“Learning Our Way Through”: Critical Professional Development for Social Justice in Teacher Education

ABSTRACT

While research indicates that critical professional development (CPD) can function as an alternative to dominant forms of top-down, anti-dialogical professional learning in K-12 settings, there is limited research on CPD in higher education, or among teacher education faculty specifically. In this article, we examine how participation in a year-long social justice-oriented faculty learning community (FLC) impacted faculty members’ identities and trajectories as social justice teacher educators and scholars. Our findings indicate that CPD can meet university-based educators’ hunger for community, professional learning, and strategic alliances, as well as increase their sense of efficacy and authenticity as social justice educators.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by the California State University, Fullerton President’s Commission for Equity and Inclusion.