This qualitative study aims to learn about the experiences of first year teachers as they rapidly transitioned to remote teaching during the global COVID-19 crisis in March 2020. Additionally, the murder of George Floyd shortly thereafter exacerbated racial turmoil, impacting communities, students and families simultaneously. As the shift was…

This study details the development of the Critical Literacy Beliefs Survey (CLBS) with a sample of U.S. pre-service teachers (N = 405) and provides evidence of validity for developing measures of pre-service teachers' critical literacy beliefs. The CLBS was created to gather data on pre-service teachers' beliefs about critical literacy and answer…

Framed within the theory and practice of social justice in English language teacher education (ELTE), the aim of this study was to foster pre-service teachers' awareness of social justice principles, issues and practices by taking part in a service learning experience during their higher education studies in a non-governmental organisation located…

Science teachers in culturally diverse classrooms need support to plan and enact an inclusive relationship between the epistemology of science and traditional epistemologies. Two Intercultural Teaching Practices for Science Education (ITPSE) potentially solve this problem. The ITPSE are teaching supports that embody the 'epistemological bridge'.…

This study utilized cultural historical activity theory to explore the evolution of nine preservice teachers' (PSTs') conceptions of social justice teaching while enrolled in a social justice-oriented teacher education program. From three interviews conducted over one year, findings show that tensions PSTs encountered while student teaching in…

Despite pedagogical efforts to promote preservice teachers' racial literacy, preservice teachers may resist critical racial pedagogies. Such resistance has serious, detrimental consequences in classrooms populated with students of Color. To study how interracial groups of preservice teachers (PSTs) engage with issues of race outside of their…

'Difficult' or potentially discomforting diversity topics and critical, unsettling pedagogies often induce resistances or charges of 'irrelevance' in teacher education contexts. In teaching with these topics and pedagogies, there is often a significant emphasis on fostering and utilising the process of "empathy" in productive ways to…

Despite repeated pleas for diversifying the U.S. teacher force, teachers of color who are committed to social justice are often unsupported and even pushed out via structural, interpersonal, and pedagogical obstacles within the profession. In response to neoliberal, colorblind, and apolitical approaches to teacher development and support,…

In this paper, we use an engagement framework to understand the experiences of university students midway through their initial teacher education programme. Analysis of interview transcripts revealed that engagement is being influenced negatively by a convergence of political, economic, structural and psychosocial factors. Despite the influence of…

Graduate programs for inservice teachers seeking additional credentialing often include a mandatory diversity course. One aim of these types of courses is to help teachers recognize and dismantle their racial biases in hopes that this self-reflection process will enable teachers to use antiracist teaching approaches and create classroom…

Critical reflection underpins socially just and inclusive practices that are distinguishing features of democratic learning communities. Critical reflection supports educators' interrogation of the underlying assumptions, intentions, values and beliefs that shape their worldview and sociocultural standpoint. Dominant sociocultural norms…

This paper examines how parent advocacy and teacher allyship played an important role in supporting six-year-old Violet Addley's (a pseudonym) gender transition in elementary school. We first met the Addley family in the spring of 2015 when we interviewed them for a research study on the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and…

The affective dimension of teachers' work is a vital element in shaping inclusive, child-centred classrooms. It is particularly important for students who lack certain aspects of care and support within their personal lives. Recently, neoliberal educational paradigms of data gathering, external testing and competition have increased pressure upon…

A research collective comprised of teacher candidates, graduate students, and faculty set out to investigate the role and impact of social and ecological justice learning in a teacher education program. Amidst the tensions, negotiations, and articulations of the research design, the collective came to recognize the spaces of participatory action…

In an attempt to confront monolithic perceptions of achievement and an educational narrative that defines communities of Color by their supposed deficits, the current study presents asset mapping as an example of culturally relevant pedagogy in action. Asset mapping is a pedagogical tool for students to visually represent personalized stories of…