultural-socio-economic groups.


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McDonald advocates a more assets-based approach, one that takes into account all the particularities

of a student's situation to figure out how to best help the student achieve in school; this approach does

not advocate treating all students the same, but rather trying to understand each student within his or

her lived experience. The faculty in McDonald's study appreciated the reality that "students' affiliations

with broader social groups such as race, ethnicity, class, or gender might impinge on their educational

opportunities" (McDonald, p. 2061).

Political Aspects of SJ Orientation

McDonald's research (2007, 2005) shows the likelihood that "a conception of social justice that

emphasizes the political nature of teaching and the view that teachers should address larger structural

inequities may require faculty to explicitly stand outside the mainstream." The political nature of social

justice

Much of educational practice and policymaking has become centered on issues of multicultural

competence, questions around identity of teachers and students (e.g., race, ethnicity, culture,

language) as well as the place for discussion of these identities and how they plan out in the classroom

(e.g. urban education, cultural competence, structural inequities). There are clear gaps in the research

regarding how teacher preparation programs effectively prepare students for multicultural teaching

situations, and this research study proposes to examine how one teacher education program addresses

issues of language, culture, race, identity, and social justice in its programs.

Research Questions

1. How do preservice teachers assess their teacher preparation program as:

a. Providing theoretical grounding from which the preservice teachers feel safe in developing their own understanding of social change in education, and

b. Developing (or hindering the development of) teachers as agents of gender/racial/cultural/etc. equity and social change?

2. What are the preservice teachers’ basic orientation towards and understanding of social justice as a core value in their preparation and practice?


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a. How do they believe their program prepared them to become teachers and advocates in multicultural classrooms?

3. What are the tools and experiences which formed their program's emphasis on issues of social justice?

4. How do the attitudes and perceptions concerning social justice and equity of preservice teachers change as they gain teaching experience?


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Methodology

Research methods

This research study will be conducted as a multi-year mixed-methods research study incorporating an

examination of the programs' core values, published materials, course listings, and syllabi, and through

baseline and final surveys, focus groups, and individual interviews with current and past program

participants and faculty

Population

Student from four programs within the College of Education will be recruited to participate in

this study; three of those programs will be selected to provide a diversity of viewpoints not traditionally

represented in research on multicultural education (eg, physical education, science education, and early

childhood education) and the remaining program will be one with a focus on multicultural education.

Surveys

Participants will be pulled from four foundation courses in the Masters of Education curriculum.

These four programs will be selected as representative of the diversity of programs offered by the

college of education, and because the cohort model of these programs makes it simpler to follow the

students from beginning to end of their course of study. One section of each of the foundation courses

listed below will be selected, and the students in that section asked to participate in the research study

by committing to take an initial survey of multicultural orientation, and a follow-up survey upon

completion of their programs. An estimated 120 students (30 per section) will therefore be involved in

the initial and final surveys.

The questionnaire is entitled "Multiculturalism/Social Justice Orientation Survey" (Appendix A).

When filling out the survey, participants will provide their student number only in order to link pre and

post-survey responses; an alternate identification number will be assigned and the original student

number deleted from the records once both surveys are complete.


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The questionnaire is mostly comprised of Likert scale questions, with the exception of the

section addressing participant demographics. Each participant will be placed on an “equitative to

authoritative" scale, indicating their relative orientations towards believing in equity versus authority as

the core value and operating system of the classroom. Then the two scores, from the orientation

questionnaire and the formation questionnaire, will be compared to show how the participants'

attitudes did or did not change over time. To show broad trends across participants, the orientation

questionnaire scores will be combined to provide an average baseline for the group, and also reported

out in sub-group classifications (i.e., female white respondents, female minority respondents, male

white respondents, and male minority respondents). Responses to social justice questions will be

compared to participants' responses to demographic questions to show relationships between

participant profiles and their receptivity towards issues of social justice and equity.

Focus group interviews will be recorded and transcribed, and the researchers will examine them

to allow common themes to emerge. Once the researchers have agreed on the common themes seen

across the questionnaires and focus groups, the researchers and two independent trained scorers will

code the focus group transcripts according to the emergent themes. This process will allow the

researchers to track trends which appear in both the questionnaire responses and the focus group

transcriptions.

Focus Groups

From the initial pool of 120 teacher candidates, 5 from each academic program will be selected

for periodic focus group meetings. While each round of focus groups will have a different theme, all will

be conducted in a pattern of ordered turns and crosstalk (Anatheses, 2006) to allow each participant to

fully articulate their views. All focus group discussions will be recorded, transcribed, and pseudonyms

assigned to participants. Focus group participants will be linked to their survey responses using the

anonymous numbering system.


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The first focus group will meet towards the middle of the first spring semester, and the focus

groups will be organized by program. Topics discussed, while allowing for fluid discussion among

participants, will include their foundation courses and the conceptual and practical tools for working

with diverse learners thus far encountered.

The second focus group meeting will take place at the mid-point of the second fall semester in

the program. Participants will be asked to discuss their field experiences/internships undertaken up to

the present time in their course of study, and to relate how they were able to connect their theoretical

knowledge to their practical experiences.

The final focus round of focus groups will meet in the summer or early fall after completing

their course of study, depending on graduation date and participant availability. This focus group will

concentrate on a summative description of their teacher education experience, tying together

coursework, practica, and personal development.

If deemed necessary by the researcher, participants in the focus groups will be invited for final,

individual interviews the summer after the program concludes and again at the conclusion of their first

year teaching, in order to follow the threads which arose from the surveys and focus group discussions.

Program Assessment

Concurrently, a qualitative assessment of each teacher education program, focusing on (1)

materials presented to prospective candidates and accreditation boards; (2) course syllabi; and (3)

interviews with program faculty, will be undertaken to determine the commitment to diversity and

social justice and how this commitment carries over into the conceptual and practical aspects of the

program curriculum.

The methodology that will be used to analyze course syllabi is grounded in Zeichner and Hoeft’s

(1996) categories of teacher education programs, namely the idea that all teacher education programs

can be categorized along four dimensions with regards to diversity: infusion versus a segregated


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approach to cultural diversity; culture-specific versus cultural-general socialization strategies; interacting

with versus studying about cultures; and “the degree to which the teacher education program itself is a

model of the cultural inclusiveness and cultural responsiveness so often advocated by teacher educators

for K-12 schools” (p. 528). For the purpose of this analysis, the third and fourth dimensions will be

utilized. These theoretical distinctions will be operationalized as follows to allow for syllabi analysis:

interacting with versus studying about cultures will be demonstrated through an analysis of the level and

type of field experiences in a course; cultural “modeling” will be demonstrated through an analysis of

the number and variety of required readings.


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