The Imperative: Social Justice and Equity in Middle Childhood Teacher

Preparation

A Symposium onMiddle Level Teacher Preparation

Destin, FloridaFebruary 9-10, 2007

Diane Ross, Ph. D.Assistant ProfessorMiddle Level Teacher EducationOtterbein College

dross@otterbein.edu

614.823.1836

330.697.3707

Where does the journey start?

It starts with NMSA standards….

Standard 1 Young Adolescent Development

Middle level teacher candidates

understand the major concepts,

principles, theories, and research related

to young adolescent development, and

they provide opportunities that support

student development and learning

One of the criteria for assessment of this standard is as follows:

Candidates must respect and appreciate therange of individual developmental differences ofall young adolescents. They must believe thatdiversity among all young adolescents is anasset. They must use this knowledge toprovide all young adolescents with learningopportunities that are developmentallyresponsive, socially just and equitable, and academically rigorous.

NCATE/NMSA has left the problematictasks of defining social justice and equity

Defining Social Justice and EquityRizvi (1998)-social justice is not a timeless or static

concept but instead reflects the changing social and economic conditions in society

Rawls (1972) -every person is entitled to the most complete basic rights as anyone else if anyone has more than another, the person most in need should receive more

Nozick (1976) entitlement, requires just competition but not necessarily just outcomes

Marxist social-democratic theory importance of needscommunity is more than a collection of individualsmembers are responsible to the greater good

Historical Implications

Progressivism/ Reconstructivism.

Dewey, 1916, 1938Counts, 1932Freire, 1970Apple, 1979Goodlad, 1979Kliebard, 1986Ayers, 1998

Kesson &

Henderson, 2000

Hamilton &

McWilliam, 2001

Kozol

Kohl

Ladson Billings…

How do you understand preparing middle childhood teachers to teach for social justice and equity in your middle childhood teacher education program?

Present conditions that interfere with social justice and equity in teacher education

White teachers candidates 88% whites in 1971- 90.7% in 1996

Black teacher candidates 8.1% in 1971 to 7.3% in 1996

Other 3.6% in 1971 to 2.0% in 1996

Teacher Education Faculty 87%-90% white

“Pitifully homogeneous”

Pre-service educators

They do not believe racism is a problem (Moultry, 1988; Goodlad, 1990).

They enter the teaching profession for reasons other than changing society to make it more just and equitable (Ginsburg & Newman, 1985; Goodlad, 1990; National Center for Education Information data, 1996).

They do not believe Whiteness isa culture and are unable to reflecton their own status as privilegedWhite persons

(Schwartz, 1996, Bradfield-Kreider, 2001; Carpenter, 2000).

They resist changing any beliefs theyhave brought into teaching; and theyparticularly resist beliefs imposed onthem

(Bradfield-Kreider, 2001; Carpenter, 2000; Dewey, 1938; Goodlad, 1990; Ginsburg & Newman, 1985; Howard, 1999; Jipson, 1995; Titus, 2000; MacIntosh, 1989; Moultry, 1988; Simpson, 1992; Sobel & Taylor, 2001; Strike & Posner, 1992; Tatum, 1992; Pohan &

Mathison, 1999).

White privilege

Understanding the personal implications of White privilege, especially in socially diverse, unjust, and inequitable environments is essential

(Howard, 1999; Nieto, 1999; McIntosh, 1989;

Levine, 1996).

Teacher educators have asked pre-service educators to reflect on their Whiteness, their attitudes towards racism, sexism, and other issues of injustice and inequity in order to overcome their biases and to be effective teachers in working with school children from diverse backgrounds

(Posner, 1996; Schon, 1990).

Little, if any, research; however, has been published on teacher educators’ reflections on their own dispositions related to social justice and equity.

Basic assumptions in middle childhood teacher education…

Teacher educators must examinetheir own beliefs about socialjustice and equity in order tomodel the disposition for teachercandidates.

In order to prepare socio-politically

conscious educators, teacher

educators must practice socio-

political consciousness in their own

work.

My scholarly journey to understand how to prepare socially just and equitable middle level educators…

Journey……Martha Holden Jennings Scholar- Understanding the

Holocaust through Children’s LiteratureDissertation: Social Justice and Equity: A Middle

Childhood Educator’s JourneySAIL- Summer Academy for Integrated LearningThe EPU (European University Center for Peace

Studies)Center for Peace Research and Peace Education, Klagenfurt, Austria

Inter-American Summit on Conflict Resolution Education (CRE). : Cleveland, USA.

This we believe with an urban focus: Social justice and equity in urban middle schools.- presentation and book proposal

Tanzania….????

Martha Holden Jennings Teaching the Holocaust through Children’s

Literature

The International Youth LibraryLargest library for international children's and youth

literature in the world. 1949 Jella Lepman Post World War II New hope and values after the years of Nazi terror and

the horrors of war New understanding for other people and nationsDiscourse about children's literature childrenCollection of nearly 540,000 books, with 500,000

volumes of children's and youth books in more than 130 languages

http://www.ijb.de/entry2.html

What did I learn…?

Educating for social justice and equity is not about understanding the victim but much more about understanding the perpetuators

Doctoral Dissertation

Research Question What are my own personal/professional

understandings and dispositions related to young adolescents?

What were the issues and dilemmas that social justice and equity in the education of developed as I attempted to prepare middle childhood educators to teach for social justice and equity? How did I address the issues that arose.

