The Imperative: Social Justice and Equity in Middle Childhood Teacher Preparation

1. The Imperative: Social Justice and Equity in Middle Childhood Teacher Preparation A Symposium onMiddle Level Teacher Preparation Destin, Florida February 9-10, 2007

2. Diane Ross, Ph. D.Assistant ProfessorMiddle Level Teacher EducationOtterbein College dross@otterbein.edu 614.823.1836 330.697.3707

3. Where does the journey start? It starts with NMSA standards….

4. Standard 1 Young Adolescent Development Middle level teacher candidates understand the major concepts, principles, theories, and research related to young adolescent development, and they provide opportunities that support student development and learning

5. One of the criteria for assessment of this standard is as follows: Candidates must respect and appreciate the range of individual developmental differences of all young adolescents. They must believe that diversity among all young adolescents is an asset. They must use this knowledge to provide all young adolescents with learning opportunities that are developmentally responsive, socially just and equitable, and academically rigorous.

6. NCATE/NMSA has left the problematictasks of defining social justice and equity

7. Defining Social Justice and Equity Rizvi (1998)-social justice is not a timeless or static concept but instead reflects the changing social and economic conditions in society Rawls (1972) -every person is entitled to the most complete basic rights as anyone else if anyone has more than another, the person most in need should receive more Nozick (1976) entitlement, requires just competition but not necessarily just outcomes Marxist social-democratic theory importance of needs community is more than a collection of individuals members are responsible to the greater good

8. Dewey, 1916, 1938 Counts, 1932 Freire, 1970 Apple, 1979 Goodlad, 1979 Kliebard, 1986 Ayers, 1998 Kesson & Henderson, 2000 Hamilton & McWilliam, 2001 Kozol Kohl Ladson Billings… Historical ImplicationsProgressivism/ Reconstructivism.

9. How do you understand preparing middle childhood teachers to teach for social justice and equity in your middle childhood teacher education program?

10. Present conditions that interfere with social justice and equity in teacher education White teachers candidates • 88% whites in 1971- 90.7% in 1996 Black teacher candidates • 8.1% in 1971 to 7.3% in 1996 Other • 3.6% in 1971 to 2.0% in 1996 Teacher Education Faculty • 87%-90% white “Pitifully homogeneous”

11. Pre-service educators They do not believe racism is a problem (Moultry, 1988; Goodlad, 1990). They enter the teaching profession for reasons other than changing society to make it more just and equitable (Ginsburg & Newman, 1985; Goodlad, 1990; National Center for Education Information data, 1996).

12. They do not believe Whiteness is a culture and are unable to reflect on their own status as privileged White persons (Schwartz, 1996, Bradfield-Kreider, 2001; Carpenter, 2000).

13. They resist changing any beliefs they have brought into teaching; and they particularly resist beliefs imposed on them (Bradfield-Kreider, 2001; Carpenter, 2000; Dewey, 1938; Goodlad, 1990; Ginsburg & Newman, 1985; Howard, 1999; Jipson, 1995; Titus, 2000; MacIntosh, 1989; Moultry, 1988; Simpson, 1992; Sobel & Taylor, 2001; Strike & Posner, 1992; Tatum, 1992; Pohan & Mathison, 1999).

14. White privilege Understanding the personal implications of White privilege, especially in socially diverse, unjust, and inequitable environments is essential (Howard, 1999; Nieto, 1999; McIntosh, 1989; Levine, 1996).

15. Teacher educators have asked pre-service educators to reflect on their Whiteness, their attitudes towards racism, sexism, and other issues of injustice and inequity in order to overcome their biases and to be effective teachers in working with school children from diverse backgrounds • (Posner, 1996; Schon, 1990).

16. Little, if any, research; however, has been published on teacher educators’ reflections on their own dispositions related to social justice and equity.

17. Basic assumptions in middle childhood teacher education… Teacher educators must examine their own beliefs about social justice and equity in order to model the disposition for teacher candidates.

18. In order to prepare socio-politically conscious educators, teacher educators must practice socio- political consciousness in their own work.

19. My scholarly journey to understand how to prepare socially just and equitable middle level educators…

20. Journey…… Martha Holden Jennings Scholar- Understanding the Holocaust through Children’s Literature Dissertation: Social Justice and Equity: A Middle Childhood Educator’s Journey SAIL- Summer Academy for Integrated Learning The EPU (European University Center for Peace Studies) Center for Peace Research and Peace Education, Klagenfurt, Austria Inter-American Summit on Conflict Resolution Education (CRE). : Cleveland, USA. This we believe with an urban focus: Social justice and equity in urban middle schools.- presentation and book proposal Tanzania….????

21. Martha Holden Jennings Teaching the Holocaust through Children’s Literature

22. The International Youth Library Largest library for international children's and youth literature in the world. 1949 Jella Lepman Post World War II New hope and values after the years of Nazi terror and the horrors of war New understanding for other people and nations Discourse about children's literature children Collection of nearly 540,000 books, with 500,000 volumes of children's and youth books in more than 130 languages http://www.ijb.de/entry2.html

23. What did I learn…? Educating for social justice and equity is not about understanding the victim but much more about understanding the perpetuators

24. Doctoral Dissertation Research Question • What are my own personal/professional understandings and dispositions related to young adolescents? • What were the issues and dilemmas that social justice and equity in the education of developed as I attempted to prepare middle childhood educators to teach for social justice and equity? How did I address the issues that arose.

