Expanding and Expounding Upon Forum Theater to Engage Spect-actors in Virtual Spaces

In this article, we analyze our experiences of jokering in online spaces during the pandemic. Our journey traversed the 2020/2021 academic year, engaging in Forum Theater work with a local university and community organization. During our planning, leading, and reflecting on these experiences themes emerged addressing the efficacy of practicing Forum Theater in an online setting, as well as recommendations for TO practitioners who wish to pursue online Forum Theater in the future

Intratexturealities: The Poetics of the Freedom Schools

Freedom Schools, which operated during 1964 after the collaborative efforts of several Civil Rights organizations, provided an opportunity to understand how students can drive the curriculum to meet individual and collective needs within a community. The presence and use of poetry throughout the Freedom Schools was mysterious, given that it is virtually absent in the curriculum guide, memos, and documents prepared by the administrative staff members and teachers. Students’ poetry not only revealed the intersections and layers of lived experience, society, and culture, but also their agency in the context of an anti-oppressive education project

Identities and Social Justice Values of Prospective Teachers of Color: A Case Study of Three Prospective Teachers of Color

This empirical study of social justice values among three prospective teachers who identity as being of color emphasizes the constellations of social justice sensibilities (perceptions of injustice, concern for the situations of others, socio-political and cultural consciousness, sensitivity regarding the conditions of others) they derived from race related socio-cultural experiences and expressed as social justice values oriented toward injustice. This study aimed to understand where normative theories of justice converge and diverge with prospective teachers\u27 beliefs and actions (as indicators of values) depicting what they perceive as just or fair. This included understanding the relationships among racial and/or ethnic identity (or other aspects of identity), socio-cultural experience, social justice sensibilities and values, and the perspectives of prospective teachers of color regarding the role of teachers, students, and institutions in educating all students. It is descriptive in its attempt to identify prominent socio-cultural experiences related to race. It is explanatory in its attempt to describe how such experiences figure in the formation and articulation of thoughts (i.e., beliefs, attitudes) and actions (i.e., verbal, interactions, inaction) as dispositions related to social justice in real life (versus experimental) settings, and normative in its attempt to inform and improve teacher education. The expected outcomes of this study were: (1) To gain a better understanding of the role of race and/or ethnicity in fostering socio-cultural experiences affecting the development of social justice sensibilities. (2) To contribute to the profile of social justice sensibilities and the formation and articulation (orientations and expressions) of social justice values in context. (3) To make suggestions for teacher education in response to participants\u27 perspectives, discourses, paradigms, and philosophies of justice

Problematic Conceptualizations: Allies in Teacher Education for Social Justice

This review of the literature on the concept ally and ally identity development was inspired by a qualitative study exploring the identities and social justice values of prospective teachers of color. Although the participants in the original study never used the term ally, their narratives inspired me to characterize them as allies in the struggle for social justice education. However, a review of the literature on allies, as analyzed through critical race theory and critical discourse analysis, revealed emerging conceptualizations of ally as incongruent with minority identities as they position people of color at the periphery of this social justice discourse in education. As the emerging literature on allies from student affairs begins to penetrate teacher education, I urge teacher educators to consider the implications of these conceptualizations for the preparation of teachers

Public acts of self-deliberation: Preparation for discursivedemocracy in education

This conceptual essay forwards self-deliberation as an act to be included in the preparation of educators and administrators. Self-deliberation is defined as a public act of deliberation that can be instigated pedagogically to prepare students for difficult dialogues on enduring issues in education. Self-deliberation provides another pedagogical method for preparing aspiring educators to participate in deliberative or discursive democracy. Narrative vignettes are used to illustrate the acts of self-deliberation performed by aspiring teachers of color as they consider controversial issues such as affirmative action, racial segregation, and culturally relevant education