Three Cases of Student Teaching Practice for Social Justice in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Although teachers may agree that it is important to teach all learners equitably, it is challenging to practice social justice oriented pedagogy due to its multiplicity and complexity. This participatory action research attempted to examine student teaching practices that three teacher candidates approached to teach for social justice with young children (Preschool – 1^st grade) in suburban and urban school settings. For this qualitative research, multiple data sources such as observations, interviews, and documents from course work and field placement were collected and analyzed. This study discusses different student teaching practices each participant chose to teach for social justice and different areas of diversities each participant focused in different contexts. It concludes with some suggestions for early childhood teacher educators with insights and tools to support teacher candidates to teach for social justice.

Keywords: Diversity, teacher candidate, early childhood education, teacher education