‘I was kind of teaching myself’: teachers’ conversations about social justice and teaching for change

Abstract

This article shares teachers’ conversations within teacher inquiry groups and considers how this reflective approach has potential for transforming teachers’ practices. Conversations took place at the early stages of a longer teacher inquiry project and centred on the critical interrogation of social justice-oriented children’s literature. These conversations served as a forum to help teacher professional learning communities and to reconcile understandings about social justice, action and agency within larger political and cultural forums of teaching. The teacher inquiry sessions shared in this paper explore teachers’ beginning struggles with conceptualizations of social justice, and the teacher’s role in imparting values to students. Teacher participants imparted their experience and practice as they negotiated their own understanding and implementation of social justice education in their schools. The teacher inquiry groups provided a needed supportive space where classroom teachers’ struggles were shared alongside their beliefs and pedagogical approaches so that a social justice agenda could be achieved.

Keywords:

• teacher inquiry
• social justice
• curriculum
• children’s literature
• professional learning

Acknowledgements

The authors would like thank the Eastern School District of Newfoundland and Labrador for encouraging teachers who were a part of the Language Arts professional learning group to engage in this study of children’s literature and social justice.

Notes

1. The name Karen is a pseudonym for the teacher cited. All names of participants/teachers are pseudonyms.

2. Children in Grade 6 in Canada are typically 11–12 years old.

3. In Canada, beginning in the nineteenth century, and lasting late into the twentieth century, the Department of Indian Affairs removed First Nations children from their communities and placed them in boarding schools as part of a process of assimilation, in order to teach them Christian and Canadian ways of being and knowing. More information can be found at http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/a-history-of-residential-schools-in-canada-1.702280 (accessed August 9, 2016).

4. Learn more about Craig and Marc Kielburgers’ ‘We to Me’ campaign here: http://www.metowe.com/our-founders-craig-and-marc/ (accessed August 9, 2016). ‘We to Me’ is a charitable organization interested in helping child labourers in developing countries and has a number of related initiatives.

5. Children in Grade 5 are in their sixth year of school (10–11 years old), as they usually start in Kindergarten when they are five years old; typically children in Grade 9 are 14–15 years old.

6. EDMODO™ is a free online educational tool used to create groups and share information and ideas.

7. Ning™ is a paid online tool where educators can set up groups/classes to share course materials. It has much of the functionality and feel of Facebook™.