ERIC Number: EJ1438874
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 26
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1047-8248
EISSN: N/A
System Justification Theory and Epistemic Limitations: Understanding Student Teachers' Epistemic Resistance to Critical Topics
Jamie C. Atkinson
Educational Foundations, v36 p3-28 2023
Students in teacher education programs are often faced with perceived threats to their epistemological heritages. According to System Justification Theory, when faced with these perceived threats, individuals may become more defensive, epistemically resistant, and cognitively rigid. More specifically, due to a palliative psychological need, students may become motivated to justify what they conceive of as the status quo, or system justifications, to defend their epistemological heritage and socializations. Students may face perceived threats to their social and epistemological heritages in courses which are critically focused, such as foundations of education courses, and courses where there are requirements for both dialogical and dialectical engagement. System Justification Theory offers the potential to be utilized as a way of understanding student teachers' epistemological resistance and epistemic vices while informing teacher educators' pedagogy.
Descriptors: Preservice Teacher Education, Preservice Teachers, Resistance (Psychology), Defense Mechanisms, Conflict of Interest, Role Conflict, Student Attitudes, Social Development, Ideology, Teacher Educators, Foundations of Education, Social Justice, Sense of Community
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A