Session Information
99 ERC SES 08 H, Teachers and Social Justice
Paper Session
Contribution
Over the previous three decades, social justice in education has become increasingly relevant to debates on globalisation, capitalism, and inequalities around the world (Rawls, 1971; Young, 1990; Fraser, 1997; Zajda, 2006; Rizvi, 2009; Taylor et al, 1997). In the Latin American context, neoliberalism has become hegemonic in the last 30 years with Peru adopting this model in 1990. However, neoliberalism has affected communities in distinct ways, creating further disparities between a minority who have benefitted from this model and more than one third of the population still living in poverty and exclusion in countries like Peru. For example, the latest national assessments on quality education reveal that 66.4% of children in Huancavelica (rural Peru) do not achieve the expected level of literacy for Year 2 (primary level). By contrast, in regions like Tacna (a predominantly urban region) 55.7% of children achieved the expected level (MINEDU, 2022). Moreover, the neoliberal model has served to marginalise the voices of rural teachers and their practices of social justice in Peru.
As teachers play a central role in educational process, the Peruvian scenario shows that rural teachers’ voices who are engaged in the praxis of social justice have not been sufficiently heard at the level of national debates or been part of large studies. The previous research have been largely focused on the analysis of Peruvian teachers’ policy including aspects of remuneration, quality, performance, among others (Cuenca & Stojnic, 2008; UNESCO, 2017; Montero & Uccelli, 2023). For instance, Cuenca (2020), has published a book of six Peruvian teachers’ stories by analysing aspects of teachers’ identities in the last ten years in the country. The author focuses on teachers' concept of work, the value they place on vocation and the way in which they recognise and are recognised as professionals (Cuenca, 2020). Although the author mentions aspects of critical pedagogies in one of the teaching typologies, the study does not will delve into these aspects through the teachers’ stories from a social justice perspective. And this is a gap in Peruvian educational research that this study seeks to fill in.
Thus, the main research question is: How do a group of schoolteachers in rural Peru conceptualise and practice their commitment to social justice through critical pedagogies within the constraints of the neoliberal policy landscape? As secondary questions:
What do a group of rural teachers in Peru understand by social justice and critical pedagogies?
How do they implement critical pedagogies through their practices as rural teachers?
In what ways could the praxis of social justice through critical pedagogies from these group of rural teachers run into tension within the neoliberal policies?
To discuss the above questions, the theoretical framework focuses on critical pedagogies by reviewing key Freirean concepts such as critical consciousness, problem posing and dialogue. For Freire, critical consciousness is integrated with reality where things and facts exist empirically in their causal and circumstantial correlations (Freire, 1974: 39). While problem-posing education is revolutionary in its futurity and its prophetic and hopeful ethos mediated by dialogue as an act of creation (Freire, 1970).
Although the study discusses the Peruvian case, this research sheds light on broader issues connected to discriminatory processes and injustices that affect educational spaces in European contexts. In particular, this study focuses on the role of teachers as key actors in promoting social justice transformations in highly diverse contexts such as Europe. This is an approach to transforming teaching practices, the construction of knowledge(s), the institutional structure and the material relations of wider society (Pica-Smith, 2018; Breunig, 2005).
Method
The research uses a narrative inquiry approach within the tradition of qualitative studies. The study of narratives refers to the plural ways humans experience the world (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). Narrative inquiry embraces narrative as both the method and phenomena of study (Pinnegar & Daynes, 2007).Based on the research questions, four rural teachers from Cusco and Ayacucho (two of the poorest regions in the southern highlands of Peru) were selected based on the following criteria: • Those who have at least five years of teaching experience working with critical pedagogies/social justice perspectives in rural areas of Peru. • Those who identify themselves as critical educators. • Those who have a trajectory not only as a teacher but also as activists, leaders or members of networks working in line with critical pedagogies/social justice in education Alongside the support of two Peruvian NGOs working with social justice perspectives, two teachers from Cusco and two from Ayacucho joined the study. Based on a narrative approach, a set of in-depth interviews were carried out as a main tool to grasp the teacher’s stories about their experiences and meanings around social justice in education. Following Ritchie et al (2014), the in-depth interviews used open questions to allow the participants the opportunity to express their ideas without the restrictions of closed questions that require yes/no answers. In this sense, based on the model of Riessman (1993), I created the following broad questions: • Tell me, how did you decide to become a teacher? Could you share about this experience? • You said you had (example: a very difficult experience teaching in rural schools), can you tell me a bit more about this experience? • How did you start your engagement with critical pedagogies? Could you tell me about this experience? • How do you apply critical pedagogies in the classroom with children? Could you provide some examples? • Would you say, in your own words, what is social justice in education for you? Why? Thus, I held extensive dialogues with these four teachers in their local schools over a period of four months in Peru followed by online meetings to delve into aspects that they wanted to expand on.
