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Purpose The purpose of this study is to inquire into the effectiveness of authentic writing instruction embedded in a critical service-learning project in a middle school English Language Arts curriculum. Design/methodology/approach This paper analyzes middle school students’ survey responses before and after their participation in a critical service-learning project designed to engage students in authentic writing. Specifically, the paper considers students’ perspectives of community and writing as a result of their participation in the project. Findings Participants’ perspectives fell into three categories: audience influence, empowerment or personal knowledge to act and confidence in ideas. Originality/value These perspectives suggest a deviation from common findings regarding the benefits of authentic writing instruction, as the presence of an audience in this study often hindered student confidence in their abilities as writers and community change agents. Authors draw from the findings to offer recommendations to support teachers in effectively incorporating authentic writing practices and audiences into their instruction.

This is the introduction to the Yearbook on Critical Social Justice Across the Spectrum of Teaching and Learning: Theory and Practice in Communities and Classrooms.

Background American students represent diverse life experiences, languages, cultures, and community memberships. Given the relatively unchanged demographics of U.S. teachers (primarily middle-class, white females), it is important that teachers engage in culturally proactive pedagogy and design curriculum that both reflects their students’ culture and engages them in developing skills to be participants in a larger society. Purpose This chapter explores how three veteran eighth-grade English language arts teachers in a large middle school in the southeastern United States navigated Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) as a culturally proactive and socially just pedagogy and encouraged students to examine power, privilege, and oppression in literature, in informational texts, and in their local communities to identify ways they might change inequities. Research Design Findings from this qualitative study suggest that even veteran teachers often struggle to implement social justice and culturally proactive pedagogies. Findings These teachers wobbled with their own uncertainty about the differences between a more traditional pedagogy, where they drive the learning, and a critical pedagogy that places the students in charge of the direction of their learning. Conclusion/Recommendations From the findings, recommendations are made to teachers who grapple with incorporating socially just and culturally proactive pedagogies into their teaching.

This work explores the potential of using a critical service-learning project with middle grades English language arts students to facilitate development of a social justice mindset. Through The Re...

The effects of professional teacher dispositions on student development have been widely documented. Yet there is limited discussion of the impact of socially just dispositions. The present study critically examines the relationship between justice-oriented mind-sets in preservice teachers and their perceptions of teaching in urban schools. Using critical interpretive case study, we analyze a series of journal reflections from a diverse group of prospective teachers to determine whether exposure to service-learning opportunities within an urban school influenced their views about urban schools and students. As a result of the findings from the study, recommendations for teacher education are addressed.

Drawing on a theory of program coherence, the establishment of an educational third space, and intentional clinical experience, the authors created a unique entry point in a teacher education program. The authors developed the Onsite Secondary Education Project (OSSEP) to connect relevant educational theory and discipline-specific pedagogy through intentional clinical placements for first-semester preservice teachers. Results from this exploratory research demonstrate that program coherence and structured clinical experiences can help preservice teachers orient themselves to the teaching profession and connect educational theory and practice. However, unintentional experiences were identified, suggesting that increased exposure to the classroom helped shape participants’ views toward the teaching profession. Findings offer evidence of a teacher education that balances the idealism of teacher education with the practicalities of the PK-12 classroom.

This exploratory case study examines the experiences of one first-year, Black female English language arts teacher and her Advanced Placement Language and Composition students. Through an exploration of her relationship with her Black students, the data reveal how she faced challenges when finding balance in her classroom management style, encountered cultural dissonance, developed teacher-student relationships, and struggled with how White, middle-class values may have shaped her classroom interactions with her students. The results of this study inform the field of teacher education and have potential implications for pre-service and inservice teachers worldwide working with students from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds.

Through course readings, museum visits, focus group discussions, and reflections on clinical observation experiences, preservice teachers developed a fictitious educational setting (Courage High School) that incorporates critical, social justice practices and privileges the experiences and cultural backgrounds of all K-12 students. Participants presented a model for this school and how it would benefit specific student needs. From our classroom experiences, the authors developed recommendations for how future educators problematized ideas of courage, race, and diversity in developing Courage High School. The authors suggest that using museums as experiential pedagogical tools and offering authentic learning opportunities can encourage a critical, social justice orientation to teaching and may inspire future teachers to enact courage in their teaching practice.

Research in teacher education suggests that field experiences in community settings can offer pre-service teachers a context for understanding the link between theory and practice. This paper documents the experiences of pre-service educators participating in a service-learning experience at a Children's Defense Fund Freedom School in the south-eastern United States. Pre-service teachers engaged in critical reflection, online journals, and daily debriefing sessions and praised the benefits of a service experience in an urban context and explained how interactions within the programme gave them the insight into the teaching profession. The author argues that this project successfully bridged the gap between teacher education theory and practice.