Professional Documents
Culture Documents
To cite this article: Mariana Souto-Manning & Lawrence “Torry” Winn (2019) Toward Shared
Commitments for Teacher Education: Transformative Justice as an Ethical Imperative, Theory
Into Practice, 58:4, 308-317, DOI: 10.1080/00405841.2019.1626619
Mariana Souto-Manning
Lawrence “Torry” Winn
In this article, we assert that it is our responsibility answerable to the communities it serves? Seeking
as teacher educators to commit to fostering justice to redress how justice and answerability have
and equity in and through teacher education as an been peripherally positioned in and by teacher
imperative. To document ingrained injustices education, we propose shared commitments
across time and space, we engaged in critically grounded in transformative justice to ensure that
reading the landscape of teacher education in the teacher education commits to interrupting its role
US, guided by the questions: What are the respon- in the re-production of inequities. We thus argue
sibilities and commitments of teacher education as that such shared commitments have the potential
a field? and How can teacher education become to forge a path toward equity.
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Souto-Manning and Winn Toward Shared Commitments for Teacher Education
harm Black, Brown, and Indigenous students dismissal of pedagogical practices emanating
throughout the US (e.g., Au, Brown, & Calderón, from the education of communities of color. To
2016; Woodson, 1933). Thus, rather than the “clear be sure, in teacher education, people of color are
and consistent definition of terms” (Cochran-Smith “positioned as objects while [being] ignored as
& Zeichner, 2005, p. 32) recommended by the subjects” (Montecinos, 2004, p. 167). The ready
American Educational Research Association response to discussions about the need to transform
Panel on Research and Teacher Education, we teacher education continues to be some variant of
propose shared commitments grounded in transfor- “hire more educators of color” or “get more stu-
mative justice to ensure that teacher education dents of color into teacher education programs”
programs and teacher educators commit to inter- (Gay & Howard, 2000). Yet these responses dis-
rupting an unjust status quo. We argue that these regard the 2 key features of teacher education that
shared commitments have the potential to offer our review highlighted as problematic norms per-
teacher educators, teachers, students, and families petuating injustice and re-producing racism in and
a path toward equity and justice, as well as oppor- through teacher education.
tunities for teacher educators to redress historical We found that teacher education’s episte-
and current harm that continues to impact commu- mological Eurocentrism is visible in its struc-
nities of color. tures, programs, and content, as well as the
demographics of faculty and students. Milner,
Pearman, and McGee (2013) similarly veri-
fied that “the curriculum of teacher education
Critically Reading The Landscape of Teacher mirrors, in many ways, the P–12 curriculum
Education in that it is Eurocentric and White domi-
nated” (p. 346). Eurocentrism reflects
As we began critically reading the literature a tendency to interpret the world according
related to the field of teacher education, we inten- to dominant European values and experi-
tionally attended to how communities of color ences, centering Whiteness (Ladson-Billings,
have been historically situated. Our review (re) 2000) and imposing “Eurocentric realities as
affirmed that teacher education is a field character- universal, i.e., that which is white is pre-
ized by overwhelming Whiteness (Sleeter, 2001, sented as applied to the human condition in
2017); it unveiled how teacher education programs general, while that which is non-white is
and practices continue to marginalize the long viewed as group-specific and therefore not
histories and rich legacies of communities of human” (Asante, 1991, p. 172). Such an epis-
color, being “implicated in the re-production of temological orientation devalues the experi-
racial inequities” (Souto-Manning, 2019a, p. 97). ences of communities of color and excludes
Patterns we identified in the literature include tea- the experiences of teachers of color (Kohli,
cher education’s (1) epistemological 2009). Though we noticed that much of the
Eurocentrism, which marginalizes intersectionally literature calls for the recruitment of more
minoritized1 communities of color; and (2) teachers of color, such narratives blame indi-
viduals and communities of color for not
1
We employ the term “intersectionally minoritized” instead
entering the teaching profession, an ahistoric
of “minority” because “[a]s a characterization of people, ‘min- but common perspective (Achinstein, Ogawa,
ority’ is stigmatizing and often numerically inaccurate…. Sexton, & Freitas, 2010; Cochran-Smith &
‘Minoritized’ more accurately conveys the power relations Zeichner, 2005; Dillard, 1994; Kohli, 2009;
and processes by which certain groups are socially, economic- Villegas, Strom, & Lucas, 2012). Siddle
ally, and politically marginalized within the larger society”
(McCarty, 2002, p. xv). Combining minoritized with “intersec-
Walker (1996) has shown that such
tional” acknowledges “prejudice stemming from the intersec- a consistent narrative thread tenaciously ren-
tions of racist ideas and other forms of bigotry, such as sexism, ders invisible the history of Black schools
classism, ethnocentrism, and homophobia” (Kendi, 2016, p. 5).
