Dispositions for Critical Social Justice Teaching and Learning

Abstract

This article examines the social justice dispositions that, when honed and developed over time, enable prospective teachers-and teacher educators-to embrace social justice praxis and persist in their everyday quest for equitable educational conditions, opportunities, and outcomes. Developed through work in a Community of Practice (CoP), these dispositions include radical openness, humility, and self-vigilance. In this article, we define each disposition and explore how they may be cultivated, enacted, and modeled in teacher education. These dispositions, we argue, serve as reminders of the unfinishedness of our work and the effort required to stay the course of equity and justice in the rough waters of the status quo.

Reflecting on lecturer dispositions to decolonise teacher education

“…Similarly, Villegas (2007) argued that dispositions are tendencies for individuals to act in a particular manner, under particular circumstances, based on their beliefs. In analysing the above definitions of dispositions, Bondy, Beck, Curcio, and Schroeder (2017) argued that for them the term, dispositions, encapsulates both beliefs and actions, and they rejected the notion that dispositions are purely based on one's personality and can therefore not be changed. Thus, they defined dispositions as the context specific manifestations, whether mental or physical, of one's beliefs and actions that, while predictable, are nevertheless capable of being changed over time.…”

“…Splitter (2010) argued that dispositions move beyond what people might know or be able to do at the current moment, and incline towards what may be possible for a person to do in terms of their conscious mental state, thereby alluding to the fact that a disposition can be learned. Bondy et al (2017) posited that certain beliefs, values, and attitudes, when honed and developed over time, can create a certain disposition.…”

“…Mitchie (2012) and Bondy et al (2017) suggested that in order to enhance lecturer dispositions, various values should be honed and supported. These values include radical openness, humility, and self-vigilance.…”

Community-Engaged Teacher Preparation and the Development of Dispositions for Equity and Social Justice

“…They are commitments of habit and thought and action that grow as the teacher learns, acts, and reflects under the guidance of teachers and mentors in a preparation program and in the first years of practice. (p. 14-15) While many individuals in the field of educator preparation cling to the notion of dispositions as easily observable professional behaviors (see Watermark, 2019), others have elevated distinct values and orientations required in order to be worthy of teaching children in a socially just and equitable fashiondispositions, which we believe require more in-depth field experience that interface with traditionally minoritized communities in order to effectively assess (see Bondy, Beck, Curcio, & Schroeder, 2017;Howard, 2009;University of Michigan, 2009;University of Minnesota, 2017;Villegas, 2007). Howard (2009), for example, articulates the embodiment of dispositions toward difference, dialogue, disillusionment, and democracy as essential in working with an increasingly diverse populations of children and families if an equitable education is to be realized.…”

“…Howard (2009), for example, articulates the embodiment of dispositions toward difference, dialogue, disillusionment, and democracy as essential in working with an increasingly diverse populations of children and families if an equitable education is to be realized. Similarly, Bondy et al (2017) developed dispositions for "critical social justice teaching and learning" including radical openness, humility, and self-vigilanceall connected within a "justice as praxis" framework illuminating the structural injustice and inequity that shape our communities and schools. The University of Michigan employs an evaluation of candidates' "ethical obligations" including dispositions toward care and commitment, competence, equitable access, difference and diversity, capacity for learning, personal responsibility, power and authority, respect, and subject matter integrityall within an emphasis on privileging diverse perspectives, cultural backgrounds, and worldviews as resources with which to connect for the purpose of instruction.…”