Fostering anti-oppressive pedagogies in preservice teachers: the role of the university supervisor

Abstract

As anti-oppressive pedagogies gain increasing prominence in teacher education, there is a need to examine how preservice teachers understand and implement anti-oppressive frameworks. The role of the university supervisor is uniquely well-positioned to allow for insight into preservice teacher pedagogical practices; however, this role is grossly understudied. This study explores how the university supervisor fosters White preservice teachers’ theoretical and historical understandings of oppression, as well as the supervisor's role in the negotiation between preservice teacher identity and implementations of anti-oppressive pedagogies. This study utilizes data from preservice teachers’ observations and reflections, and positions the university supervisor as an autoethnographic educator-researcher in order to understand the White supervisor’s own anti-oppressive practices. Drawing on Critical Whiteness Studies informed by intersectionality, we present two vignettes that illuminate the interplay between identity, anti-oppressive teaching, and the university supervisor. This research brings a new and pertinent lens to the field of education.