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Toward a Transformative Justice Teacher Education Agenda
and Black educators in the US, for example, Walker, 1996; Woodson, 1933), centering inter-
and their multiple contributions to the Civil sectionally minoritized communities in and
Rights movement and to democracy itself. through teaching (e.g., Au et al., 2016; Dillard,
1994; Kohli, 2009; Souto-Manning & Rabadi-
Raol, 2018), and restorative justice in teacher
education (e.g., Winn, 2013, 2018). Putting
Critical Pedagogy As Conceptual Framework, these issues into dialogue with each other, we
Critical Cycle As Analytical Framework engaged in problem solving and ultimately iden-
tified shared commitments with the potential to
As we sought to problematize the landscape of transform teacher educators—who can then
teacher education briefly outlined in the previous transform teacher education.
section, we engaged with critical pedagogy, under-
standing “that every dimension of schooling and
every form of educational practice are politically
contested spaces” (Kincheloe, 2005, p. 2). Critical Shared Commitments As Relational
pedagogy is predicated on the understanding that Expectations
as educators we can either maintain the status quo
or work toward transformation. The belief that In law and medical schools throughout the
education is inherently political, the centering of US, students recite professional oaths prior to
first-hand experiences and knowledges, the prac- entering their respective occupations. These
tice of reading the word and world while problem pledges commit future attorneys and physicians
posing and problem solving, and the stance of to perform and act with the highest integrity and
educators as learners of oppressed and minoritized utmost honesty. Physicians promise to treat those
communities are foundational to critical pedagogy who are sick to the best of their abilities, protect
(Freire, 1970; Kincheloe, 2005; Souto-Manning, patient privacy, share knowledge and informa-
2010, 2019a). tion with the next generation, and treat patients
Analytically, we used a critical cycle as humans rather than charts and data. Given the
approach (Freire, 1970; Souto-Manning, 2010, prevalent and consistent mis-education, racial
2019a) as we sought to move from naming injus- inequities, injustices and educational malpractice
tices in the landscape of teacher education and harming intersectionally minoritized Black,
development to fostering transformative commit- Brown, and Indigenous students (Hutt & Tang,
ments and actions. Specifically, through 2013; Souto-Manning & Winn, 2017),
a thematic investigation (our literature review), a professional oath for educators feels urgent
we identified generative themes (teacher educa- and long-overdue.
tion’s Eurocentrism and dismissal of the experi- That said, a professional oath for the nation’s
ences and educational legacies of communities 3.6+ million teachers would be a lengthy process
of color). Rather than accepting generative entailing negotiations, concessions, and reconci-
themes as unchangeable realities, we engage in liation by teacher education programs, teacher
problematizing them. Our problem-posing pro- unions, school districts, and professional associa-
cess included reading and critically analyzing tions. Further, a top-down mandated professional
literature related to the topics of: professional oath might (whether intentionally or unintention-
ethics (e.g., National Association for the ally) further silence or marginalize the voices
Education of Young Children (NAEYC), 2011; and perspectives of intersectionally minoritized
Smith, 2012; Tuck, 2009; Villegas, 2007), criti- communities, families, and students. Finally, if
cal race and Afrocentric epistemologies (e.g., such an oath is conceptualized in a way that
Asante, 1991; Ladson-Billings, 2000; Milner reflects the current orientations and commit-
et al., 2013), the history of Black schools and ments of teaching and teacher education as pro-
schooling in the US (e.g., Foster, 1997; Siddle fessions, it is unlikely to address the injustices
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Souto-Manning and Winn Toward Shared Commitments for Teacher Education
311
Toward a Transformative Justice Teacher Education Agenda
Those who prepare teachers must inflict neither a worldview that differs from the dominant world-
direct nor indirect harm on students of color; this is view requires active intellectual work on the part of
a non-negotiable commitment and an ethical respon- the knower, because schools, society, and the
sibility to students, families, and communities of structure and the production of knowledge are
color. designed to create individuals who internalize the
dominant worldview” (Ladson-Billings, 2000,
p. 258). Such a shift also requires awareness that
Interrupt Teacher Education’s Eurocentrism “race is grossly under-theorized in teacher educa-
And Move Toward a New Epistemology of tion” (Milner et al., 2013, p. 339). Interrupting
Teacher Education Eurocentric epistemologies and moving in alterna-
tive epistemological directions will require that
Recognizing that teacher education is inher- teacher educators center intersectionally minori-
ently Eurocentric and overwhelmingly White tized individuals and communities of color in and
(Sleeter, 2001), we propose a shared commit- through teacher education structures, content, pro-
ment for the profession of teacher education grams, and demographics, as a matter of justice
that involves rooting the work of teacher educa- (e.g., Souto-Manning, 2019a; Souto-Manning &
tion in ontologies and epistemologies of people Martell, 2019).
