Individual and Structural Orientations in Socially Just Teaching: Conceptualization, Implementation, and Collaborative Effort

This essay, drawn from theory, research, and the author’s practitioner research as a teacher educator, proposes a framework to inform teacher educators’ conceptualization and implementation of socially just teaching. The framework suggests that building on dispositions of fairness and the belief that all children can learn, a socially just teacher will engage in professional reflection and judgment using both an individual and a structural orientation to analyze the students’ academic difficulties and determine the cause and the solution to those difficulties, realizing that both individual and structural realities affect students’ learning. The essay then suggests how this individual and structural framework can inform the content and teaching strategies teacher educators use to instruct preservice teachers in socially just education. Finally, recommendations for research and dialogue in the teacher education community are suggested

The Presence and Possibility of Moral Sensibility in Beginning Pre-Service Teachers

This paper presents research on the moral sensibility of six pre-service teachers in an undergraduate teacher education program. Using their reflective writing across their first two semesters of coursework as well as focus group interviews in their third semester as sources of data, the paper identifies and describes three distinctive types of moral sensibility and examines ways in which moral sensibility interacts with experiences in teacher education. Suggestions for explicitly incorporating the moral in pre-service teacher education are presented

Reclaiming the Moral in the Dispositions Debate

This article addresses the current debates about the definition and assessment of dispositions in teacher education. Competing perspectives on the definitions and assessment of dispositions in teacher education are examined and critiqued, and a renewed commitment to foregrounding the moral nature of teaching is suggested. Recommendations for understanding and assessing the moral in teacher education, including the development of a code of ethics for the profession, are provided

A Novice Teacher\u27s Beliefs About Socially Just Teaching: Dialogue of Many Voices

This case study explores the reality shock experienced by a White novice teacher, committed to socially just teaching, in her first year in an urban context. The apparently successful novice held three beliefs about her practice and herself: that socially just teaching was a holistic practice; that it could and should be done “right”; and that, based on her previous levels of success, she should be able to succeed in implementing this practice. These beliefs, derived from various voices and interacting in ongoing dialogue, produced negative effects in the teacher. Implications for teacher educators preparing novice teachers are given

Whiteness Enacted, Whiteness Disrupted: The Complexity of Personal Congruence

This study of the enactment and disruption of Whiteness in two White secondary literacy teachers focuses on their life histories and their practice and policy in relation to students of color. Both teachers demonstrated some disruption of Whiteness as well as some continued enactment of Whiteness, despite their stated intentions. The findings indicate that neither an abolition of Whiteness nor a rearticulation of Whiteness includes a sufficiently complex understanding of how disruption of Whiteness is influenced by the interplay of personal identity, the need to maintain personal congruence, and the cultural constraints of Whiteness. The author suggests that the inclusion of a psychological framework will be valuable in further exploration of the disruption of Whiteness

The Intersection of Identity, Beliefs, and Politics in Conceptualizing ‘Teacher Identity’

Teacher beliefs play a fundamental role in the education landscape. Nevertheless, most educational researchers only allude to teacher beliefs as part of a study on other subjects. This book fills a necessary gap by identifying the importance of research on teacher beliefs and providing a comprehensive overview of the topic. It provides novices and experts alike a single volume with which to understand a complex research landscape. Including a review of the historical foundations of the field, this book identifies current research trends, and summarizes the current knowledge base regarding teachers’ specific beliefs about content, instruction, students, and learning. For its innumerable applications within the field, this handbook is a necessity for anyone interested in educational research