Counter-narrative as method: race, policy and research for teacher education

This paper examines the connections and disconnections between teacher education policy and research, and considers future opportunities for teacher education research by rethinking the notion of evidence as it is conceptualised in current policy debates. Historically, teacher education was positioned as a training issue, then as a learning issue, and more recently it has been framed as a policy problem requiring significant reform. By analysing the influences on current teacher education policy, this paper argues that we are now in a second stage of the ‘teacher education as a policy problem’ phase. Teacher education is now a politically constructed and ideological policy problem and the associated discourses of evidence are contributing to disconnections between teacher education research and policy. Drawing on findings from a large-scale longitudinal study investigating the effectiveness of teacher education that highlighted the complex and non-linear processes of learning teaching and doing teaching, I argue that singular thinking about the purpose of teacher education as only preparing teachers must be problematised. I suggest that calls for evidence, that are so prevalent in current policy, must be interrogated and reframed if compelling and convincing connections between teacher education policy and research are to be realised.

Similar to our predecessors and those before them for the past decade, our editorial team has assumed leadership of the Journal of Education (JTE) in times of extreme criticism of educational research and of both preservice and inservice teacher education. Critics from within like Arthur Levine proclaim that everything is broken (Levine, 2011), that there is research into what kind of training produces successful teachers (Levine, 2011), and that schools of education lack both rigor and relevance (Levine, 2006). Headlines from The New York Times proclaim of Teachers is Flawed ... (Lewin, 20l 1) or Teacher Training Termed Mediocre (Medina, 2009). One article features anecdotal in support of an alternative teacher education program while citing an economist who claims no research he can think of has shown a teacher-training program to boost student achievement. So why invest in training when, as he told me recently, 'you could be throwing your money away'? (Green, 2010). Educational research, and particularly research in teacher education, clearly is in crisis. The refrains of no conclusive evidence and little research exists ... are all too common in our handbooks and research reports (see, for example, Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005; Wilson, Floden, & Ferrini-Mundy, 2001). This criticism influenced our vision for the journal as JTE is in a unique position to shape how teacher education, and more specifically how research in teacher education, is viewed both within and outside the profession. The journal has a well-deserved reputation of publishing quality scholarship in teacher education, with a standing of 18 out of 177 education and education research journals based on impact in the field of education (Thompson Reuters, 2011). Our challenge is to build on this foundation with the ultimate goal of publishing quality research that points the way to excellent teacher education practice and constructive policies. If we make progress in attaining this critical goal, we would also make great strides toward establishing teacher education as a distinct field with knowledge, histories, research methodologies, and practices that are recognized and recognizable. Reaching the goal requires a balance of a range of content and topics; diversity of voices represented by teacher education researchers, practitioners, and policy makers; attention to both preservice and inservice teacher education; and sensitivity to providing an outlet for beginning authors as well as for those who have a long history of publishing in teacher education. We hope to bring together the three dimensions of teacher education--practice, policy, and research--in challenging and productive ways so that considerations of issues or challenges in teacher education are enriched by careful attention from these multiple frames of reference. Our audience consists largely of teacher education practitioners, researchers, and policy makers in national and international contexts. For teacher education practitioners who do not do research, or for teacher education researchers who do not engage in the practice of teacher education, the connections may sometimes be weak. When teacher education researchers are also practitioners, the connection between research and practice may be strong but may lack a policy perspective. Policy makers, however, may lack a concrete grounding in the everyday realities of practice. We need all three perspectives to address the complex problems facing teacher education today. JTE provides a forum to highlight relationships among all three perspectives. We are particularly aware of the power of policy as the bridge that links research and practice in teacher education. Although we are separate and independent from our parent organization, the American Association of Colleges of Education (AACTE), in our ability to manage the direction and focus of the content of the journal through the use of the double-blind, peer-review process and our selection of themes and special issues, we recognize the power of collaborating with AACTE in matters related to policy. …

