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This article was downloaded by: [University of New Mexico] On: 24 November 2014, At: 05:02 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Action in Teacher Education Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uate20 Teaching Critical Literacy for Social Justice Allison Skerrett a a University of Texas , USA Published online: 02 Jan 2012. To cite this article: Allison Skerrett (2010) Teaching Critical Literacy for Social Justice, Action in Teacher Education, 31:4, 54-65, DOI: 10.1080/01626620.2010.10463535 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01626620.2010.10463535 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http:// www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

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Page 1: Teaching Critical Literacy for Social Justice

This article was downloaded by: [University of New Mexico]On: 24 November 2014, At: 05:02Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: MortimerHouse, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Action in Teacher EducationPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uate20

Teaching Critical Literacy for Social JusticeAllison Skerrett aa University of Texas , USAPublished online: 02 Jan 2012.

To cite this article: Allison Skerrett (2010) Teaching Critical Literacy for Social Justice, Action in Teacher Education,31:4, 54-65, DOI: 10.1080/01626620.2010.10463535

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01626620.2010.10463535

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”)contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensorsmake no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitabilityfor any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinionsand views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy ofthe Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources ofinformation. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands,costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly orindirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial orsystematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution inany form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Page 2: Teaching Critical Literacy for Social Justice

Teaching Critical Literacy for Social Justice Allison Skerrett University of Texas

ABSTRACT This article explores learning experiences utilized in an adolescent literacy course to facilitate preservice teachers’ development of knowledge and dispositions to teach criti- cal literacy for social justice. The analysis is conducted through self-study methods and the theoretical construct of third space. Findings indicate that engaging preservice teachers in self-selected inquiry topics about social inequities can enhance their knowledge for and dis- positions toward teaching for social justice. The article concludes with implications for teacher educators, which include interrogating one’s pedagogical practices in relation to teaching for social justice, maintaining dialogues with preservice teachers about teachers’ agency and responsibility to teach for social change, and examining with preservice teachers examples of K-12 educators who teach for social justice.

Critical literacy as a theory or perspective that informs teaching practice originated from Friere’s (1970/1990) ideas that a literacy edu- cation should empower citizens to read both the word and the world. Critical literacy edu- cation involves teaching students to recognize power dynamics, oppression, and biases in the texts they read in school and in the world in which they live. Its penultimate goal is that students take social action to redress injustice (Ekhrman, 2006). Literacy researchers have found that K-12 students who engage in so- cial justice inquiries develop vital academic knowledge and skills, critical understandings about oppression in the world, and strong dispositions to continue working toward social justice beyond the initial inquiries they con- duct (Bomer & Bomer, 2001; GutiCrrez, 2008; Long, 2008; Martinez-RoldPn & FrQnquiz, 2009; Pescatore, 2008). This area of literacy research corresponds with the subfield of social studies scholarship that asserts that citizenship and character education are an essential part of a comprehensive education in a democracy

(e.g., Cipolle, 2004; Hart, Donnelly, Youniss, & Atkins, 2007; Lakin & Mahoney, 2006). These studies have found, in many cases, that well-designed community service learning op- portunities foster students’ dispositions toward and sustained participation in civic life. Given the growing focus on critical literacy and social- justice-oriented inquiry at the K-12 level, it is important to consider how to educate pre- service teachers to teach critical literacy for academic and social justice purposes. Social- studies-history teacher educators often teach preservice teachers about the processes of do- ing critical inquiry and about the relationships between social justice and their content area (e.g., Matthews & Dilworth, 2008; Robinson, 2007). However, given that an interdisciplin- ary approach is effective in educating for social justice (GutiCrrez, 2008; Pescatore, 2008) and that a critical approach to knowledge is es- sential in all content areas (Banks, 2003), it is important that all educators engage with criti- cal literacy education. Accordingly, this article explores the following research question: What

Address correspondence to Allison Skerrett, University of Texas at Austin, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, D5700, One University Station, Austin, TX 78712. E-mail: [email protected].

54 Action in Teacher Education Vol. 31, No. 4

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kinds of learning experiences foster preservice teachers’ knowledge and dispositions to teach critical literacy for social justice?

