Preserving Social Justice Identities: Learning from One Pre-service Literacy Teacher

IntroductionAs public elementary schools become more diverse in terms of student population, U.S. teacher demographics remain relatively stable as White and female (Feistritzer, 2011). For pre- service elementary literacy teachers who fit within the demographic majority of U.S. teachers, teacher education program experiences focused on student diversity, such as social class, race, and gender, are deeply important. In the United States, many teacher education programs require pre-service teachers to enroll in multicultural or diversity courses to expose students to develop a broader perspective on culture and diversity. However, simply enrolling in diversity courses alone does not necessarily translate into preservice teachers taking up critical perspectives in their professional identities. Identities that include critical perspectives or social justice stances are important for pre-service teachers to adopt so they may meet the needs of all future students.Freire (1968/2000) states that education is never neutral; it is always political, and calls for problem-posing educators. Teachers who take up this call engage in dialogue with students and encourage social action. Social action, which includes reflection and praxis, is action upon the world to create a more socially just world. In this article, I conceptualize social justice education as including both pedagogical and ideological knowledge about systems of inequality in educational environments and working towards equality through social action. This means that social justice educators utilize inclusive pedagogies that provide equitable learning opportunities, exposure to different perspectives, and encourage open-mindedness. Specifically, social justice educators include pedagogies in which students are encouraged to share their unique perspectives and knowledge about the world. Educators who take up this stance and practice these pedagogies do so without stereotypical assumptions about student knowledge or experiences about sociocultural topics like culture, language, and race.Cochran-Smith (1999) advocates that teacher education programs should prioritize social justice centered education by encouraging prospective teachers to enact social change, be socially responsible, and to implement social justice pedagogy in their future educational settings and more recently, offers a theory for teacher education programs to incorporate social justice principles. CochranSmith (2010) states that it is not merely planning activities for pre-service teachers engagement, but rather, an intellectual approach to "preparation of teachers that acknowledges the social and political contexts in which teaching, learning, schooling, and ideas about justice" (p. 447) are historically located and filled with tension. Cochran-Smith continues to advocate that teacher education programs should prepare teacher candidates to learn to teach for social justice, and as an elementary literacy teacher educator, I echo Cochran-Smith's continued call for socially just educators and find the need remains relevant (Ticknor, 2012, in press). However, translating program goals into the future practice of graduates is not an easy task (Han, 2013; Lewison, Flint, & Van Sluys, 2002).This article examines how one pre-service teacher developed a social justice identity and resisted pressures to conform to existing literacy pedagogies in a practicum field experience then preserved this identity in a later student teaching experience. Using analyses of in-depth interview data, I show how a pre-service teacher, Tammy, developed an identity as a social justice educator, challenged existing literacy practices in her practicum field experience, and sought alternative pedagogies. Further, drawing on critical discourse analysis of an email written by Tammy, I illustrate how she later preserved a social justice identity by seeking mentors with social justice perspectives when confronted with a competing view of socially just practices during her student teaching field experience. …