Methodology

HeuristicsTo know and understand the nature,

meanings, and essence of a particular phenomenon. AutobiographyPhenomenologyCase Studies

What did I learn?

Becoming a middle childhood teacher educator who believes in social justice and equity is not about teaching others about this, but about becoming this

Project SAIL Summer Academy for Integrated

Learning Teachers and Students Learning Together

Columbus City Schools and Otterbein College

 

SAILStrategy One: Provide professional development

based upon proven practices in middle level education and culturally relevant pedagogy for teachers at Medina, Indianola, and Crestview Middle Schools

Strategy Two: Expose urban middle school students to evidence-based teaching strategies that improve attitudes toward learning and enhance academic achievement

Strategy Three: Develop urban field experiences for pre-service teachers consistent with proven practices in middle level education to increase their urban employment

What have I learned?

Social justice and equity is not

only about integrating curriculum,

but about integrating

communities and voices. Social

justice and equity comes when all

feel that their voices are

respected.

European University Center for Peace Studies (EPU)

http://www.aspr.ac.at/

 Social Justice and Equity in

Education OverviewHow does one’s worldview affect the paradigms of

education?How do state or federal mandates affect education

and society?How does the issue of intolerance, injustice, racism

and inequity affect schools and society?   How do schools promote or dissuade the

perpetuation of violence and war in society?How does one prepare “teachers” to respond to the

injustices and inequities in education and society?

(front)Dominque- Uganda (child soldier at 9, research on equity with

girl child education)Naghmeh- Iran (research on women and leadership roles)

(back)Soe- Myanmar (research on education and equity in Burma)Farai – Zimbabwe (research on peace education in African

nations)

What did I learn?I have a desire to understand the lack of consistent

quality education available to children in the worldI have a desire to understand global issues of social

justice and equity in education in the future My knowledge was so small in the big picture of the

world, I gained a much larger perspective on the meanings of social justice and equity

The United States and its perspectives was such a small sliver of the knowledge necessary to understand the concepts of peace, justice, and equity in education

Narrowness of knowledge evident in the American perspective, was not shared by everyone

This led to concerns of imperialism, dominance, and entitled privilege by Americans.

Klagenfurt, Austria

Center for Peace Research and Peace Education

Center for Peace Research and Peace Education The key issues facing our society today,

such as securing and maintaining peace, living together in multicultural societies, global education for a “world society” and non-violent approaches to conflicts, demand thorough scientific research and the most current up-to-date academic teaching.

What did I learn?

Europe is aware of the implications of world violence and conflict in their lives because of geographic proximity and cultural values of community

USA has an allusion that even in the 21st century with our geographic isolation and capitalistic attitudes, we can become apathetic to world violence and conflict

Where am I going……

Inter-American Summit on Conflict Resolution Education

March 14-17, 2007,  Metropolitan Campus Cleveland Ohio

http://www.tri-c.cc.oh.us/community/gircsummit.hm

This first-ever Summit Develop a hemispheric

infrastructure throughout the Americas

Advance the work in the fields of conflict resolution education and peace education.

Policymakers and educators representing regions across the United States and select member countries of the OAS representing North, Central, South America and the Caribbean.

Exchange program best practices, evaluation methodology

Creation of policy implementation structures

Consideration of obstacles to success.

Camp Kilimanjaro See man-made and natural

wonders of the area, Experience how hard the

women work Get to know the people -

maybe even work with one of the children.

Villagers want to hear about you, your customs, and your country of origin

99% of the people who come to Africa stay in fancy hotels, take sterile safaris, never venturing into the towns or villages where they could meet and associate with the people.

http://www.campkilimanjaro.com/

This We Believe with an Urban Focus

National Middle School Association support of a

collaborative book project

This We Believe with an Urban Focus

Student

Subject

Society Self

Middle School Vision

14 Tenets

Urban

23.4% of those living in poverty are children

More than half of all single women with

children age 5 and under live in

poverty

16.85% of the overall population in Franklin County are living below the poverty guideline

10 % of Franklin County residents (100,000) lack health insurance coverage

8,390 grandparents are primary caregivers for their grandchildren

This We Believe with an Urban Focus

Co-authors in the book include middle childhood teachers and teacher candidates that I have worked with for years as well as middle childhood teachers, teacher educators, and school administrators who heard about this book and have committed to spending the next six months in dialogue with each other

Co-authors were asked to be reflective and engage in a professional dialogue and personal growth.

Online forum. With this online discussion board, I chose one tenet from This We Believe to post each month. I asked each person to agree to post once a week and to respond to someone once a week as well looking for clarifications and posing challenging questions.

Telling your story is essential but not sufficient The goal is to take people beyond their stories These co-authors agreed also to be confronted with some of their

own myths and misconceptions so as to be forced to consider new possibilities and new perceptions of their problems and their situations.

What have I learned…so far..

Being collaborative is hard work

My attempt to be self-reflective and vulnerable so as to encourage others to do the same is not always as effective as I was hoping and can still be misconstrued as Diane being all about Diane…..

Future Implications for Middle Childhood Teacher Education

The only way that we can ensure that our

pre-service educators have any

possibility of acquiring these dispositions

of social justice and equity is for us to spend

our lives, as middle childhood teacher

educators, acquiring those dispositions in

ourselves. In the process of holding

accountable others, we must first hold

accountable ourselves.

What are the implications of this in higher education?

What are the implications for this in teacher education?

What are the implications for this in middle childhood teacher education?