Theoretical Framework and Related Research

Third space theory has been used to examine learning environments that bridge students’ in- and out-of-school knowledge and experiences to enhance their literacy learning (e.g., Gutier- rez, 2008; Moje et al., 2004). Such classrooms have been theorized as third spaces because they merge the different spaces or contexts of students’ literate lives. For example, Moje and colleagues (2004) defined third space as the “alternative space of knowledges and Dis- courses [sic]” that is constructed from the

integration of knowledges and Discourses drawn from different spaces . . . that merges the “first space” of people’s home, community, and peer networks with the “second space” of the Discourses they en- ter in more formalized institutions such as work, school, or church. (p. 41)

In keeping with this definition, this article theorizes the first space as preservice teachers’ homes, peer groups, and communities-in- cluding the discourse communities of their academic disciplines wherein they develop foundational knowledge about and perspec- tives on teaching their subject. It conceives the second space as the adolescent literacy teacher education course wherein preservice teachers are introduced to formal knowledge and discourse about literacy education that may be congruent with or divergent from the knowledge and beliefs about teaching developed in the first space. The third space is conceptualized as that which emerges from the integration of these distinct contexts. It is characterized by conflicts among, expansion of, and transformations to people’s identities, dispositions, perspectives on knowledge, and repertoires of practice (Gutierrez, 2008).

Gutierrez (2008) analyzed an educational program that helped the adolescent children of

migrant farmworkers develop academic litera- cies, including critical literacy. The program sought to prepare the youth for the demands of higher education while empowering them to recognize and respond to social injustices that their communities faced. Gutihez theorized this educational space as a third space because it merged and addressed the academic and social concerns of students and their commu- nities. This third space was “a transformative space where the potential for an expanded form of learning and the development of new knowledge is heightened” (p. 152). The ex- panded types of learning and knowledge con- cerned new academic knowledge and skills but also knowledge about how to address critical issues of social inequity and injustice.

Gutierrez (2008) recognized that the stu- dents traversed daily multiple contexts, or lifeworlds-their local neighborhoods, their transnational communities, and the educa- tional program housed at a prestigious uni- versity-each bearing distinct spatial, ideo- logical, and cultural dimensions. The author perceived that students engaged with differ- ent concerns, interests, and practices in each context and that they needed the tools to apprehend, critique, and negotiate the differ- ent ideological and cultural literacy demands of each space. Gutierrez recognized as well that people experienced conflicts among their identities, dispositions, and repertoires of prac- tices as they crossed boundaries into different contexts. The tensions caused by these interac- tions across contexts produced the third space, which could lead to “rich cycles of learning” but also unresolved “tensions and dilemmas” (p. 152). These boundary crossings, she pro- posed, could variously reinforce, extend, or conflict with individuals’ dispositions and rep- ertoires of practice. Studying these movements, she argued, can enable the identification of “productive and unproductive aspects of learn- ing cycles . . . sites of possibility and contradic- tion” and the documentation of “processes that lead to learning.” Learning in the third space is “marked by new forms of participation and activity that change both the individual and the practice, as well as their mutual relation’’ (p. 152).

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Although the research base is growing (e.g., Akom, 2009; Lesley, 2004; Rogers, Marshall, & Tyson, 2006; Simons, 2007), there is a need for additional studies about how to develop pre- service teachers’ knowledge, skills, and disposi- tions to teach critical literacy for social justice. Simons (2OO7) utilized an inquiry/multigenre project to expose her preservice teachers to multimodal writing in their areas of interest and found that her students selected social justice issues to write about. She capitalized on their interests in social justice by redesigning the project to explicitly address critical literacy, thus enhancing their learning. In an innova- tive move, Akom (2009) implemented what he called critical hip-hop pedagogy in which preservice teachers explored social justice is- sues through hip-hop music. Lesley (2004), too, adapted her pedagogy in her literacy methods course. She allowed for student-posed critical questions to drive the curriculum, encouraged students’ exploration of diverse perspectives, and facilitated deep discussions with students about the purposes of literacy. She witnessed her students’ movement from questioning the relevancy of content area literacy to more critically viewing literacy as a tool for advo- cacy. Like Lesley, Rogers and colleagues (2006) utilized dialogues with preservice teachers to help them develop professional identities in which teaching literacy for social justice was a key element.

