You Teach Who You Are: The Experiences and Pedagogies of Literacy/English Teacher Educators Who Have a Critical Stance

Clare Kosnik, Pooja Dharamshi, Cathy Miyata, Lydia Menna, Yiola Cleovoulou, and Clive BeckOntario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto

Literacy Teacher Educators

• Goals of the study: to study in depth a group of literacy/English teacher educators, with attention to their backgrounds, knowledge, research activities, identity, view of current government initiatives, pedagogy, and course goals.

• 28 participants from four countries (Canada, US, UK, and Australia)

Poverty and Literacy Skills

• In Canada: “17% [who] scored at Level 1 or below … have skills that enable them to undertake tasks of limited complexity, such as locating single pieces of information in short texts in the absence of other distracting information.”

• In the US: More than 20% of adults read at or below a fifth-grade level – far below the level needed to earn a living wage.

Focus on 8 participants

• Pedagogical practices exemplify the four dimensions of a critical stance.

• Research and publications often consider issues such as marginalized students.

• Theorists who resonated with them are often considered having a critical stance.

Critical Stance

• Consciously Engaging

• Entertaining Alternate Ways of Being

• Being Reflexive

• Taking Responsibility to Inquire

Critical Stance

Consciously Engaging

• Course goals

• Creating space for difficult discussions

Entertaining Alternate Ways of Being

• Helping student teachers unlearn

• Using alternate texts and forms of expression

Critical Stance

Being Reflexive

• Organic and flexible course structure

• Authentic learning experiences

Taking Responsibility to Inquire

• Teachers as public intellectuals

You Teach Who You Are

Early Life Experiences

I became very aware of the stratification. I was a very successful student on Saturday [Spanish class] but I was the same student [in elementary class] where I was not recognized. My lack of English was really [seen as] a lack of intelligence — I just got a sense of how school structures perceive and label students and give very unequal types of educational opportunities. (Maya)

Turning Points as Adults

• Pietro – work with incarcerated youth – have ST visit jails

• Giovanni – learned about his grandfather -- connect with the community

• Justin – school closed by OFSTED - impact of political decisions on teachers

Student Teacher Resistance

Student Teacher Resistance

• It worked for me so it should work for all children.

Dominique: “throughout their whole career they have had a path of how to do it well and how to do it right”

Student Teacher Resistance

• There should a standard pedagogy.

Dominique: student teachers just wanted her “to tell [them] how to do it right, like what's the right way.”

Student Teacher Resistance

• Logistical inconvenience

• Sara: “Some of them want to go to a lecture and want to go to a tutorial and want to have a textbook and want to have all of my knowledge…. want it laid out for [them].”

What should be done?

• More support for teacher educators • Careful selection of teacher educators • Program-wide goal of teaching all learners • Immerse student teachers in a program that has a

critical approach • Closer partnerships with schools • Sharing of information (stats) about impact of

poverty • Use pedagogies that help student learners

“unlearn” and move beyond their own experiences

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