To live justice-oriented commitments in teaching practice, approaches spanning Social Justice Teacher Education, the Core Practice Movement, and Context-specific Teacher Preparation might dovetail by identifying “social justice core practices” (SJCPs) novices learn to enact. At the intersection of the situated and critical perspectives underlying these three approaches, this study investigates the SJCPs of Philadelphia educators and how they characterize their contextuality. A modified Delphi study drawing on the expertise of 27 local social justice educators revealed group consensus on 13 SJCPs. Further qualitative analysis surfaced four patterns related to contextuality: SJCPs as responses to macrosociopolitical inequities, manifesting critical praxis; the role of school, district, and professional constraints; the need to situate and adapt SJCPs for the subject area and grade level; and the inseparability of identity and positionality from enactment. From this site-specific approach positioning local educators as experts, implications for teacher education’s role in shaping a more justice-oriented profession are discussed.
BallD.L. (2018, April15). Just dreams and imperatives: The power of teaching in the struggle for public education. Presidential Address, American Education Research Association Annual Meeting, New York, NY, United States.
2.
BallD. L.ForzaniF. M. (2009). The Work of teaching and the challenge for teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 60(5), 497–511. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487109348479
3.
BallD. L.ForzaniF. M. (2011). Building a common core for learning to teach and connecting professional learning to practice. American Educator, 35(2), 17–21, 38–39.
4.
BanksJ. A. (1993). Multicultural education: Historical development, dimensions, and practice. Review of Research in Education, 19, 3–49.
5.
Calabrese BartonA.TanE.BirminghamD. J. (2020). Rethinking high-leverage practices in justice-oriented ways. Journal of Teacher Education, 71(4), 477–494. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487119900209
6.
ChubbuckS. M. (2010). Individual and structural orientations in socially just teaching: Conceptualization, implementation, and collaborative effort. Journal of Teacher Education, 61(3), 197–210. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487109359777
7.
ClaytonM. J. (1997). Delphi: A Technique to harness expert opinion for critical decision-making tasks in education. Educational Psychology, 17(4), 373–386. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144341970170401
8.
Cochran-SmithM.EllF.GrudnoffL.HaighM.HillM.LudlowL. (2016). Initial teacher education: What does it take to put equity at the center?Teaching and Teacher Education, 57, 67–78. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2016.03.006
9.
DanielsJ. R.VargheseM. (2019). Troubling practice: Exploring the relationship between whiteness and practice-based teacher education in considering raciolinguicized teacher subjectivity. Educational Researcher, 49(1), 56–63. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X19879450
10.
DomínguezM. (2021). Cultivating epistemic disobedience: Exploring the possibilities of a decolonial practice-based teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 72(5), 551–563. http://doi.org/10.1177/0022487120978152
11.
EsmondeI.BookerA. N. (2017). Power and privilege in the learning sciences: Critical and sociocultural theories of learning. Routledge.
12.
FogoB. (2014). Core practices for teaching history: The Results of a Delphi panel survey. Theory & Research in Social Education, 42, 151–196. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2014.902781
13.
FreireP. (1985). The Politics of education: Culture, power and liberation (MacedoD., Trans.). Bergin & Garvey.
14.
FreireP. (1998). Pedagogy of freedom: Ethics, democracy, and civic courage (ClarkeP., Trans.). Rowman & Littlefield.
15.
FreireP. (2011). Pedagogy of the oppressed (2nd ed., RamosM. B., Trans.). Continuum. (Original work published 1970)
16.
GayG. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice (2nd ed.). Teachers College Press.
GrossmanP.KavanaghS. S.Pupik-DeanC. G. (2018). The Turn towards practice in teacher education: An Introduction to the work of the Core Practice Consortium. InGrossmanP. (Ed.), Teaching Core Practices in Teacher Education (pp. 1–14). Harvard University Press.
19.
GrossmanP. L. (Ed.). (2018). Teaching core practices in teacher education. Harvard University Press.
20.
GrossmanP. L.Pupik DeanC.KavanaghS. S.HerrmannZ. (2019). Preparing teachers for project-based learning. Phil Delta Kappan, 100(7), 43–48.
21.
GrossmanP. L.SmagorinskyP.ValenciaS. (1999). Appropriating tools for teaching English: A Theoretical framework for research on learning to teach. American Journal of Education, 108(1), 1–29.
hooksb. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. Routledge.