This body of research portrays a range of strategies that teacher educators have imple- mented with preservice teachers to advance the social justice purposes of literacy. Although none of the studies utilized third space theory, they all explored the possibilities for and dilem- mas of learning and development that occur as preservice teachers encounter and produce new kinds of knowledge, practices, and identities in relation to literacy education. One source of this conflict is that preservice teachers, particularly at the secondary level, come to their teacher educa- tion programs already socialized into and often bearing strong allegiance to the traditions of their discipline (Bullough, Knowles, & Crow, 1991; Chiodo & Brown, 2007; Skerrett, 2008, 2009a). As such, it is difficult to assess whether their en- gagement in teacher education coursework that is

at odds with prior disciplinary socialization repre- sents changed dispositions or compliance.

Furthermore, additional research is needed about how to support preservice and in-service teachers’ growth in critical literacy teaching. For two examples, see Schweisfurth‘s (2006) and Chiodo and Brown’s (2007) research with social studies teachers. Research illustrates the diffi- culty that new teachers face in maintaining and growing in the dispositions and pedagogies that bud during teacher education, particularly when they enter traditional academic departments wherein these perspectives are absent (e.g., Bick- more, Smagorinsky, & O’Donnell-Allen, 2005; Fecho, Price, & Read, 2004). Certainly, teacher development occurs throughout the professional life span, and the teacher education component is an important part of this journey (Darling- Hammond, Chung, & Freelow, 2002; Skerrett, 2009a). Hence, it is critical that teacher educa- tors continually examine their practice to pro- vide more generative teacher preparation experi- ences. This work can set the foundation for the on-the-ground support that they provide to edu- cators along their professional journeys. Accord- ingly, this article seeks to add to the knowledge base about how to prepare preservice teachers to teach critical literacy for social justice.

Research Design and Methodology

This inquiry was conducted using self-study methods (Dinkleman, 2003) that follow the tra- ditions of naturalistic inquiry methods (Bullough & Pinnegar, 2001). Self-study is intentional and systematic inquiry into one’s practice. It is a de- liberate, formal type of reflection that promotes reflective teaching and can produce new knowl- edge for both the local context and the broader teacher education community (Dinkleman, 2003). The article derives from a larger study that examined how the curriculum, instruction, and learning activities in an adolescent literacy course facilitated presetvice teachers’ develop- ment of knowledge, skills, and dispositions to bridge adolescents’ in- and out-of-school lit- eracies and their academic, personal, social, and civic interests and needs in teaching them. The

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course is offered at a large university in the Southwest. It is a certification requirement for secondary English teacher candidates and one of two literacy courses from which secondary social-studies-history preservice teachers may choose. Institutional approval was secured for conducting this research.

Data and Analysis Procedures

Data were analyzed thematically (Miles & Hu- berman, 1994). I purposively selected course readings and assignments, student work, and the portions of my teaching journal that di- rectly related to the research question. These data spanned two consecutive semesters. Ini- tial analysis entailed iterative reading of data, the development of broad categories, and coding. For example, one category was called developing knowledge fm teuching critical literacy. It contained excerpts from students’ written work and notes from my teaching journal that demonstrated students’ knowledge of curricu- lum and instructional strategies for teaching critical literacy. Codes were developed induc- tively and so reflected relationships within and among the various thematic categories. As codes proliferated, some were combined and others discarded as ongoing reading of data within and across the thematic catego- ries resulted in the identification of recurring themes.

Analytic memos allowed for further re- flections on whether recurring themes were adequately substantiated by the data, what available theories might help explain them, and how they related to the findings of perti- nent existing research. These memos assisted in the identification of significant themes and tentative findings. For example, in one such memo, 1 considered the conflicts that preservice teachers experienced between their preestablished beliefs about the role of literacy in their content areas and the perspectives presented to them in the course. I inferred that the third space may have been animated by the boundary crossings of the knowledge bases of the first space (the preservice teach- ers’ professional disciplinary socialization) into

the second space-the adolescent literacy course, which introduced new and contradic- tory knowledge about literacy teaching and learning in their discipline.

Subsequent rounds of writing theoreti- cal memos facilitated in-depth explorations of whether tentative findings held strong theoretical and evidentiary warrants. Through this process, some tentative findings were discarded-namely, those that lacked sub- stantive supporting data or robust theoretical reasoning. Finally, findings that held signifi- cant evidentiary and theoretical warrants were considered in terms of how they confirmed, challenged, or complicated prior related re- search findings.