Expected Outcomes
Following the paradigmatic analysis (Polkinghorne, 1995), a set key dimensions were identified based on the teacher’s narratives. In this sense, the analysis in-progress reveals the important role of dialogue and critical consciousness in reappraising the native culture as a practice of social justice in education. For example, one teacher from Cusco is problematising the historical discrimination against native culture through the explanation of meanings associated with Quechua surnames. For example, meanings associated with “guidance” and “strength” are helpful to empower students to be proud of their indigenous roots by reflecting critically about their own heritage and history. As this teacher said, “So, I give each student a mission [based on their surnames and meanings] and they work together. So, it is how to bring that cosmovision to put each one "in their spirit". It is not monetary value, it's spiritual value. It's emotion”. Another key dimension of the practice of social justice is the engagement with the community in reappraising and exalting indigenous knowledge production. For instance, these teachers encourage students to talk with the “Yachaq” (wise elders in the rural Andes) in Quechua (native language) to stimulate use of the language while preserving their cultural elements. For example, one teacher from Ayacucho invites “Yachaqs” to teach students how to cultivate the land while others are invited to give talks about festivities and/or important dates relevant for the community. This cultural information is key in building the communal calendar at the beginning of each year. As one teacher from Ayacucho says: “These activities motivate us as a family, all of us who are there, showing our emotional expressions of joy and sadness, and being united” Thus, these narratives are emerging from rural teachers who are making their voices heard from a social justice approach.
References
Breunig, M. (2005). Turning experiential education and critical pedagogy theory into praxis. Journal of Experiential Education, 28 (5), 106– 122. Connelly, F. M., & Clandinin, D. J. (1990). Stories of Experience and Narrative Inquiry. Educational Researcher, 19(5), 2–14 Cuenca, R & Stojnic, L (2008). La cuestión docente Perú: carrera pública magisterial y el discurso del desarrollo profesional. Buenos Aires: Fundación Laboratorio de Políticas Públicas. Cuenca, R (2020). La misión sagrada: seis historias sobre qué es ser docente en el Perú. Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, Perú. Fraser, N. (1997). Justice Interruptus: Critical Reflections on the "Postsocialist" Condition (1st ed.). Routledge. Freire, P (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York, Continuum Freire, P (1974) Education for Critical Consciousness. New York, Continuum, 1974 Ministerio de Educación del Perú (MINEDU, 2022) Unidad de Medición de la Calidad Educativa. Evaluación Muestral 2022. Montero y Uccelli (2023). De ilusiones, conquistas y olvidos. La educación rural en el Perú. Lima: Documento para el Informe GEM 2020 América Latina y el Caribe Pica-Smith, Cinzia, et al. (2018) Social Justice Education in European Multi-Ethnic Schools: Addressing the Goals of Intercultural Education, Taylor & Francis Group Pinnegar, S., & Daynes, J. G. (2007). Locating Narrative Inquiry Historically: Thematics in the Turn to Narrative. In D. J. Clandinin (Ed.), Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology (pp. 3–34). Sage Publications Polkinghorne, D (1995) Narrative configuration in qualitative analysis, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 8:1, 5-23, DOI: 10.1080/0951839950080103 Rawls, John. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press Rizvi, F & Engel L. (2009) Neo-Liberal Globalization, Educational Policy, and the Struggle for Social Justice. In: Ayers, W. et al. Handbook of social justice in education. Routledge Riessman, C. K. (1993). Narrative analysis. Sage Publications, Inc. Ritchie, J; Lewis, J., McNaughton Nicholls, C., & Ormston, R. (2014). Qualitative research practice: a guide for social science students and researchers. SAGE publications. Taylor, S., Rizvi, F., Lingard, B., & Henry, M. (1997). Education Policy and the Politics of Change. London: Routledge UNESCO Lima (2017) Una Mirada a la profesión docente en el Perú: futuros docentes, docentes en servicio y formadores de docentes. Young, I. M. (1990). Justice and the politics of difference. Princeton University Press Zajda J., Majhanovich S., Rust V. (2006) Education and Social Justice: Issues of Liberty and Equality in the Global Culture. In: Zajda J., Majhanovich S., Rust V. (eds) Education and Social Justice. Springer, Dordrecht
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.