24.
HornI. S.KaneB. D. (2019). What we mean when we talk about teaching: The Limits of professional language and possibilities for professionalizing discourse in teachers’ conversations. Teachers College Record, 121(6), 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811912100604
25.
KavanaghS. S. (2017). Practicing social justice: Toward a practice-based approach to learning to teach for social justice. In BrandenburgR.GlasswellK.JonesM.RyanJ. (Eds.), Reflective theory and practice in teacher education (pp. 161–175). Springer.
26.
KavanaghS. S.ConradJ.Dagogo-JackS. (2020). From rote to reasoned: Examining the role of pedagogical reasoning in practice-based teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 89, 102991. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.102991
27.
KennedyM. (1999). The Role of preservice teacher education. In Darling-HammondL.SykesG. (Eds.), Teaching as the learning profession: Handbook of policy and practice (pp. 54–85). Jossey-Bass.
28.
KloserM. (2014). Identifying a core set of science teaching practices: A Delphi expert panel approach. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 51(9), 1185–1217. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21171
29.
Ladson-BillingsG. (2009). The Dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
LaveJ.WengerE. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge University Press.
32.
LoveB. L. (2019). We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of educational freedom. Beacon.
33.
LyiscottJ. (2019). Black appetite. White food. Issues of race, voice, and justice within and beyond the classroom. Taylor & Francis.
34.
MatskoK. K.HammernessK. (2014). Unpacking the “urban” in urban teacher education: Making a case for context-specific preparation. Journal of Teacher Education, 65(2), 128–144. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487113511645
35.
MatskoK. K.HammernessK.LeeR. F. (2022). Learning in context and practicing in place: Engaging preservice teachers in urban-focused context specific teacher education. Urban Education, 58(4), 1191–1223. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420859211065188
36.
McDonaldM. (2010). Social justice teacher education and the case for enacting high-leverage practices. Teacher Education and Practice, 23(4), 452–455.
37.
McDonaldM.ZeichnerK. M. (2008). Social justice teacher education. In AyersW.QuinnT.StovallD. (Eds.), Handbook of social justice in education (pp. 595–610). Routledge.
38.
MilesM. B.HubermanA. M.SaldañaJ. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A Methods sourcebook (3rd ed.). Sage.
39.
MollL. C.AmantiC.NeffD.GonzalezN. (1994). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and families. Theory Into Practice, 31(2), 132–141.
40.
ParisD.AlimH. S. (Eds.). (2017). Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world. Teachers College Press.
41.
PhilipT. M.Souto-ManningM.AndersonL.HornI.Carter AndrewsD. J.StillmanJ.VargheseM. (2019). Making justice peripheral by constructing practice as “core”: How the increasing prominence of core practices challenges teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 70(3), 251–264. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487118798324
42.
PicowerB. (2013). Practice what you teach: Social justice education in the classroom and the streets. Routledge.
43.
RavitchS. M.CarlN. M. (2020). Qualitative research: Bridging the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological (2nd ed.). Sage.
SalkindN. J. (Ed.) (2010). Encyclopedia of research design. Sage.
46.
SchieraA. J. (2019). Justice, practice and the “Real World”: Pre-service teachers’ critically conscious visions for teaching amid the complexities and challenges of learning to teach. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 32(7), 929–946. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2019.1609125
47.
SchieraA. J. (2021). Seeking convergence and surfacing tensions between social justice and core practices: Re-presenting teacher education as a community of praxis. Journal of Teacher Education, 72(4), 462–476. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487120964959
48.
SchieraA. J. (2023). “Bigger picture” visions, teacher candidates’ practice, and the complexity of learning to teach. Teacher Education Quarterly, 50(3), 30–53.
49.
ShulmanL. S. (1998). Theory, practice, and the education of professionals. The Elementary School Journal, 98(5), 511–526.
50.
Souto-ManningM. (2019). Transforming university-based teacher education: Preparing asset-, equity-, and justice-oriented teachers within the contemporary political context. Teachers College Record, 121(6), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811912100601
VillegasA. M.LucasT. (2002). Educating culturally responsive teachers: A Coherent approach. State University of New York Press.
53.
WengerE. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press.
54.
ZeichnerK. M. (2012). The Turn once again toward practice-based teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 63(5), 376–382. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487112445789
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