Developing Knowledge and Dispositions to Teach Literacy for Social Justice

The discussion that follows is divided into four parts. First, I examine the nature of the knowledge about teaching critical literacy for social justice that the preservice teachers developed through designing social-justice- related inquiry projects. Second, I analyze issues related to preservice teachers’ develop- ment of dispositions to teach critical literacy for social justice through their creation of these projects. Third, I examine the quality of the knowledge pertaining to teaching crit- ical literacy for social justice that preservice teachers developed by conducting inquiries into social justice issues. Fourth, I examine issues related to their development of dis- positions to teach critical literacy for social justice that derived from their engagements in social justice inquiry.

Developing Knowledge Through Designing Inquiry

In one semester, preservice teachers worked in interdisciplinary groups to develop a project that bridged academic disciplines and allowed youth to inquire into some political, educa- tional, or social issue that held significant

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social justice consequences. This learning activity required the teacher candidates to plan for teaching about social inequities. For example, one group’s project required ado- lescents to investigate various postsecondary options-2-year colleges, 4-year universities, and employment-and, as a final product, prepare a college application or job resume. Although the group members were confident that the project addressed an important con- cern of adolescents-what they would do with their lives after high school-they were un- certain about how critical literacy and social justice applied to the project. In a conversa- tion with them, which I later wrote about in my teaching journal, I asked them to consider how social class might affect students’ knowl- edge about various postsecondary options and their perceptions of which types of higher edu- cation institutions they could afford or gain admittance to. We further talked about how rigorous academic courses and caring equitable counselors affected students’ application and admission to and graduation from prestigious universities. We also discussed what adoles- cents needed to know about the long-term financial costs of foregoing higher education. The preservice teachers then developed a number of lessons wherein high school stu- dents engaged in conversations about these critical issues as supported by news articles and other informational sources.

Another group of preservice teachers de- signed a project in which students examined how social class was constructed in relation to race and gender and how social class was evidenced in the infrastructures and political capital of their neighborhoods. The touch- stone text for this project was Fitzgerald’s (1925) The Great Gatsby. This topic reflected the social class issues in the literary text as well as earlier course readings and discussions about race, social class, and educational equity. In the preamble of their project, the preservice teachers wrote,

We aim to have our students come to a detailed understanding of how class is constructed, both contemporarily and historically. This includes who in society

gets to determine class, how class bound- aries are enforced, and the ways that class is influenced by other social markers such as gender and race.

Analysis of the inquiry projects of that semester suggested that some of the future teachers had integrated critical literacy and social justice inquiry into their content area knowledge and repertoires of practice. For instance, the project on social class was initi- ated with students reading and conducting a traditional literary analysis of The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald, 1925)’ an accepted text in the US. literary canon. This portion of the project represented the first space of preservice teach- ers’ disciplinary community knowledge and values. Yet in using the text to help students begin their inquiry into contemporary relation- ships among social class, race, and gender and between political power and class inequities across neighborhoods, the project suggested that the preservice teachers had integrated ideas about teaching critical literacy for social justice (the knowledge offered in the second space of the adolescent literacy course) into their knowledge and repertoires of practice in their primary discipline. Their end product suggested the emergence of the third space, in which the preservice teachers experienced an expanded form of learning and development in relation to what could count as literacy teach- ing and learning in their discipline.

Other preservice teachers encountered greater challenges in expanding or transform- ing their knowledge and repertoires of practice to include teaching literacy for social justice. One barrier pertained to these teacher candi- dates’ strong allegiance to their primary disci- pline’s conventions (Morrell, 2005; Skerrett, 2008, 2009b). Consider one group’s selection of an inquiry topic based on the limited con- flict that it presented to the professional iden- tities and disciplinary traditions with which they entered the course. Their rationale for choosing a topic, provided in the introduction of their written project, was one that

wouldn’t be too difficult to fit into both History and English classrooms. As the

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Harlem Renaissance is much about lit- erature, artistic expression, and the history of a people group, we decided this would be a great choice for our interdisciplinary project.

