Reimagining social justice-oriented teacher preparation in current sociopolitical contexts

Abstract

In this collaborative autoethnography, written by multiple stakeholders involved in a teacher residency program, we address the complexities of preparing and supporting social justice-oriented teachers. We identify three tensions faced in the design and (re)development of the teacher preparation program. These tensions include preparing teachers to work in a specific context, collaborating with mentor teachers to support social justice-oriented practice, and offering university-based induction to support novice teachers’ work. We describe the ways in which we attempted to navigate these tensions, and we highlight the difficulties and possibilities of the work. We offer implications for the field and, for us, as teacher educators, to continue to grapple with concepts of social justice.