Examining the Intersection of Social Justice and State Standards with Elementary Preservice Teachers

ABSTRACT

This investigation considered the social justice perspectives and coursework of 19 preservice teachers enrolled in an elementary education program. An elementary education course required students to complete a social justice project on a current issue in education and design a lesson for their future classrooms that met a state standard. Upon completion of the project, students completed a personal reflection and engaged in a class discussion on social justice education. Three categories of projects were identified through an inductive and deductive thematic analysis. Some participants created lesson plans on their topic but ignored social justice; some participants created lesson plans infused with social justice that contradicted their personal views, and some participants created social justice lesson plans that aligned with their personal views. The analysis exposed gaps between participants’ perceptions of themselves and how they would integrate social justice topics into their classrooms. Most participants viewed themselves as social justice educators, but their social justice values did not translate into anticipated actions. Implications for teacher education are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher education
• standardization
• social justice
• reflection

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kyle Miller

Kyle Miller was an urban educator before becoming an Associate Professor at Illinois State University. She currently teaches courses related to child development, elementary education, and research methods. Her research focuses on home-school relationships and social justice.

Gary Weilbacher

Gary Weilbacher taught special and regular education in Madison, WI for eleven years before spending the last 20 years in middle level teacher education at Illinois State. He teaches middle level education classes and is involved in a professional development partnership with seven local middle grades schools.