They planned for the English teachers to handle the literature and art-related compo- nents of the project and for the social studies teachers to handle its historical elements. How the project extended into inquiry of con- temporary social justice issues was unclear.

Another group chose the topic of lit- erature and film because, as stated in the project’s introduction, “many movies are based off of great literature” and the “project also provides opportunity for teachers to use a different method of explaining point of view, close reading, and analysis.” These pre- service teachers seemed to anticipate greater tensions arising within their professional identities and repertoires of practice if they decentered traditional disciplinary texts and processes and engaged with nontraditional curricular topics that required critical lit- eracy skills. Thus, they largely circumvented the tensions that occur in the third space by bringing together the knowledge and skills from the first space (their disciplinary com- munities) and the congruent knowledge and skills from the second space (the adolescent literacy course).

Finally, although overall the preservice teachers developed some professional knowl- edge and skills about how to teach critical literacy for social justice, their learning did not reflect the personal, social, and political growth experienced by the K-12 students who conducted social justice inquiries (e.g., Long, 2008; Pescatore, 2008). 1 recognized that the academic work of designing inquiry projects did not engage the first spaces of preservice teachers’ personal, social, and civic lifeworlds. The project was conceptualized and thus received by the preservice teachers as the academic work of the teacher educa- tion classroom and not as an opportunity to personally engage with social justice concerns that troubled them in their social, private, and civic lives.

Developing Dispositions Through Designing Inquiry

Preservice teachers’ written reflections on their inquiry projects provided generative data about the extent to which designing these inquiry projects fostered their dispositions to teach literacy for social justice. Preser- vice teachers’ varying dispositions represented three broad categories. In one category were preservice teachers who embarked on the project with some initial dispositions toward teaching critical literacy for social justice, much like those in Simons’s (2007) and Schweisfurth‘s (2006) studies. These teacher candidates’ experience in the third space re- inforced and extended their incoming disposi- tions and repertoires of practice (Gutierrez, 2008) in relation to teaching literacy for social justice. For instance, one group, whose project concerned civil rights movements worldwide, reflected, “Since we feel strongly about the issue of equality, democracy, and civil rights, it was not difficult to justify these lessons to students or ourselves.” Another group, whose project was on the topic of civil disobedience, wrote,

Overall, this is a project that we would have wanted to do as students. Getting [students] behind social justice is tangibly important-the benefits of learning about revolutions and overcoming injustices are inarguable. . . . These issues require [stu- dents] to consider themselves as global citizens. . . . Finding a topic of interest was simple; we are all very interested in . . . making our students see the cultural and global significance of the curriculum.

The second category included preservice teachers who reported some growth in their dispositions to teach critical literacy for social justice even as they admitted the challenges inherent in these pedagogies. In one group’s words, as taken from their written reflections on their project, “the benefits [of inquiry projects] outweigh the costs.” Another group elaborated in their reflections on their proj- ect: “The benefit of inquiry-based projects is that students examine an issue from multiple

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angles and multiple sources. Students become better researchers, more discerning readers, and keener thinkers by having to find and sort through information.” In a note appended to her group’s reflection, one teacher candidate commented,

I think it is essential to have at least one interdisciplinary project in the yearly cur- riculum. The benefits are not only creat- ing more [well-rounded] students, but showing how the world is interconnected and that they have a vital role in it. . . . Overall I think it was a valuable project to brainstorm about and I hope to create another like it for my future students.

For these future teachers, the challenges of inquiry projects included ensuring that students were provided with “heavy guid- ance throughout the project” and “[model- ing] activities and projects” so that students would “produce quality results.” For them, the success of these projects depended on their knowledge, skills, and inclinations to teach students to do inquiry well.

In a third category of responses, some preservice teachers astutely cited established constraints (Morrell, 2005; Skerrett, 2009b) to teaching in nontraditional approaches such as social-justice-oriented inquiry- namely, official curriculum standards, time, the balkanization of secondary academic departments, and standardized testing. They also displayed weak dispositions toward uti- lizing this approach. In one such representa- tive response, the group explained in their reflective piece that

an interdisciplinary curriculum project can be extremely difficult to plan . . . because each subject area has its own set of [state curriculum standards] that teachers are required to follow and it could be difficult to coordinate it between the two subjects. Another reason is . . . [that] teachers are extremely pressed for time because they have a lot of material to cover in a limited amount of time. It would be difficult for teachers to find time to assign a project of this magnitude.

