A Cyclical Journey: Student Teachers Navigate Social Justice Education
In this talk, we explore the lives of student teachers within a social justice-oriented teacher education program: how they navigate key moments of learning, discomfort, and transformation while developing pedagogies as student teachers. Situating this work within the interrelated scholarship of social-justice teacher education and culturally sustaining practices, we discuss how the experiences of student teachers are not just a precursor to becoming "real" teachers. Rather, this period is a critical phase in their growth, a time they can be immersed in the complexities and subtleties of being a student teacher. Findings from our research highlight a cyclical process of looking backward, inward, and forward. Student teachers reflect on their experiences, critically engage with their current positionalities, and envision their future practices and commitments as student teachers. We suggest this dynamic process is significant to their development as educators who are culturally responsive and socially just.
Presenter bios
Pooja Dharamshi (she/her) is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. Her scholarship focuses on power dynamics and systemic inequities in teacher education. Grounded in critical literacies and culturally sustaining pedagogies, her work highlights the possibilities for community-engaged practices in advancing social justice and equity in K–12 and teacher education contexts. As a co-investigator on an SSHRC-funded international project, Pooja examines how teacher education programs resist neoliberal influences through transformative pedagogies.
Amrit Cojocaru is a PhD candidate in the eTap equity studies stream in the Faculty of Education and a program coordinator for the Friends of Simon Project. Before that, she was a limited-term lecturer and faculty associate at Simon Fraser University and a K–12 educator in the Surrey School District. Her doctoral research on students with forced displacement experiences in K–12 schooling systems focuses on equity and inclusion through teacher education and strength-centred pedagogies.
Shaghayegh Bahrami is a Vanier Scholar and PhD student in the ETaP program in the Faculty of Education. Currently a graduate student representative at the Canadian Association for Social Justice Education (CASJE), Shaghayegh also serves as the editor-in-chief of the SFU Educational Review. Their doctoral research lies at the intersection of mother-tongue-based learning and teacher education, focusing on the power of storytelling in creating counternarratives about languages and places.
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