Tools of inaction: the impasse between teaching social issues and creating social change

Abstract

Within the field of teacher education, increased emphasis has been placed on social justice education (SJE). This qualitative study examined a group of beginning teachers who voluntarily participated in a social justice critical inquiry project (CIP). The findings indicate that while many of them were successful at teaching social issues, they provided few to no opportunities for their students to engage in social action and they themselves did not participate in activism. To explain this, the participants used the following four tools of inaction: tools of substitution, postponement, displacement, and dismissal. These tools relieved the tension of not taking action and allowed the participants to postpone, justify, or redirect the responsibility of becoming active in struggling for sustainable social change. Understanding the use of these tools can help teacher educators to understand the process of development of social justice educators.

Keywords:

• social justice
• professional development
• teacher development
• teacher activism

Notes on contributors

Bree Picower is an assistant professor at Montclair State University in the College of Education and Human Development. Her book, Practice What You Teach: SJE in the Classroom and the Streets, available from Routledge, focuses on the continuum of development toward teacher activism. She is the co-editor of the annual Planning to Change the World: A Planbook for Social Justice Teachers published by the New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE) and the Education for Liberation Network, and she was awarded the Scholar Activist Award of 2013 by the Critical Educators for Social Justice SIG of the American Educational Research Association. Her recent scholarly articles have appeared in Teachers College Record, Teacher Education Quarterly, and Race, and Ethnicity and Education. Currently, as a core leader of NYCoRE and founding member of the national Teacher Activist Groups network, she works to create multiple spaces for educators to sharpen their political analysis and take action for educational justice.

Notes

1. For more information on the logistics of CIP, see Picower (2007). This previous article describes a pilot project of CIP.

2. Chantale had been a graduate student of mine at the same university. She was also a former student of mine, received similar pre-service education, and taught at the same school with three other participants.

3. The names of all of the CIP participants are pseudonyms.

4. Due to health issues, Hally was unable to participate in the interview.

5. Participants’ curricular projects are discussed further in Picower (2011b).

6. A more thorough exploration of how the participants taught social issues in unsupportive contexts can be found here: Picower (2011b).