The strength of some teacher candidates’ beliefs that critical inquiry into contemporary issues is nearly impossible to implement is well illustrated in the response of some social studies preservice teachers. Even as they re- searched and discerned links between contem- porary social issues and the official curriculum, they nonetheless asserted that

school and teacher schedules are extremely volatile and difficult to align. There is simply not very much room to maneuver within the state-mandated objectives for a Government class. Teachers are required to fulfill multiple [curriculum standards] within the length of the course, and al- though we feel that this information is imperative for the students to know as citi- zens, it does not align directly with these requirements.

The preservice teachers’ claims illustrate the difficulty of interdisciplinary teaching. Effective interdisciplinary teaching requires the skills of experienced teachers in districts and schools that provide cultures, professional learning structures, curricular resources, and leadership for such work (Corcoran & Si- lander, 2009; Meister & Nolan, 2001). I t is understandable then that preservice teachers sometimes believe that in traditional schools new teachers will have little agency to foment such educational change (Skerrett, 2008, 2009a). I return to this issue in the conclu- sion.

These legitimate concerns about social justice inquiry also represent the tensions and dilemmas that arise in third space learning environments as individuals wrestle with new or contradictory kinds of knowledge and per- spectives (Gutihez, 2008) about teaching. In considering this issue of preservice teachers’ development of dispositions to teach literacy for social change, I noted that the K-12 stu- dents who engaged in social justice inquiry had developed strong dispositions to partici- pate in social change (Long, 2008; Martinez- RoldAn & FrAnquiz, 2009; Pescatore, 2008). These inclinations were corroborated, in part, by their voluntary participation in social jus-

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Teaching Critical Literacy for Social Jwtice 6 1

tice activism. As such, I wondered whether some teacher candidates might have experi- enced the third space with a transformation or growth in their dispositions to teach literacy for social justice had these lifeworlds been en- gaged in the second space of the course.

Developing Knowledge Through Doing Inquiry

In the following semester, I proposed recruit- ing the social, private, and civic contexts of preservice teachers’ lives to enhance their knowledge, skills, and dispositions to teach lit- eracy for social justice. 1 drew from Bomer and &met (2001) to design a social justice inquiry project for the preservice teachers to complete. The teacher candidates would not be creating an inquiry project for their future students to complete. The teacher candidates themselves would be the ones inquiring into social justice concerns. I first asked the preservice teachers to keep a journal for 2 weeks to record and reflect on issues of unfairness or injustice that they witnessed-in the first spaces of their neighborhoods, in the schools in which they apprenticed, in the world around them. In the class sessions during this 2-week observational period, the preservice teachers shared from their journals in small groups that held similar social justice concerns. In this way, the first spaces of their lives were integrated into the second space of the teacher education class- room. The preservice teachers finalized their topics of inquiry at the end of this 2-week pe- riod. They then conducted systematic research on their topics, which involved keeping re- search journals and gathering and analyzing data. Finally, they developed an action plan to address the issue of social justice they studied, and they presented their research and action plans to the class.

Analysis of the topics that preservice teachers selected revealed that their social justice inquiry topics evolved from their pro- fessional, social, personal, and civic lifeworlds. As examples, two preservice teachers selected topics that they thought they should know about as new teachers-how to identify and

provide assistance for abused children and adolescent victims of dating violence. Thus, they sought to strengthen their professional identities and repertoires of practice through this teacher education course assignment. Another preservice teacher recounted being at a rock concert that raised money to address hunger in the city, which sparked his interest. Through his natural participation in a social lifeworld, he took up a social justice issue that others in his music community deemed impor- tant. Two teacher candidates who had close relationships with their grandparents selected the topics of elder abuse and senior isolation, circumstances that both their loved ones had suffered. The first spaces of their family lives crossed the boundaries into the second space of formal literacy teacher education and merged with an academic undertaking. A preservice teacher who had long been involved with serving the homeless used this course project to expand her knowledge and participation in this civic enterprise. Doing critical inquiry into social justice rendered these boundaries more permeable and thus animated the third space. GutiCrrez (2008) proposed that an ex- panded form of learning occurs in the third space. Analysis of the preservice teachers’ oral and written presentations of their project, as well as related classroom notes from my teaching journal, provided evidence of the range of academic knowledge and skills related to inquiry-based teaching and learning ac- quired by the preservice teachers. The teacher candidates experienced firsthand the literacy knowledge and skills that their future students would acquire and the challenges they might encounter in doing such work. Repositioned as students, the preservice teachers were no longer considering only the perspective of the teacher who dealt with a particular set of concerns when designing inquiry. They were experiencing, as well, the benefits and chal- lenges that students would perceive as they undertook such projects.