Racist hate speech on UK university campuses remains an increasing concern. This article examines the widespread problem of racist hate speech through a multilayered theoretical approach; and suggests that a fuller appreciation of the problem can only be gained through a race-centred analysis. Drawing on Fraser’s work on the problematics of misrecognition and identity-reification, the article extends Levine-Rasky’s theoreticisation of power dynamics in the intersectionality between whiteness and middle-classness to intersections of whiteness with both middle-classness and working-classness as a contributing factor to mobilisation of lad cultures which is termed as white-laddism. The article advances the understanding of racist hate speech through a conjoined analysis of these concepts through a Critical Race Theory (CRT) lens. The conjoined analysis is informed by the Deleuzian ‘rhizomatic’ approach in order to examine the process by which multiple, diverse and non-hierarchical lines of connection between the concepts shape, dislocate, modify each other in variable ways. The detail behind the bigger picture helps further our understanding of the inadequate nature of equality policies and strategies that often look at issues in isolation, and thus fail to address the inequality and injustice being perpetuated on campuses.

Race and Social Policy, edited by Sandra Edmonds Crewe, views current-day racism toward Black Americans in the United States through the lens of critical race theory, the concept that systemic racism permeates laws, policies, and institutions. With its legal origins, critical race theory can also provide a framework for understanding social policy because it relates to racism. In the medical field, this theory may be a less well-known concept which readers can be introduced to integrate into their practice and understanding of the impact of policy decisions. This book includes 12 articles from a special edition of the journal Social Work in Public Health first published in 2019 (volume 34, issue 1). These articles were mostly written by social workers with a focus that would be most beneficial to social workers. Other disciplines involved in developmental and behavioral pediatric care may find them useful in understanding the social context around racial issues through the lens of critical race theory. These chapters investigate the bidirectional effects of social policy and racism in the United States beginning with the slave trade, emphasizing the importance of taking a historical perspective. Topics examined include poverty, the workplace, media, housing, elections, education, welfare, fatherhood, disability, justice, the elderly, and the Christian church. The first chapter provides an overview which most readers could find helpful in deciding which additional chapters may be most interesting and relevant to their practice. For example, as a pediatric clinician, the chapter on Black fathers was enlightening. Specifically, it connected current family structures with historical context, emphasizing the ways slavery devalued the family unit and led to mothers taking on the sole caregiving role. The book calls its readers to action and provides some suggested policy changes. For example, the welfare chapter recommends collecting racial demographic data, and the chapter on education highlights the importance of recruiting Black and Latinx teachers. However, some readers may expect and hope for more recommendations in all chapters. By including only, the original journal articles published in 2019, the authors have missed many opportunities for editing these articles to fit the audience of 2023 and beyond. Noting, for example, the racial disparities highlighted by COVID-19 and the murder of George Floyd in 2020, a multitude of events since 2019 have made prominent the impact of systemic racism in the United States. Acknowledgement and analysis of these major incidents using a critical race theory frame would strengthen the text for readers in the present day. Furthermore, since the journal's publication in 2019, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of using equitable and inclusive language. In the past few years, many professional clinical organizations including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics have embraced and distributed guidelines for more equitable and inclusive language. However, this text does not acknowledge these language changes over time. Notably, chapter 9 “Inequities in Family Quality of Life for African American Families Raising Children with Disabilities” includes the use of the outdated term, “mental retardation,” which is now perceived as pejorative. While the data presented in the chapter were collected in 2011 before the publication of the DSM-5, it was unsettling to read the term in a book published in 2023 with no explicit acknowledgement of the way language has progressed over the past decade. A book emphasizing critical race theory and the marginalization of Black Americans should also be sensitive to the experiences of other marginalized groups. For health care professionals, critical race theory provides a framework for understanding the systemic racial inequities their patients continue to face. This book examines current social policy and provides some useful suggestions for improvements in policy to create a more equitable and racially sensitive society, but it could benefit from being updated to provide readers with more current information. Furthermore, for those affiliated with a university, these articles may be available in databases to which their universities subscribe. With limited modifications made since 2019, the book and journal articles are nearly the same.

