"Walk It Like I Talk It": A Framework for Developing Humanizing Dispositions in Teacher Education

Abstract

Schools are a microcosm of a society; thus, dehumanization abounds in the spaces of schooling (Darling-Hammond, 2017;Rogers et al., 2017). This dismal reality makes the impetus toward rehumanization (Author, year) in education more vital than ever. Teacher educators can foster humanization in education by developing pre-service teachers' humanizing dispositions, or "beliefs and actions that advance the dignity, humanity, and development of culturally and linguistically diverse learners" (Author, year, p. 29). Scholars emphasize the importance of conceptualizing dispositions as beliefs and actions (Caroll, 2012;Villegas, 2007;Zenkert, 2013).Thus, developing dispositions hinges on a teacher's ability to, in the words of hip hop artists Migos, "Walk it like I talk it" (Marshall et al., 2018). This imperative corresponds with the teachings of Freire (1970) who declares that action and reflection can transform the world.The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of humanizing dispositions through a multiple regression analysis of five theoretically based contributing variables delineated in a framework for teaching known as the Framework for Equitable and Excellent Teaching (FEET). See Appendix A. The research question is: How do the observed variables of lovingness, acceptance, hope, courage, and advocacy contribute to the latent trait of humanizing disposition in pre-service teachers? Based on a sample of 230 pre-service teachers, the variables were tested using a multiple regression analysis to examine relationships among the variables and the latent trait. Findings reveal a path diagram (Appendix C) that illustrates the effects of the variables on the development of humanizing dispositions. This research is significant to the field in that it provides a framework for developing humanizing dispositions in pre-service teaching.