“A Good Text with a Well-Intended Teacher”: New Educators Developing and Deepening Social Justice Literature Pedagogies

ABSTRACT

This qualitative case study examines the experiences of four new educators who participated in a semester-long professional development institute aimed at fostering social justice literature instruction. Specifically, we examine what practices new educators developed and deepened over the course of the institute. Data interpreted through deductive and inductive coding and analysis revealed three major practices: complicating and expanding mandated curriculum, and developing principles for student responsive literature selection. Our implications address how teacher educators can support preservice and new teachers in enacting social justice literature pedagogies.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported and would not be possible without Learning for Justice (LFJ), a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Educator Fund.

Disclosure statement

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

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Learning for Justice, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center [Educator Fund].