Community-engaged teacher preparation and the development of dispositions for equity and social justice

Abstract

Drawing upon the 10-year history of a program of community-engaged teacher preparation situated in a predominantly marginalized/minoritized neighborhood, this chapter focuses upon the development of teacher dispositions for equity and social justice. The authors highlight how a program, alongside a cadre of community mentors, cultivates the requisite dispositions to become culturally responsive educators and ensure a socially just and equitable educational experience for the children they teach and from whom they are profoundly privileged to learn. The chapter details community-engaged and reflective pedagogies instituted within the context of an integrated and interdisciplinary semester of coursework, wrapped around a practicum experience in local schools. The authors assert the plausibility of assessing dispositions toward equity and social justice and call for a mandate to include them in the language of teacher preparation accreditation standards if the vision of education equity is to become a reality.