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With the need to prepare teacher candidates to work with an increasingly diverse student body in U.S. schools, a multi-institutional collaborative self-study group was formed to examine ways in which teacher educators could expand beyond practice-based literacy preparation to support candidates' understanding and implementation of critical pedagogies. The self-study served as a catalyst for interrogating the identities the teacher educators brought to their practice and began a journey that transformed a focus on critical literacies into a commitment to action for change through anti-bias antiracist work. This paper draws from group dialogue and reflective journals to examine specific practices implemented with teacher candidates to transform their practice by considering critical literacies, asset- and deficit-based language, and the identity work of teachers and students. Insights of the self-study suggest that attention to critical pedagogies must go beyond instructional activity to consider the habits of mind essential for cultivation to support a commitment to action for anti-bias anti-racist education. The paper concludes by examining these core habits of mind and their impact on the trajectory of the group's work toward leveraging language and literacy for activism and justice in teacher education contexts.

Niceness is a socialized disposition, particularly amongst white women, that prioritizes comfort and neutrality while preventing resistance against oppressive systems. Given the demographics of teachers and teacher educators, niceness and whiteness are deeply embedded in programs and institutions. As eight white, female teacher educators, we drew on the power of cross-institutional collaboration to form a self-study community of practice with the purpose of interrogating and dismantling the ways niceness and whiteness function in our teaching and teacher institutions and create barriers to centering equity and justice. Findings indicated that collaboration helped us identify how niceness shaped and continues to shape our teaching and teacher identities, particularly how we navigate difficult conversations, think about our roles as teacher educators, and imagine literacy curricula. Findings also indicated that despite efforts to recognize and interrupt niceness and whiteness, our growth was nonlinear, and we find that constant vigilance and reflection is necessary. Implications for the broader field of education include the power of self-study for disrupting niceness and whiteness in teacher education and orienting the community toward action through mutual support and accountability, while also recognizing the ways in which niceness continues to function as a barrier for enacting change for social justice.

Meta-analysis was used to examine curriculum-based measurement in the content areas of social studies and science. Nineteen studies between the years of 1998 and 2020 were reviewed to determine overall mean correlation for criterion validity and examine alternate-form reliability and slope coefficients. An overall mean correlation of 0.59 was found for criterion validity; however, there was significant heterogeneity across studies, suggesting curriculum-based measure (CBM) format or content area may affect findings. Low to high alternative form reliability correlation coefficients were reported across CBM formats between 0.21 and 0.89. Studies investigating slopes included mostly vocabulary-matching formats and reported a range from 0.12 to 0.65 correct items per week with a mean of 0.34. Our findings suggest that additional research in the development of these measures in validity, reliability, and slope is warranted.

This collaborative self-study looks at how eight white literacy teacher educators worked together to re-center critical literacy and teaching for equity in methods courses. We used self-study methodology to interrogate not only our pedagogy, but also our own internalization of white supremacy culture and complicity in perpetuating the status quo. Our group met virtually on a monthly basis, discussed common readings, shared resources, and wrote journal reflections. Findings show that our collaboration helped us explore and evolve how we framed the work of critical literacy, delve into the discomfort of initiating and facilitating difficult conversations with students and colleagues, and develop concrete actions for re-centering and enacting critical literacy practices. Building upon the collaborative self-study work that guided our practice, we argue that our collaboration -- across contexts and across time, attending to both our self-work and our pedagogy -- provides a new way forward. As teacher educators, we found self-study to be a sustainable way to outgrow ourselves, and this research serves as a call to action for other teacher educators to take up this work, as well. Dismantling the status quo is a lifelong endeavor, our work is ongoing, and we find it is strengthened when approached both individually and collectively.

Many teacher educators seek to implement culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) in their courses. However, enactment is often mediated by our socialization into whiteness and niceness. This study investigates how our self-study community of practice (SSCoP) of eight White female literacy teacher educators at different institutions collaborated to narrow the gap between our aspirations for implementing CRP and enacted practice. Through analysis of collaborative journal entries, we interpret tensions between what niceness and whiteness demand of us and what enactment of CRP requires: (a) between centering equity in our courses and addressing equity on the margins, (b) between enactment of critical pedagogy and maintaining status as "nice" educators, and (c) between the expectation of expertise and the necessity of a learning stance. We argue that teacher educators might use SSCoP spaces to navigate the complex interplay between their identities and the sociopolitical context of teacher education to more fully enact CRP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, classroom teachers have been asked to "cooperate" during student teaching, providing advice to imitate and emotional support to meet immediate needs. Based on theories of educative experience, educative mentoring focuses on growth, continuity, and inquiry. The purpose of this study was to understand what educative practices look like through the eyes of 10 mentor teachers who participated in six mentor study groups across a school year. We report on mentor's talk about and enactment of three practices: coplanning, observing and debriefing, and analyzing student work. Although we introduced and gave name to particular mentoring practices, the mentors' interpretations of what these look like when done in educative ways helped us craft the definitions we present in our findings. The findings of this study highlight that mentors benefit from professional learning that is focused on concrete practices with opportunities to develop over time in educative ways.

Workplace-based interprofessional education (IPE) offers opportunities for pre-registration students to interact with patients in authentic settings. Senior dietetic, medical, nursing, physiotherapy and radiation therapy students took part in a workplace IPE initiative on cancer and palliative care informed by experiential learning theory and run by clinical tutors. Research was undertaken to gauge students and tutors' experiences of the initiative. The mixed methods approach included: Pre and post-administration of the University of West England Interprofessional questionnaire 'Communication and Teamwork Scale, 'Interprofessional Learning Scale,' 'Interprofessional Interaction Scale.' Two questions were added relating to cancer and palliative care. Separate focus group interviews were held with students and tutors. There was a positive shift in the Communication and Teamwork scale based on students' pre and post questionnaires, but no change in the other two scales. Analysis of student and tutor focus group data showed that both affirmed the IPE initiative for a range of reasons. A brief experiential, theory-informed IPE initiative with a focus on cancer and palliative care was well received by both students and clinical tutors. The mixed method approach highlighted some discrepancies between quantitative and qualitative results but when synthesized were explicable, demonstrating the value of using a mixed methods approach to research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]