In classroom observations of students, 1 wimessed their discussion of common chal- lenges, unexpected findings, and growing ex. pertise as teacher researchers. In one such

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class discussion, the two preservice teachers who were investigating child abuse and dating violence expressed frustration that they could not find detailed policies about these issues on the local school district’s website. They brainstormed about how they might draw on existing state-level legislation to derive un- derstandings about the laws that governed the school district. They also began collaboratively developing suggestions for how individual schools, teachers, and families could press the school district to make detailed information about these policies widely available. Hence, they were learning important critical literacy academic skills, such as determining credible information sources and adapting them for their purposes. They were also learning other social and academic skills, such as the power of collaborative and distributed learning, and they were doing so while thinking of real-life stakeholders in this social justice concern- students, teachers, and families.

In addition to developing such impor- tant knowledge about teaching and learning through inquiry, the teacher candidates grew personally, professionally, and politically. Ac- cordingly, their learning better represented the kind of expanded and transformational lit- eracy education that Gutierrez (2008) credited to the third space. Some preservice teachers stated that they felt personally and politically transformed, empowered, and validated by the knowledge they acquired and the action plans they developed pertaining to their social justice concern. For instance, in a follow-up conversation with me, the teacher candidate who was involved with serving the homeless before the project shared that she appreci- ated an opportunity to raise her classmates’ awareness about this problem and to suggest ways in which they could help. On her end-of- semester course evaluation, one preservice teacher wrote that she wished that other courses in our program had a stronger social justice focus. The preservice teacher who stud- ied dating abuse stated in her oral presentation that she felt better prepared as a new teacher who knew the signs of abuse and how to help young people in abusive situations.

A teacher candidate who studied elder abuse because her grandparent had been a victim talked about feeling emotions of clo- sure and empowerment after completing her inquiry. One portion of her PowerPoint pre- sentation read,

Learning about ways to prevent elder abuse and help treat its victims has really given me some comfort and closure. My great-grandmother was a victim of elder abuse in her nursing home, and we never discovered the culprit. Though 1 can never know who abused her, I now know enough about it to recognize the signs and have confidence about my choice of act ions.

The kinds of learning that occurred through this project were indeed deep and complex.

Developing Dispositions Through Doing Inquiry

Analysis of preservice teachers’ oral presenta- tions of their research, their written reports, and their end-of-semester papers revealed some students’ emergent dispositions to teach critical literacy for social justice. In an oral presentation, a social studies teacher candi- date commented that she had been sharing her ongoing research with the students in the high school classroom where she performed her weekly practicum. She stated that she “definitely planned on doing something like this” with her future students. In a final paper, another preservice teacher wrote that the project taught her that it was possible and indeed preferable to engage students’ interests, develop their social justice dispositions, and teach them academic skills all at once.

To create lasting engagement . . . we must reach into our students’ lives and withdraw the relevant issues that can be used to reach an end that more traditional teachers even reach for. More impor- tantly, we must model citizenry for our students by implying an attitude within

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our hidden curriculums that encourages ideas for greater political efficacy and social change.

Of course, not all the preservice teachers felt as strongly disposed toward or prepared for social justice teaching. In a final paper, a fu- ture English teacher admitted the importance of developing “good citizenship” but pointed out that “a public school teacher has the dif- ficult job of reconciling all their [educational] aims in their students.” She concluded that inquiry projects were “incredibly ambitious” for a 1st-year teacher, and she wanted to hear more examples of educators who had imple- mented such projects. To her, they seemed to “require a special environment of student engagement, administration support, and an incredible balance of text focused assign- ments integrated into the project.” Again, she pointed to the persistent barriers that teachers face in transforming the curriculum in a stan- dardized age that has reinforced disciplinary traditions (Morrell, 2005; Skerrett, 2009b).

