Social Justice in Teacher Education: A Qualitative Content Analysis of NCATE Conceptual Frameworks

Abstract

A review of theoretical or conceptual writing on teacher education reveals numerous examples of the term “social justice” in discussions of preservice preparation. Despite this widespread use, little research documents if and how teacher education programs utilize the concept in their programs. This study examines how institutions that included “social justice” within their NCATE accreditation documents used the term in their articulation of program practices, goals, and values. Based on an extensive qualitative content analysis of NCATE conceptual frameworks, the authors assert that the social justice reform agenda is only weakly represented in accreditation artifacts and that there is little consensus on the enactment of social justice in teacher education, even among those programs that invoke the terminology.

Notes

1. See www.ncate.org/documents/IOFall05/introframework.ppt.

2. A complete list of the institutions referenced here is available, upon request, from the authors.

3. All quotes from NCATE accreditation documents are not cited here but are available, upon request, from the authors.

4. This exact phrase, once used in NCATE as an example of a disposition, was later removed by NCATE. Some institutions cited NCATE when the phrase was used, some did not.