Supporting Critical Multicultural Teacher Educators: Transformative teaching, social justice education, and perceptions of institutional support (original) (raw)
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Comparative and International Education
This paper describes a recent initiative designed to provide support for teacher candidates from culturally diverse backgrounds as they traverse a one-year teacher education program in Canada. Results and discussion are based on qualitative data from an information survey, student-professor conversations, a review of seminar documents and processes, and observations and reflections made by professors conducting the seminar. Overall, the Language and Cultural Engagement Seminar was successful in providing a supportive environment in which complicated and politically volatile issues, which would otherwise have remained unacknowledged, were discussed openly. The main concerns expressed by participants were the communication concern (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, accent, etc.), concern for power and authority in the classroom, and the socio-cultural acceptance concern. Power and communication concerns diminished when teacher candidates felt a level of cultural acceptance in the cl...
The Training of Teachers for Cultural Diversity and Social Justice
2004
Introduction: the ethnocentric curriculum and the challenge of intercultural teaching In what contexts are teachers taught how to address racism and other forms of oppression in schools and society? How do we develop culturally relevant pedagogy for all students, in the interests of equity and social justice? And when teachers do receive such training, what might it look like and how do we evaluate it? It has been suggested that debate about multicultural education tends to take place against a background of social stability and shared debate of the kind that characterizes the wealthy countries of the 'North' (Morrow, 1996: 99). Yet it should be at the forefront of discussions in all societies seeking to teach for social justice, global perspectives and equity. Discussions of issues and strategies in multicultural teacher education seem, in the literature, to be addressing mainly the context of the white-dominant countries. Many compelling teacher education experiments in developing intercultural knowledge and skills are described, but the literature also suggests that an engagement with these issues is the exception rather than the rule. Most teacher education courses carry out only minimally their rhetorical goals of preparing teachers to practise 'inclusive' education. Various subjects introduce the concept that teachers must strive to contribute to equity in the learning experiences of different ethnic, gender and ability groups. However, in Australia, Canada, Sweden, United Kingdom, the United States and other countries very few courses make it compulsory for all student teachers to do a systematic and critical study of how such equity can be promoted (Hickling-Hudson and McMeniman, 1996; Ghosh, 1996; Tomlinson, 1996; Zeichner, 1996). Across the globe, most teacher education courses, like most school curricula, are still founded on a model of cultural hegemony characterized by a narrowly Western ideology shaping the content, structures and processes of learning. As Willinsky (1998: 11) points out, it would be surprising, after five centuries of the educational mission that was a part of Europe's period of 1. My grateful thanks to Dr Roberta Ahlquist for her constructive critical comments on drafts of this essay.
Journal of Teacher Education, 2019
Multicultural and social justice teacher education (MSJTE) scholars often have argued the importance of critical reflection in the cultivation of equity and social justice minded educators. In this critical content analysis study, we used existing conceptualizations of critical reflection to analyze reflection assignments from MSJTE courses in education degree and licensing programs in the United States to identify the nature of critical reflection incorporated into them and what distinguished critical reflection opportunities from other reflective assignments. Based on this analysis, we offer the beginnings of a typology of five approaches to reflection in multicultural and social justice education courses: (a) amorphous “cultural” reflection, (b) personal identity reflection, (c) cultural competence reflection, (d) equitable and just school reflection, and (e) social transformation reflection. We describe the characteristics of each and the role they might play in MSJTE contexts.
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This article explores teachers' participation in the school's social justice system through the lens of the critical multicultural approach (May & Sleeter, 2010; May, 2000; 2003). Based on a research project about reconstruction and the theorization of teachers' stories of practice (Desgagné, 2005) in a multiethnic context, data was collected from teachers in highly multiethnic primary schools in Québec. They were asked to narrate a story about a problem or an event with an immigrant or refugee student in their class. Four of these stories have been selected for this article. Our aim was to analyze the teachers' cultural responses and their perception of their roles in supporting their students. Our analysis shows that although these teachers tend to make changes to their students' reality, they cannot escape or contest "alone" the norms of an academic, societal and political system that governs its power relationships and privileges its dominant norms and values.
Chapter 3. Educating teachers for cultural diversity and social justice
In what contexts are teachers taught how to address racism and other forms of oppression in schools and society? How do we develop culturally relevant pedagogy for all students, in the interests of equity and social justice? And when teachers do receive such training, what might it look like and how do we evaluate it? It has been suggested that debate about multicultural education tends to take place against a background of social stability and shared debate of the kind that characterizes the wealthy countries of the 'North' (Morrow, 1996: 99). Yet it should be at the forefront of discussions in all societies seeking to teach for social justice, global perspectives and equity. Discussions of issues and strategies in multicultural teacher education seem, in the literature, to be addressing mainly the context of the white-dominant countries. Many compelling teacher education experiments in developing intercultural knowledge and skills are described, but the literature also s...
Educational Foundations, 2011
This essay documents a few key examples of the critical pedagogy and curriculum that we employ to challenge pre-service and in-service teachers to consider the concrete and theoretical contexts of taking on a socialactivist-teacher persona. Our vision of social justice is rooted firmly in the critical tradition, as it is anchored in excavating unjust social and economic formations that imperil the vast majority of the world's population, while concomitantly empowering the economic elite. Not only do we believe that teacher educators must take the lead in helping their students recognize the social, political, and economic forces creating injustice in schools and in the wider society, but they must help current and future teachers develop emancipatory visions of how to develop instructional designs, collaborate with educators, and engage in activist initiatives which have the potential to eliminate social inequalities and build institutional
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After three years of exploration, discussions, decision-making, and piloting, we graduated the first cohort of students in Spring 2016. This qualitative case study explored these questions: (1) to what extent does the program foster the development of reflective and self-aware novice teachers?, (2) to what degree do students connect sociological and critical theory and progressive educational ideals to their teaching?, and (3) in what ways does the program encourage and support participation in communities of practice centered on multicultural awareness, critical reflection, and theory-to-practice connections? We report outcomes that are decidedly mixed, and outline plans for further redesign.
Multicultural Perspectives, 2019
As social justice–oriented teachers and teacher educators, it can seem as if we are fighting a losing battle against neoliberal education policies designed to disrupt and dismantle our field. In this article we draw upon traditions of critical race theory, counterstorying, and critical hope to examine the complex realities of contemporary teacher education and envision an alternate reality in which our profession develops and thrives. To do so, we first present a series of autoethnographic critical case studies that highlight dilemmas of practice. We then invite readers to examine each case through multiple lenses, as they grapple with the complexities of a visionary path forward. In so doing, we offer tools for critical professional development that articulate, deconstruct, and reimagine social justice–oriented teacher education and activism in this changing landscape. We close with recommendations to increase our collective capacity as social justice teacher educators, placing a central emphasis on the need for community, critical professional development, and hope.