This study examines the work of teacher educators who strive to prepare teachers who can capably and equitably educate the next generation of young people for an increasingly complex, uncertain and inequitable world. Through our research, we seek to address the following question: How do teacher educators in university-based teacher preparation programs located in different contexts, conceptualize and operationalize their work to educate and nurture social justice-oriented teachers?

In answering this core question, we focused specifically on:

a) the concepts and language these teacher educators choose to describe their work and why;

b) the impact and influence of context (programmatic, institutional, political) on their practice;

c) challenging or “hot” moments in their work preparing social justice-oriented teachers; and

d) key pedagogies and practices these teacher educators incorporate into their teacher preparation curriculum.

Our research participants are all located in the U.S., but their aspirations for teacher candidates and the issues they are tackling transcend national borders and are global in nature. In 2021, UNESCO’s report Reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education, called for “a new social contract for education that can repair injustices while transforming the future…grounded in human rights and based on principles of non-discrimination, social justice, respect for life, human dignity and cultural diversity” (p. iii). Similarly, the European Commission urges member states “to tackle inequalities from early years and to decouple social, economic, and cultural status, ethnic and racial background from educational attainment and achievement” (n.d.; https://education.ec.europa.eu/focus-topics/improving-quality/about-improving-quality para. 5). They echo educators across the globe who express commitments to equity (Cochran-Smith, et al., 2020; Darling-Hammond, 2017) and seek to “address the existing web of inequalities that perpetuate educational and social exclusions” (UNESCO, 2021) through social justice-oriented teacher preparation (Author et al., 2023).

Internationally, it seems then that “Equity is a fundamental value and guiding principle of education policy,…[and yet]…it is not necessarily actualised in education systems around the world” (OECD, 2018, p. 22), whether in Europe, Asia, Africa, North or South America. Indeed, the latest progress report indicates that progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4: Ensure Inclusive and Quality Equitable Education and Promote Lifelong Learning Opportunities for All (https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4) is fair at best, with no targets met (UN, 2023). Societies around the world share much in common, including a collective and shameful past of historical inequity and discrimination such that all children have not received the care and education they need and deserve. These same societies have signed on to SDG #4, and are engaged in “the reality that the drive for societal improvement is an ongoing process that draws on a past, is explored in the present and seeks to influence the future” (ECER Call for Papers, 2024). As a global community, we must address two, intertwined imperatives: quality education and equitable/inclusive education for all, both of which need quality teachers as “key figures on whom possibilities for transformation rest” (UNESCO, 2021, p. 80). Yet quality, justice-oriented teachers depend on teacher educators, so understanding how and what teacher educators do in their work of educating teachers, is essential.

Thus, our study aims to build this understanding of teacher educators’ social justice work with teacher candidates, using two theoretical frameworks as analytic lenses. First, we utilize Marilyn Cochran-Smith’s Theory of Teacher Education for Social Justice (2010), that specifies three aspects that are relevant to our study, namely: justice, practice and teacher preparation. Second, Bondy et al. (2017) offer a justice praxis framework adapted by Author et al. (2021), that allows us to deeply examine our respondents’ theorizing and practice in social justice-oriented teacher preparation.

This is a qualitative study of teacher educators committed to social justice teacher education. Using phenomenography which supports “different understandings of reality” (Marton, 1986, p. 28), we explore how this group of teacher educators conceptualize and enact their individual understandings of social justice-oriented teacher preparation. Our research team represents five different universities from California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York. As leaders of each state-specific team, we all bring substantive experience as university-based teacher educators, and participated in a pre-pilot focus group for the purpose of refining our research design through open-ended exploration of concepts in relation to social justice and teacher preparation. This enabled us to clarify and calibrate our own understandings of social justice-oriented teacher preparation and finalize interview and research questions, criteria for sample selection, and data collection procedures. Each team leader secured ethics approval from their home institution and four of five have recruited eligible participants locally—full-time, university-based teacher educators engaged in teacher preparation who express commitments to social justice. Interviews were conducted using a common semi-structured protocol consisting of six open-ended questions. Three of the teams conducted focus group interviews in-person or on-line as needed to accommodate scheduling and transportation or location issues. The fourth team was required to conduct individual interviews out of ethics committee concern for complete anonymity for participants given the political climate of the state; most of these were conducted virtually via Zoom. To date, five focus groups (3-5 participants per group) have been held, along with 10 individual interviews. Interviews lasted 60-90 minutes, were audio-recorded and have been transcribed. We are currently engaged in preliminary data analysis using a reflexive thematic approach (Braun & Clarke, 2006). This approach “highlights the researcher’s active role in knowledge production” and affords “richer interpretations of meaning, rather than attempting to achieve consensus of meaning” (Byrne, 2021, p. 1393) It is a particularly appropriate approach when more than one researcher is involved in data analysis, as in our case, and maximum flexibility in interpretation is called for given multiple data sites and data sets, as well as our own positionality as experienced knowers who bring significant experience and knowledge about teacher preparation to the process. Our first sweep through the data according to our research questions has surfaced some early findings, which we outline below. These initial insights will be further interrogated using the theoretical lenses we have chosen.

Initial findings indicate that teacher educators in our sample use different terms to describe similar commitments to preparing teachers for diverse school populations. Terminology aside, respondents were explicit about why they do this work—to serve young people and “make sure that (new teachers) go into these schools…and always keep the humanity of the individual…at hand.” Respondents also detailed barriers they must navigate in order to uphold their commitments to social justice-oriented teacher preparation. While barriers across sites included program, institutional and state/political barriers, context mattered in terms of which barriers affected participants most significantly. Policy differences were especially stark. For example, in Florida where diversity has been legislated out of the curriculum (book bans, content restrictions), teacher educators operate in a climate of fear, treading the fine line between their own commitments to equitable education for all students, and the law. Even where state policy was supportive, some respondents still saw a barrier that dictates what they must do in their programs. We also saw differentiation between institution-types, i.e., participants in private institutions did not voice the same fear as participants in publicly-funded institutions. Regarding practice, participants shared many thoughtfully-designed activities to engage student teachers in understanding diverse histories, interrogating their own biases, developing inclusive pedagogies, and recognizing inequities embedded in social institutions including schools. Yet, a critical finding beyond productive practices was that regardless of whether teacher educators seemed free or constrained to pursue social justice goals in teacher preparation, most respondents remain steadfast in their commitments. Even when state policy contexts have had “a chilling effect,” they seem undeterred from their purpose, but rather are employing creative ways to “circumvent around so that we can get certain things done,” subversively adapting practices such that core principles remain while appearing to conform to regulations.

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