Teaching (Cooperative) Business: The “Bluefield Experiment” and the Future of Black Business Schools

When we assumed the editorship of Journal of Teacher Education (JTE), we articulated the goal of maintaining a strategic balance among the areas of teacher education practice, policy, and research, bringing those areas to bear on one another in challenging and productive ways. We envisioned a forum for diverse work of national and international teacher education researchers (university and non-university based), teacher education practitioners, and policy makers at all levels. Linking research and practice was--and still is--paramount in our vision for JTE. At the same time, we wanted to improve the quality and coherence of the research base in teacher education and have focused several editorials on topics related to improvement (see issues 63:1, 64:2, and 64:4). We soon realized that this vision required a large team of committed reviewers with a broad range of expertise and interests. Previously, JTE has relied upon a group of excellent ad hoc reviewers who were acknowledged once each year in the last issue of the volume. However, given the vision articulated above, we decided that a stable, core group of reviewers who are acknowledged scholars would better meet the needs of the journal and would provide valued reviewers with the recognition they deserve. We are pleased to announce the members of the JTE Editorial Review Board (ERB) whose names appear on the inside cover of this issue. ERB members have outstanding records of scholarly achievement in teacher education, represent the diverse interests of our readership, exhibit various specialties within teacher education, and have a history of service to JTE. role of the ERB will be to contribute to the quality of the articles published in JTE by providing high-quality reviews. Ad hoc reviewers will still be needed and we will draw from this group to select future ERB members. Through this process, the ERB and the ad hoc reviewers will serve to promote and support inquiry and dissemination of knowledge in teacher education. Highlights of the Current Issue articles that comprise this issue exemplify the vision articulated above. Topics include teacher education impact, reform, and accountability as well as preservice perspectives on English language learners. All have well-developed implications for policy, practice, and research. contexts are varied with focus on international, national, state, and local settings. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies are represented, and, in one article, the quality of a particular methodology is a major focus. first two articles continue themes highlighted in earlier JTE publications involving the impact of teacher preparation programs (See Volume 63, Issues 3 and 5). article by Gary Henry and his colleagues, The Effects of Teacher Entry Portals on Student Achievement extends the study of the relationship between teacher preparation program type and student achievement beyond the dichotomy of traditional versus that has not been particularly fruitful in understanding preparation differences. They augment previous studies published in JTE on the topic (Gansle, Noell, & Burns, 2012; Plecki, Elfers, & Nakamura, 2012) by considering out-of-state teachers in their sample. They classify teachers from a national sample into a number of predominant portals of entry into the profession and estimate the effects of these portals on student gains. Results indicate that teachers prepared in in-state public undergraduate programs generally outperform teachers from out-of-state or alternative programs, even in math and science. exception is Teach for America that, although it constitutes a very small portion of the sample, represents a highly successful portal. Lincove, Osborne, Dillon, and Mills contribute to the conversation launched in our previous theme issue about value-added modeling (63:5) in their article The Politics and Statistics of Value-Added Modeling for Accountability of Teacher Preparation Programs by considering stakeholders' views in analytical decisions. …

In this paper, I explore how American Buddhist and Catholic religious communities are dealing with racism both within and outside of their communities by analyzing two projects through the lens of critical race theory (CRT). The Buddhist project is Making the Invisible Visible: Healing Racism in Our Buddhist Communities, which aims to promote racial diversity in American Buddhist sanghas. The Catholic project is Open Wide Our Hearts, The Enduring Call to Love: A Pastoral Letter Against Racism, which aims toward spiritual conversion and social activism. I analyze how each project defines racism, how they approach the problem, and how they envision the role of tradition and the community in perpetuating and ameliorating racism. By analyzing these two projects, I demonstrate how religious communities could benefit from CRT as a critical theoretical framework for their racial projects.

