Critical Voices in Teacher Education Teaching for Social Justice in Conservative Times

We live in dangerous times when educational policies and practices are debated largely in terms of how they fit with the needs of the free market. This volume is a collection of writing by teacher-educators that draws on their unique biographies, experiences and perspectives to denounce these misguided norms. It explores what it means—practically and intellectually—to teach for social justice in conservative times. In a globalised world where the power of capital holds sway, the purposes of social institutions such as universities and schools is being refashioned in ways that are markedly instrumental and technicist in nature. The consequence is that teachers’ work is increasingly constrained by regimes of control such as standardised testing, accountability, transparency, and national curricula. In the meantime, large numbers of students and teachers are disengaging physically, emotionally and intellectually from learning.

The contributors to this edited volume present both a powerful critique of these developments and a counter-hegemonic vision of teacher education founded on the principles and values of social justice, democracy and critical inquiry. Teacher education, they argue, involves a commitment to critical intellectual work that subjects some deeply entrenched assumptions, beliefs, habits, routines and practices to closer scrutiny. The contributing authors expose how ideology and power operate in seemingly blameless, rational ways to perpetuate social hierarchies based on class, gender, sexuality, race and culture.

Acknowledgements.- Foreword, Shirley Steinberg.- Introduction, From Critique to New Scripts and Possibilities in Teacher Education, Barry Down, John Smyth.- Section A Towards a Critical Politics of Teacher Education.- Problematising Teachers’ Work in Dangerous Times, John Smyth.- 2 Rediscovering Discourses of Social Justice: Making Hope Practical, Peter McInerney.- Preparing Teachers as Informed Professionals: Working with a Critical Ethnographic Disposition and a Socially Democratic Imaginary, Lawrence Angus.- Reconceptualising Teacher Standards: Authentic, Critical and Creative, Barry Down.- Teachers as Classed Cultural Workers Speaking Back through Critical Reflection, John Smyth.- Section B Teaching class, race, gender and student activism.- Unsettling Class: Standpoint Pedagogies, Knowledge and Privilege, Jane Pearce.- Critical Engagement with Whiteness: Beyond Lecturing on the Evils of Racism, Nado Aveling.- “Undoing” Gender and Disrupting Hegemonic Masculinity: Embracing a Transgender Social Imaginary, Wayne Martino.-   Strategic Confrontation – Within and Against Conservative Refusals, Lisa J. Cary.- Studying Culture Jamming to Inspire Student Activism, Marilyn Frankenstein.- Section C Contesting the curriculum.- Big Expectations for Little Kids in Early Childhood Education, Libby Lee-Hammond.- Whispering to the Hippopotamus about the ‘Literacy Boomerang’: Literacy Wars and Rumours of Wars, Cal Durrant.- Critical Engagement with Literacy: Using Qualitative Research in the Teacher Education Classroom, Wendy Cumming-Potvin.- Performing 'Hope': Authentic Story, Change and Transformation in Teacher Education, Peter Wright.- A Socially Critical HPE (aka physical education) and the Challenge for Teacher Education, Richard Tinning.- Reinvigorating Social Studies: A Desire for Powerful Learning, Robbie Johnston.- Sustainability: Ambiguity and Aspiration in Teacher Education, Sandra Wooltorton.- Afterword, Ken Tobin.