25. Methodology Heuristics • To know and understand the nature, meanings, and essence of a particular phenomenon. • Autobiography • Phenomenology • Case Studies

26. What did I learn? Becoming a middle childhood teacher educator who believes in social justice and equity is not about teaching others about this, but about becoming this

27. Project SAILSummer Academy for IntegratedLearning Teachers and Students Learning Together Columbus City Schools and Otterbein College

28. SAIL Strategy One: Provide professional development based upon proven practices in middle level education and culturally relevant pedagogy for teachers at Medina, Indianola, and Crestview Middle Schools Strategy Two: Expose urban middle school students to evidence-based teaching strategies that improve attitudes toward learning and enhance academic achievement Strategy Three: Develop urban field experiences for pre-service teachers consistent with proven practices in middle level education to increase their urban employment

29. What have I learned? Social justice and equity is not only about integrating curriculum, but about integrating communities and voices. Social justice and equity comes when all feel that their voices are respected.

30. European University Center for Peace Studies (EPU) http://www.aspr.ac.at/

31. Social Justice and Equity in Education Overview How does one’s worldview affect the paradigms of education? How do state or federal mandates affect education and society? How does the issue of intolerance, injustice, racism and inequity affect schools and society?   How do schools promote or dissuade the perpetuation of violence and war in society? How does one prepare “teachers” to respond to the injustices and inequities in education and society?

32. (front) Dominque- Uganda (child soldier at 9, research on equity with girl child education) Naghmeh- Iran (research on women and leadership roles) (back) Soe- Myanmar (research on education and equity in Burma) Farai – Zimbabwe (research on peace education in African nations)

33. What did I learn? I have a desire to understand the lack of consistent quality education available to children in the world I have a desire to understand global issues of social justice and equity in education in the future My knowledge was so small in the big picture of the world, I gained a much larger perspective on the meanings of social justice and equity The United States and its perspectives was such a small sliver of the knowledge necessary to understand the concepts of peace, justice, and equity in education Narrowness of knowledge evident in the American perspective, was not shared by everyone This led to concerns of imperialism, dominance, and entitled privilege by Americans.

34. Klagenfurt, AustriaCenter for Peace Research and Peace Education

35. Center for Peace Research and Peace Education The key issues facing our society today, such as securing and maintaining peace, living together in multicultural societies, global education for a “world society” and non-violent approaches to conflicts, demand thorough scientific research and the most current up-to-date academic teaching.

36. What did I learn? Europe is aware of the implications of world violence and conflict in their lives because of geographic proximity and cultural values of community USA has an allusion that even in the 21st century with our geographic isolation and capitalistic attitudes, we can become apathetic to world violence and conflict

37. Where am I going……

38. http://www.tri-c.cc.oh.us/community/gircsummit.hm This first-ever Summit Develop a hemispheric infrastructure throughout the Americas Advance the work in the fields of conflict resolution education and peace education. Policymakers and educators representing regions across the United States and select member countries of the OAS representing North, Central, South America and the Caribbean. Exchange program best practices, evaluation methodology Creation of policy implementation structures Consideration of obstacles to success. Inter-American Summit on Conflict Resolution Education March 14-17, 2007,  Metropolitan Campus Cleveland Ohio

39. See man-made and natural wonders of the area, Experience how hard the women work Get to know the people - maybe even work with one of the children. Villagers want to hear about you, your customs, and your country of origin 99% of the people who come to Africa stay in fancy hotels, take sterile safaris, never venturing into the towns or villages where they could meet and associate with the people. Camp Kilimanjaro http://www.campkilimanjaro.com/

40. This We Believe with an Urban Focus National Middle School Association support of a collaborative book project

41. This We Believe with an Urban Focus Urban Student Subject More than half of all single women with children age 5 and under live in poverty Middle School Vision 14 Tenets 8,390 grandparents are primary caregivers for their grandchildren 10 % of Franklin County residents (100,000) lack health insurance coverage 16.85% of the overall population in Franklin County are living below the poverty guideline 23.4% of those living in poverty are children Society Self

42. This We Believe with an Urban Focus Co-authors in the book include middle childhood teachers and teacher candidates that I have worked with for years as well as middle childhood teachers, teacher educators, and school administrators who heard about this book and have committed to spending the next six months in dialogue with each other Co-authors were asked to be reflective and engage in a professional dialogue and personal growth. Online forum. With this online discussion board, I chose one tenet from This We Believe to post each month. I asked each person to agree to post once a week and to respond to someone once a week as well looking for clarifications and posing challenging questions. Telling your story is essential but not sufficient The goal is to take people beyond their stories These co-authors agreed also to be confronted with some of their own myths and misconceptions so as to be forced to consider new possibilities and new perceptions of their problems and their situations.

43. What have I learned…so far.. Being collaborative is hard work My attempt to be self-reflective and vulnerable so as to encourage others to do the same is not always as effective as I was hoping and can still be misconstrued as Diane being all about Diane…..

44. Future Implications for Middle Childhood Teacher Education The only way that we can ensure that our pre-service educators have any possibility of acquiring these dispositions of social justice and equity is for us to spend our lives, as middle childhood teacher educators, acquiring those dispositions in ourselves. In the process of holding accountable others, we must first hold accountable ourselves.

45. What are the implications of this in higher education?

46. What are the implications for this in teacher education?

47. What are the implications for this in middle childhood teacher education?