During the summer of 2004, a new study of the impact of Teach for America (TFA) teachers on pupils' achievement was released by Mathematica Policy Research, Incorporated. Taking stock in 2005, this editorial uses the new TFA study to make several points about research on teacher preparation programs in general and about how this research is often used and misused in the discourse about teacher preparation reform. editorial begins by reviewing two previous studies of TFA, noting that although they asked similar questions, they reached directly opposing conclusions and, not surprisingly, engendered directly opposing critique from those with differing political and professional agendas. Then the editorial briefly describes the Mathematica study, arguing that although it was not designed to compare the effectiveness of teachers prepared in university-based teacher education programs with that of teachers who entered teaching through alternate routes, it is nonetheless being constructed that way in the larger political discourse. editorial makes the argument that the new study is more indication that we need to get beyond the teacher education horse race, which pits route, program, or structural arrangement against another to declare the winner or the one best approach to teacher preparation. Instead, we need to focus directly on the essential ingredients in the preparation of all teachers and the ways these interact with what teacher candidates bring and with the contexts of programs and schools to produce desirable outcomes. ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF TFA TEACHERS: PREVIOUS STUDIES In June 2004, a major national study (Decker, Mayer, & Glazerman, 2004) of the impact of TFA, an alternate teacher recruitment and training program, was released by Mathematica, an independent research firm that provides analyses of the socioeconomic issues that drive public policy. Not surprisingly, the Mathematica study generated immediate response. Since its inception in 1989, TFA has been a hot-button issue among teacher education researchers and practitioners and among educational policy makers. Indeed, in many of the most contentious debates, TFA has been constructed as both the poster child for alternate routes into teaching (even though it is technically not an alternate route but a teacher recruitment and initial training program) and a major battleground for larger discussions about who should teach, what they should know, how and where they should be prepared, and who should decide. Mathematica study is not the first analysis of the impact of TFA teachers on pupils' achievement as indicated by test scores. Raymond, Fletcher, and Luque (2001), for example, studied TFA teachers for the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), a research group of the Hoover Institute. This study compared new TFA teachers hired in Houston with other new teachers hired there and concluded that TFA teachers were at least as good as others in terms of pupils' test scores and better than other new teachers in raising pupils' math test scores. foreword to the study, written by Chester Finn and Marci Kanstoroom, concluded, The TFA program, we learn from this study, proves that it's not necessary to spend an extended period in an to be effective in a K-12 classroom (p. ix). Spokespersons for major national organizations supporting professional teacher preparation were quick to critique the study, pointing out that because Houston has an unusually large number of uncertified teachers (including teachers without even a bachelor's degree), the study actually compared TFA teachers with teachers who were less well-qualified than they were. Critics concluded therefore that the study did not really prove anything about the effectiveness of teachers prepared in ed school programs in comparison with teachers entering through alternate routes. Critics also pointed out that the exceedingly high attrition rate of TFA teachers in the Houston study (60% to 100% after 2 years) was a major concern. …

The Google Expedition titled WWI Era Through the Eyes of the Chicago Defender explores African American experiences during the early years of the Great Migration (1910-1970). Conventional journalism relies on the false idea that journalists are meant to be, and can be, objective, outside observers. This report provides tools for journalists to create more nuanced, thorough storytelling endeavors. This report describes the theoretical framework and intent of the Virtual Reality (VR) project for students in grades 8 and above. It utilizes Feminist Standpoint Theory (FST) and Critical Race Theory (CRT) to cultivate a VR experience that acknowledges particular, overlooked aspects of American history. The Expedition utilizes photographs and articles from the Chicago Defender, archival stills and motion pictures, and 360-degree images of present-day locations throughout the United States, including Chicago and Waco, TX. Using Google Expedition, students wear a VR headset while a teacher guides the student through the Expedition, which was created through the lens of CRT and FST to help students question current narratives and stereotypes that still pervade society and mass media.