of color. After all, “the concept of epistemology
is more than a ‘way of knowing.’ An epistemol-
ogy is a ‘system of knowing’ … intimately Center Intersectionally Minoritized
linked to worldview” (Ladson-Billings, 2000, Communities of Color
pp. 257–258). As Sleeter (2017) has shown, the
“[c]urricular content of teacher education pro- The master narrative of teacher education per-
grams tends to reflect White sensibilities … vasively centers Whiteness, and thereby margin-
[and] teacher educators tend to focus on the alizes and authors injustices toward communities
emotional needs of White students rather than of color. After all, “the experiences of people of
those of students of color” (pp. 158–159). This color were precariously absent or, if included, pre-
norm is exacerbated and reinforced by state-level sented in a way that maintained Whiteness” in
teacher “certification policies [that] specify what teacher education (Au et al., 2016, p. 2). One case
teachers should know in disciplinary content in point is that the education of Black teachers in
areas, often reinforcing Eurocentric knowledge” the South is often omitted from the (White) history
(p. 160). of teacher education. To suspend harm and inter-
Teacher education content and certification rupt Eurocentrism, teacher educators must center
requirements sanction Eurocentrism as a precondi- intersectionally minoritized communities of color
tion for becoming a teacher. As Sleeter (2017) has in and through teacher education. This requires
shown, Eurocentrism is maintained in teacher edu- recognizing how the values, voices, and experi-
cation through “the racial composition of teacher ences of communities of color have been margin-
education faculty, the content of teacher education alized, and deliberately working to move them
curricula, and the relationships between teacher edu- from margin to center (hooks, 1984).
cation and the rest of the university” (pp. 157–158). Rather than position individuals and commu-
To interrupt teacher education’s entrenched nities of color pathologically, the rich legacies
Eurocentrism, we need a “new epistemology for and assets of communities of color must be
teacher education [that] will create expanded learn- recognized, leveraged, and cultivated in and
ing opportunities for prospective teachers that will through teacher education programs, structures,
better prepare them to be successful in enacting and practices. Teacher education must reposition
complex teaching practices” (Zeichner, 2010, p. 89). and embed the developments, histories, and
Departing from deeply entrenched knowledges of people of color within what is
Eurocentrism will be a process; “developing deemed “normal” in teacher education, rather
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Souto-Manning and Winn Toward Shared Commitments for Teacher Education
than situate this information and these resources documented by Siddle Walker, Foster (1997),
as exceptions—or relegate such teaching, learn- and other researchers that we seek to reclaim
ing, and idea-sharing to one or two courses in those aims. The transformative and democratic
teacher education programs (Sleeter, 2017). This commitments of Black segregated schools were
entails the intentional and deliberate (re)position- grounded in educating the “whole child” and
ing of “students of color in the space of normal- “every child” to be an engaged, productive citi-
ity in our teacher education programs” (Ladson- zen living in a racially hostile society. As Siddle
Billings, 2017, p. 155). This also means that Walker (1996) detailed, educators such as the
teacher educators must work to catalyze principal and teachers of Casewell County
a seismic shift in the current demographic land- Training School (CCTS) ensured that every stu-
scape. Although nearly 80% of teacher educators dent not only received high-quality, rigorous
and 82% of teachers in elementary and second- instruction, but also had the opportunity to
ary public school classrooms in the US are engage in extracurricular activities. Principal
White, less than 50% of K-12 public school Dillard stated, “It is the business of the school
students are White (NCES, 2017; Milner et al., to organize and administer the extracurricular
2013; U.S. Department of Education, 2016). activities program so that every student will
Centering intersectionally minoritized com- have a favorable chance to participate under the
munities of color requires abolishing racist edu- most wholesome conditions” (p. 107). Even as
cational concepts and constructs, and must CCTS students participated in debate, science
include a shift toward seeing schools that serve club, orchestra, journalism, and honor society,
children of color as “good placements” for stu- educating the “whole child” and “every child”
dent teachers and preparing pre-service teachers also required teachers to cultivate relationships
to witness and cultivate the brilliance of children with and learn from the families and commu-
of color (e.g. Souto-Manning, 2019a). It also nities of the students they taught. Teachers fre-
means redefining what counts as quality and quently visited local churches, grocery stores,
success, centering the values and priorities of and students’ homes to learn more about the
communities of color. In sum, interrupting tea- places and people to which the children and
cher education’s implication in the re-production youth they taught belonged. Regarding families
of injustice will require transformation of pro- and community members as essential to the edu-
grammatic structures, curricula, partnerships, cational success of their students allowed these
relationships, and demographics in ways that educators to ensure that every child reached
honor the experiences, voices, values, and prio- “their highest potential” (p. 141).
