The Pedagogy of Assignments in Social Justice Teacher Education

Abstract

This article examines the pedagogy of assignments in social justice teacher education programs. Employing a programmatic view, this study aims to understand the collective representation of social justice provided by assignments across multiple courses. Findings come from a qualitative case study of two social justice programs. Drawing on concepts from sociocultural theory and a theory of justice, this study reveals that the conceptions of justice assignments that were emphasized varied from a focus on the individual needs of students to an emphasis on the sociopolitical conditions of schooling. When assignments drew on teachers' field placement experiences, they overwhelmingly stressed an individualistic notion of justice. The diversity among students in teachers' placements substantially shaped teachers' opportunities to engage this notion. When assignments emphasized the sociopolitical conditions of schooling, they focused on general principles for teaching and were disconnected from teachers' field placement experiences. Implications for practice and research in social justice teacher education are considered.

Morva McDonald is an assistant professor in curriculum and instruction and teacher education in the College of Education at the University of Washington. Her research interests include social justice, multicultural education, and organizational change in teacher education.

Notes

¹ Throughout this article, I refer to these programs as the Mills and SJSU programs. Both programs have agreed to be identified, but the names of all individuals are pseudonyms.

² See McDonald (2007) for a more in depth discussion of the selection of Young's (1990) theory of justice to frame the analysis of the integration of social justice in teacher education.

³ I do not have any official affiliation with either institution.

⁴ For a description of the survey items see McDonald, 2003.

⁵ Three out of the five case study teachers at Mills explicitly selected the program because of its attention to social justice and equity. Only one of the five SJSU case study teachers was aware of the program's focus on social justice and equity upon entry.

⁶ In the Mills case, the average response of the cohort to survey items was 4.1 on a Likert scale of one to five with a standard deviation of .237. The Mills case study teachers' average response to survey items also was 4.1 with a standard deviation of .319. In the case of SJSU, the average response of the cohort to survey items was 3.9 with a standard deviation of .336 and the case study teachers' average response was 4.1 with a standard deviation of .198.

⁷ I observed the following courses at Mills: Learning and Child Development, General Curriculum and Instruction, Introduction to Teaching, Teaching English Language Learners, the Early Childhood Seminar, and Program Retreats. At SJSU, I observed the following courses: Classroom Management, Multicultural Foundations, Language Arts and Literacy, and the Seminar. For both programs, I collected syllabi and assignment descriptions for all courses.

⁸ For a more thorough discussion of the framework of prospective teachers' opportunities to learn in social justice teacher education programs see McDonald, 2005.