Re-entry African American male high school dropouts through the lens of critical race theory with content analysis of the case studies Repository Citation RE-ENTRY AFRICAN AMERICAN MALE HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS THROUGH THE LENS OF CRITICAL RACE THEORY WITH CONTENT ANALYSIS OF THE CASE STUDIES

Multicultural and anti-racist education are pedagogies developed to include all students, despite their cultural and lingual backgrounds. As educative pedagogies, they recognize the importance of ethnic and cultural diversity in affecting people’s existence, social involvements, identities, and educational opportunities (Gay, 2004). This paper presents various approaches that encourage curriculum reform through the lens of Critical Race Theory (CRT). The paper highlights the efficacy of the different approaches in providing equal opportunities for students from diverse racial, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds to succeed academically.

The frequent police killings during the COVID-19 pandemic forced a reckoning among Americans from all backgrounds and propelled the Black Lives Matter movement into a global force. This manuscript addresses major issues to aid practitioners in the effective treatment of African Americans via the lens of Critical Race Theory and the Bioecological Model. We place the impacts of racism on Black families in historical context and outline the sources of Black family resilience. We critique structural racism embedded in all aspects of psychology and allied fields. We provide an overview of racial socialization and related issues affecting the parenting decisions in Black families, as well as a detailed overview of impacts of structural racism on couple dynamics. Recommendations are made for engaging racial issues in therapy, providing emotional support and validation to couples and families experiencing discrimination and racial trauma, and using Black cultural strengths as therapeutic resources.

Understanding systemic racism through a lens of critical race theory can help music educators to critically examine their own practices as teachers and consider how equitable teaching practices might look. This chapter describes the experience of four music educators who learn about CRT and how an understanding of systemic racism can expand the opportunity to emphasize care in the classroom. Critical race theory is a lens through which to understand how race and racism operates in our society. With an understanding of systemic racism through critical race theory, music education practitioners can gain a deeper awareness of power, oppression, and racism in order to transform our profession toward a more caring centered profession. Critical race theory critiques color-neutral ideology where different races and identity points are acknowledged and not ignored. Educators can expand their ability to see, celebrate, and care for students and their differences while simultaneously dismantling oppressive structures.

ABSTRACTIn this article, we examine the experiences of Black presidents in rural community colleges through the lens of critical race theory (CRT) and critical discourse analysis (CDA). Understanding the experiences of Black community college presidents, particularly in rural areas, which remain primarily white, is essential when addressing systemic inequities. We analyzed oral history archived interviews with 11 Black community college presidents conducted in 2021. Through a CRT lens, the study examines how race intersects with institutional structures and dynamics, shaping the experiences of Black college presidents. We utilized CDA to analyze how discourse constructs and reinforces power and racial hierarchies for Black leaders within academic settings. The findings suggest the need for tailored support systems for Black leaders in rural community colleges, informed by CRT constructs and tenets of the centrality of racism and social justice. Findings highlight implications and recommendations for community college governing boards responsible for appointing community college presidents. Governing boards must understand how Black leaders experience the presidential role to know how to support them best. By centering the voices of Black leaders and applying CRT and CDA frameworks, this study contributes to how CRT is a tool for uncovering racism and racialization in community college leadership, particularly within rural settings.

Critical race theory (CRT) was developed to examine the persistence of racism. This literature review attempts to understand CRT as it has been applied in related fields such as higher education and possible reasons for its limited application in adult education theorizing about race and racism. This analysis of CRT is framed against a backdrop of the evolution of an adult education discourse on race and racism over several decades and distinguishes CRT from other racial theories that have been used in the field. CRT tenets are discussed using examples that demonstrate how CRT reveals areas of racism left untouched by other forms of theorizing. The author provides a critique of CRT, caveats for those adult educators who might choose to use it, and examples of areas within the field of adult education that might benefit from a CRT lens.