Fostering anti-oppressive pedagogies in preservice teachers: the role of the university supervisor

Abstract

As anti-oppressive pedagogies gain increasing prominence in teacher education, there is a need to examine how preservice teachers understand and implement anti-oppressive frameworks. The role of the university supervisor is uniquely well-positioned to allow for insight into preservice teacher pedagogical practices; however, this role is grossly understudied. This study explores how the university supervisor fosters White preservice teachers’ theoretical and historical understandings of oppression, as well as the supervisor's role in the negotiation between preservice teacher identity and implementations of anti-oppressive pedagogies. This study utilizes data from preservice teachers’ observations and reflections, and positions the university supervisor as an autoethnographic educator-researcher in order to understand the White supervisor’s own anti-oppressive practices. Drawing on Critical Whiteness Studies informed by intersectionality, we present two vignettes that illuminate the interplay between identity, anti-oppressive teaching, and the university supervisor. This research brings a new and pertinent lens to the field of education.

Keywords:

• University supervisor
• teacher education
• preservice teachers
• teacher identity
• anti-oppressive pedagogy
• autoethnography

Acknowledgements

There are no acknowledgements to declare.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the University of Minnesota. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for this study. Data are available from Dr. Megan C. Deutschman with the permission of the University of Minnesota.

Notes

1 Missing from this conceptualization of the triad is the students as critical stakeholders.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Megan C. Deutschman

Dr. Megan C. Deutschman holds a PhD in Organizational Leadership, Policy and Development with a concentration in Comparative and International Development Education from the University of Minnesota. Megan’s research focuses on how White educators develop racialized awareness and the ways that racial ideologies change and fluctuate through time and in context. Megan uses Critical Whiteness Studies as a framework to understand the nuanced and intersectional factors that contribute to how White educators make sense of their identities. Megan has been working as a university supervisor since 2018. Prior to her PhD, Megan was a K-8 classroom teacher.

Charlene L. Cornwell

Charlene L. Cornwell is a Ph.D. student in Curriculum and Instruction with concentration in Culture and Teaching at the University of Minnesota. Charlene’s research focuses on building anti-oppressive and liberatory pedagogies with elementary preservice teachers. Specifically, Charlene seeks to understand how preservice teachers negotiate their identities as elementary educators, how they foster and use their agency to disrupt oppression in their classrooms, and foster criticality and social justice in their young students. Charlene was a veteran elementary school teacher prior to pursuing her Ph.D. and has worked as a university supervisor since 2019.

Scott M. Sundstrom

Scott M. Sundstrom is a Ph.D. student in Curriculum and Instruction with a dual concentration in Social Studies and Elementary Education at the University of Minnesota. Scott’s research focuses on examining the implementation of LGBTQ-inclusive curricula in the elementary grades. Through both liberatory pedagogy and anti-oppressive pedagogy, Scott challenges the traditional ways in which schooling has been done in order to raise awareness of minoritized and oppressed peoples in classrooms and to find ways to dismantle the power structures that keep them in the margins. Scott has been working as a university supervisor since 2020. Prior to his PhD, Scott was a K-5 classroom teacher and a 9-12 school administrator.