Dismantling Defensiveness and Resistance to Diversity and Social Justice Issues in Teacher Preparation

Increasing Family Involvement and Cultural Understanding through a University-School Partnership

“…Second, to address the widening achievement gap, education courses must help teachers identify, analyze, and reconstruct low expectations, negative stereotypes, and cultural misconceptions (Pajares, 1992). Within multicultural courses, it is not uncommon for faculty to experience defensiveness or resistance to course content on the part of teacher candidates (Pohan & Mathison, 1999). This response should not surprise us, because core beliefs are highly resistant to change (Aaronsohn, Carter & Howell, 1995;Pajares, 1992).…”

Teacher educators' reflections on moments in a secondary teacher education course: thinking forward by challenging our teaching practices

“…Many pre-service teachers tend to cling to and defend discourses that privilege those of the dominant culture and deny opportunities for others (Powell, 1997;Pohan & Mathison, 1999;Wade, 2000;Kumashiro, 2002). We recognize these issues of resistance to race, class, gender identity, sexual identity and ability that are found within the research on school teaching and practice.…”

“…We like to think that we are hyper-aware of the status quo, of the ways in which the dominant culture plays out in classrooms. We also want to think that we are able to recognize and respond to defensiveness and resistance that occurs when challenging dominant culture norms (Pohan & Mathison, 1999;Ukpokodu, 2002). However, what happens when we fail to connect with our students?…”

Trans Students’ Right to Their Own Gender in Professional Communication Courses: A Textbook Analysis of Attire and Voice Standards in Oral Presentations

“…Social justice has been conceptualized in various ways in fields such as social work (Duffy, 2010; Olson, 2018; Pelton, 2001) and teacher education (Garii & Rule, 2009; Mills & Ballantyne, 2016; Pohan & Mathison, 1999). At its core, social justice seeks to “promote a common humanity of all social groups by valuing diversity and challenging injustice and disparities in all its forms” (Leong & Pickren, 2017, p. 779).…”