rities of intersectionally minoritized commu- As teacher educators, we have much to learn
nities of color. from the teachers of Black segregated schools
and Black Independent Schools (Rickford,
2016) about how to successfully teach students
Reclaim Education’s Democratic Aims By of color. We must commit to preparing teachers
Learning From the History of Black Schools to educate the “whole child” and “every child”
so that teachers and students alike can reach their
We propose that we teacher educators need to highest potential. We must prepare teachers to
learn from the power of Black segregated teach in ways that ensure that intersectionally
schools’ transformative and democratic commit- minoritized children and youth of color are “trea-
ments (Siddle Walker, 1996), which were foun- ted human” and “treated right” (Siddle Walker,
dational to the US Civil Rights movement. It is 1996, p. 150). Such an approach allows and
from the powerful—albeit often ignored and requires educators to acknowledge, leverage,
invisiblized—history, commitments, and prac- and build on the diverse opinions, experiences,
tices of segregated Black schools in the South identities, and histories represented within their
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Toward a Transformative Justice Teacher Education Agenda
classrooms; this necessarily includes the history service teachers’ highest potential to educate
of Black schools and experiences afforded by for justice, supporting them in developing the
Afrocentric pedagogies. pedagogies and ideological clarity that will
allow them to establish classrooms where stu-
dents’ highest potential can be cultivated,
Foster Teacher Education As a Site For supported, and realized. It is in this vein that
Restorative Justice restorative justice must be undertaken as
a shared commitment of teacher educators.
The history of Black segregated schools sug-
gests that cultivating relationships between tea-
chers, students, families, and communities helps Conclusion
establish a culture of trust, understanding, and com-
passion. Reminiscent of the racial hostilities, over- As we seek to center justice and equity and (re)
policing of communities of color, and divisive claim teacher education as a profession, we see the
racial politics from the 1930s to the 1970s, the identified shared commitments not only as a need,
political and social climate today continues to but as an imperative. Although we are aware that
prove that history, race, justice, and language all these are not exclusive commitments, we regard
matter in teaching transformatively (Winn, 2018). them as foundational. After all, teacher education
Teacher educators must acknowledge that schools must become answerable to intersectionally minor-
have been sites of educational malpractice, harm, itized communities of color. We thus invite you to
and mis-education for students of color, and that reflect on and engage with these shared commit-
generations of indoctrination through the default ments, which we believe have the potential to trans-
frameworks of colonization and White superiority form teacher educators, individually and
continue to socially and politically damage com- collectively. We must transform ourselves, so we
munities of color. Viewing education through can transform what we do. It is, after all, teacher
a restorative justice lens, teacher educators can educators who can transform teacher education from
prepare teachers to circle back and re-imagine, the inside—in responsible, principled, and ethical
recreate, and re-commit to the “whole child” and ways. Only then can we commit to transformative
to “every child.” justice in teacher education; not as an option, but as
To foster restorative justice in teacher edu- an imperative.
cation, Winn (2018) argues that teacher edu-
cators must engage in a fundamental paradigm
shift to replace mainstream views about jus- Disclosure statement
tice, education, relationships, and the purpose
of schooling. “Restorative justice is founded No potential conflict of interest was reported
on a worldview that affirms our participation by the authors.
in a vast web of interrelatedness. … The pur-
pose of [restorative justice] is to repair the
harm caused to the whole of the web, restor- Funding
ing relationships to move into a brighter
future” (Davis, 2016). Using an approach This work was supported by the Spencer
that builds trust, support, and compassion, Foundation (Award 201700096).
restorative and transformative teacher educa-
tion seeks to build community by acknowl-
edging the diverse identities, histories, ORCID
stories, joys, and pains of its members
(Winn, 2013, 2018). In these rediscovered Mariana Souto-Manning http://orcid.org/
spaces, teacher educators can foster pre- 0000-0002-4825-2210
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