Crossing borders in initial teacher education: mapping dispositions to diversity and inequity

Abstract

In this article, we share a study focused on engaging teacher candidates with multiple forms of diversity and inequity to study emerging patterns of dispositions. Our primary concern is in understanding the processes through which societal inequity becomes reconstituted through teacher education. Our study attempts to deepen discourses of ‘equality’ and ‘equity’ in education, to consider the ways teacher candidates relate to broader systems of power and global and local inequities through their role as educators. Inspired by both decolonial and Western critical theories, we frame this as research that seeks ‘otherwise’ as we invite teacher candidates to ‘cross borders’ to what is ‘other’ to themselves. In this article, we share our study’s priorities, methods, methodological/theoretical framework, data analysis and findings. Our findings identify a significant gap between the priorities of social equity to which teacher candidates state they commit and the educational practices that would affirm those commitments.

Keywords:

• Teacher education
• racism
• social justice
• equity
• decolonization
• critical theory

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to the reviewers of this article and the editors of this journal for their insightful comments and suggestions. We would also express our gratitude to the authors we draw upon in this work who have enriched our perspectives. Special thanks to Sharon Stein for reading an earlier version of this work and providing her thoughtful insights.

Notes

1. We are in the midst of finalizing another article with an emphasis on examining issues of ecological justice and Indigeneity emerging from this study, and therefore will not focus on that aspect in this article.

2. The distinction between the terms self-reflection and self-reflexivity draws from Andreotti (2014) wherein it is suggested that self-reflection involves consideration of individual journeys, assumptions and decisions, whereas self-reflexivity relates to the practice of tracing these reflections to collective social, cultural and historical narratives that unequally position individuals and groups.