Learning to Teach for Social Justice as a Cross Cultural Concept: Findings from Three Countries

Abstract

All over the world, countries are paying close attention to how teachers are recruited, selected, and prepared for the nation's schools. Increasingly, teachers are expected to teach all students to high standards at the same time that they play a major role in meeting rising expectations regarding social equity. Preparing teachers for these challenges is among the most pressing and complex tasks in teacher education. In response to these and other challenges, some initial teacher education programs now include among their major goals preparing teachers to teach for social justice, work toward equity and access for all students, and/or challenge inequities in existing educational systems and policies. This article focuses on three initial teacher education programs-one each in the United States, New Zealand, and Ireland. Although these programs differ from one another in many ways, they also share some goals related to teaching for social justice and equity. The article examines longitudinal survey data regarding teacher candidates' scores on the "Learning to Teach for Social Justice-Beliefs" scale, which was designed to measure candidates' endorsement of beliefs consistent with the concept of teaching for social justice. For each of the three research sites, the article analyzes: (a) demographic and teacher quality contexts, (b) initial teacher education program goals related to social justice/social equity, and (c) the results of surveys administered to teacher candidates at entry to and exit from the programs. The article concludes with discussion of learning to teach for social justice as a cross-cultural concept. The Convergence of Two Global TrendsWe begin with analysis of two global trends that converged during the last decade of the 20 th century and the first decade of the 21 st . This convergence is the context for the empirical research reported here. In many countries around the world, there is now unprecedented emphasis on teacher quality with extremely high expectations for teacher performance (Cochran-Smith, 2005;Furlong, Cochran-Smith & Brennan, 2009; Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2005). Based on the assumption that education and the economy are tightly linked, it is now assumed in many countries that teachers can-and should-teach all students to world-class standards, serve as the linchpins in educational reform, and produce a well-qualified labor force to preserve or boost a nation's position in the global economy (Darling-Hammond, 2010;McKenzie & Santiago, 2005). This perspective, which Spring (2010) calls "the human capital paradigm," assumes that a nation's place in the knowledge economy depends on the quality of its educational system and that the primary purpose of education, which

Öğretimde Sosyal Adalet İnançları Ölçeği’nin Türkçe Uyarlaması

“…Öğretimde Sosyal Adalet İnançları Ölçeği (ÖSAİÖ), Enterline ve diğerleri ( 2008) tarafından geliştirilmiş ve çeşitli araştırmalarda kullanılmıştır (Cochran-Smith, Ludlow, Ell, O'Leary ve Enterline, 2012;Ginns ve diğerleri, 2015;Hellman, Bazan, Wagoner ve Heuser, 2013;Lazar, 2012;Reagan, 2016;Venkatesh, 2015). ÖSAİÖ, sosyal adalet ilkelerine bağlılığın zamanla gelişip değişiklik gösterebildiği varsayımından hareketle, öğretmen adaylarının öğretmen eğitimi programlarına başladıkları ilk yıl ile burada geçirdikleri üç yılın sonundaki sosyal adalet inançlarındaki değişimin ne düzeyde olduğunun belirlenmesi için geliştirilmiştir (Burton, 2011).…”

From Distance Education to Fragile Contexts: A Student Voice Research in the Third Space

“…A key component of this model is forming critical practitioners to promote agency and engage in advocacy [20]. According to Cochran-Smith, a theory of social justice should rise to the challenge of connecting the concept of "distributive justice", which is attributed key importance in modern liberal democracies, with the political struggles against inequalities and oppression of certain marginalized social groups, who have been deprived of their rights, identity and recognition [21]; hence, a teacher trained in Social Justice Education should be able to recognize differences in the distribution of educational resources and opportunities and strive to ensure that -even for the most disadvantaged students (who often belong to ethnic minorities or marginalized social groups) -the school functions as a "social elevator". Such teachers are thus reflective researchers [22], who through their professional action reflect and lead others to reflect on the school system as an ideological apparatus of power; they increase students' awareness of their own social condition and of the dynamics underpinning democratic societies.…”

Diseño y Validación de los Cuestionarios de Representaciones de Justicia Social para Estudiantes de Educación Secundaria (CRJSES) y para Profesores (CRJSP)

“…Como se ha demostrado en estudios previos (Cochran-Smith et al, 2012;Enterline et al, 2008;Lazar, 2012;McDonald, 2005), estas evaluaciones también pueden ser útiles para medir los cambios que manifiestan los estudiantes de estos programas tras su formación. Evaluando las ideas o representaciones que tienen sobre la Justicia Social, se podría valorar la eficacia de las intervenciones en clase, incrementando a su vez una mayor conciencia sobre estas preocupaciones (Torres-Harding et al, 2014).…”