I’ve Got You Covered: Adventures in Social Justice-Informed Co-Teaching

Abstract

What is social justice-informed co-teaching? Why is it important? How can it enrich social justice pedagogy? While the answers to these questions may vary depending on context and perspective, they are nevertheless useful to address. Each of these questions will be discussed in this research paper. This auto-ethnographic narrative inquiry adds to the literature on social justice-informed co-teaching in an innovative way. It critically examines the purposeful endeavor of two professors who used social justice thinking to guide their co-teaching practice, and simultaneously used co-teaching to enrich their social justice pedagogy. At once, this paper is a lived experience, a story, and a research study. In deconstructing two narratives, the authors articulate specific ways in which co-teaching, as a practice, presents unique opportunities for social justice learning. Implications for research and practice in teacher education programs, teaching practices and field- experiences, and co-teachers themselves are shared in the closing segment of the paper.