Degrees Toward Social Justice Teaching: Examining the Dispositions of Three Urban Early-Career Teachers

Teaching for social justice means understanding students and advocating for them. These dispositions are especially critical for those who teach in urban communities where low-resourced schools and deficit perspectives toward students prevail. While many teacher education programs claim to prepare teachers for social justice (Zeichner in Teacher education and the struggle for social justice. Routledge, New York, 2009), it remains unclear how program graduates actually think and act according to social justice principles. This study focuses on the dispositions of three, early-career teachers in relation to Cochran-Smith’s (The international handbook of educational change. Springer, New York, 2010) theory of social justice in education, and some of the background and contextual factors that shaped their ability to enact social justice teaching practices. Case studies, largely based on teachers’ written narratives, reveal differences in their orientations toward: (1) caregivers, (2) students’ knowledge traditions, and (3) their ability to raise students’ critical consciousness. The two teachers who were most evolved in their demonstrations of social justice teaching grew up in families where service to others was highly valued. The study also demonstrates how two of the teachers managed in school contexts where scripted teaching and high stakes testing were enforced, and how these conditions factored into one teacher’s departure from her position. Findings from this study indicate how teacher education and professional development programs can be strengthened to develop and support teachers’ social justice orientations.