Preparing Teachers to Teach for Social Justice: Mirrors and Windows

Abstract

This chapter focuses solely on self-study research that intentionally examines teaching and teacher education through the lens of social justice. Our research questions center on approaches self-study researchers use to implement a social justice education in their courses and teacher education programs. We define social justice teacher education and describe the criteria used for selecting research articles from 2002 to 2017 that met the criteria. We describe our methodology and identify two broad themes that resulted from our analysis of the research articles, i.e., mirrors and windows. The mirror represents self-studies which focus on the identities of the authors, their work as teachers, their roles as researchers, and their use of self-study to reflect upon and improve their teaching. The window denotes self-studies which describe the process of implementing systemic change in teacher education programs and the contextual factors which affect the work of teacher educators. Research articles are further described as they relate to the two themes. We conclude with recommendations for future self-study research in teacher education for social justice.