Conclusion: Discussion and Implications

GutiCrrez (2008) posited that studying the boundary crossings of people’s identities and literacy practices could enable the identifica- tion of processes that lead to learning. This analysis has identified the importance of en- gaging preservice teachers in studying social justice issues. Involving preservice teachers in doing inquiry into social justice concerns facilitated significant growth in the depth and variety of the learning they experienced. The teacher candidates learned, for instance, that these projects involved rigorous academic work entailing research, academic writing, and oral presentations. They further discerned connections between the skills they used and developed throughout the project and the important processes in their academic disci- plines. Furthermore, some of the preservice teachers grew both personally and politically by conducting their social justice inquiries.

They displayed, from my classroom observa- tions of them and one-on-one interactions with them, deep engagement and satisfaction from learning about and developing an action plan to address serious problems that person- ally affected them or the broader human com- munity.

The nature and range of knowledge that the preservice teachers developed through engaging in social justice inquiry leaves me hopeful about the authenticity and depth of their expressed dispositions to use this peda- gogical practice with their future students. In sharp contrast to the previous semester, most of the preservice teachers who conducted so- cial justice inquiry were not giving primacy to the challenges that such teaching presented to teachers. The majority of them were instead considering the benefits that such projects promised students-benefits that they them- selves enjoyed. Through their experiential learning, they encountered challenges that their future students might face when con- ducting such inquiries, and they worked with their peers to develop strategies to overcome them. As such, several expressed preparedness and confidence to take up such work.

One limitation of this research is that I have not followed this group of students into their 1st or subsequent years of teaching. Most of the students would be apprentice teachers the following semester and would be taught and supervised by other teacher educators and university facilitators in our program. As such, their opportunities to teach critical literacy for social justice would likely depend more on the mentor teacher’s ideology, the official cur- riculum, and the school culture, rather than the knowledge and dispositions they began developing in this course. I also recognize that in their 1st and subsequent years of teaching, the constraints to social justice inquiry that preservice teachers identified could become sharper and more somber realities of their teaching.

In recognition that teachers’ identities, dispositions, and practices develop through- out the professional life span (Bickmore et al., 2005; Bullough et al., 1991; Martin,

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Chiodo, & Chang, 2001; Skerrett, 2009a), we as teacher educators must consider how to maintain supportive professional relation- ships with our students as they grow as prac- titioners in the field. Additionally, conversa- tions and collaborations with colleagues who teach other teacher education courses are es- sential-particularly , those with field compo- nents. Collaborating across various courses to provide preservice teachers with coursework and field experiences that support teaching for social justice may help strengthen pre- service teachers’ knowledge and dispositions in this regard. One of my preservice teach- ers wanted such emphasis. Teacher educa- tion programs may strive to place preservice teachers in schools or with teachers who are attempting innovative interdisciplinary teaching and are committed to social justice. Furthermore, all teacher educators, regardless of the teacher education courses they teach, may consider the relationship of social justice to their course foci and teaching practices. If we isolate the work of social justice to particular course contents, then we cannot be surprised when some preservice teachers question its relevance to their disciplinary areas.

One way in which we can support social justice teaching across teacher education courses is by candidly examining with preservice teach- ers the tensions and dilemmas they identify as they encounter new perspectives on and prac- tices of teaching. It is in these conflict-ridden moments of the third space that we can amelio- rate preservice teachers’ apprehensions of and questions about their agency and responsibility to critique and negotiate with the official cur- riculum, with traditional school structures, and with other constraints that they perceive to social justice teaching. Another way that we can foster preservice teachers’ agency to teach critical literacy for social justice is to explore with them “more examples,” as called for by one of my students-that is, more models of educators who successfully teach for social jus- tice in both traditional and exceptional school- ing contexts and in a variety of academic disci- plines. But perhaps most inspiring to preservice

teachers will be their witnessing teacher educa- tors across a program practice a commitment to social justice through curriculum and teaching and through fieldwork experiences shaped di- rectly for the candidates. In our global commu- nity, which is fraught with inequities, the work of social justice expands beyond the purview of K-12 teachers. It is also a charge for teacher educators.

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Allison Skerrett is an assistant professor of English education in the Department of Cur- ricuium and Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin.

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