Microsoft Word - rev1344.docx Drame, E. (2014, December 15). Review of Teacher Education for Social Justice: Perspectives and Lessons Learned by Luciana C. de Oliveira. Education Review, 21. December 15, 2014 ISSN 1094-5296 De Oliveira, L. C. (Ed.) (2013). Teacher education for social justice. Charlotte, North Carolina: Information Age Publishing, Inc. Pp. 164 ISBN 978-1-62396-108-4 Reviewed by Elizabeth Drame University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee United States Teachers across the globe contend with the challenge of educating students from a diverse range of cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and religious backgrounds to achieve their individual potential, as well as to contribute to society as a member of a broad informed citizenry. Teacher Education for Social Justice attempts to leverage social justice as a theoretical lens for framing the experiences of preservice teachers who encounter diverse students and as a foundation for specific strategies for successfully engaging these students. The editor, Luciana C. de Oliveira, employed Cochran-Smith’s theory of teacher education for social justice, particularly the theoretical domain focused on teacher preparation to ground her rationale for the importance of this text. Graduate students served as contributing authors and situate their reflections within this theoretical context as well. In the first chapter, the editor presents a very brief description of Cochran-Smith’s theoretical framework and short synopses of each chapter. The rest of the chapters are grouped by four dimensions organized within the third domain of teacher preparation for social justice. These dimensions include: a) recruitment, selection, and retention of Book review by Elizabeth Drame 2 teacher candidates; b) curriculum and pedagogy; c) contexts, structures, and collaborators; and d) student outcomes. I briefly summarize the content of some chapters under each dimension for the purposes of reviewing the included content in relation to the theoretical framework. The first dimension of Recruitment, Selection, and Retention of Teacher Candidates is addressed in two chapters. An example of the content of these chapters included Chapter 2, which focused on education for the empowerment of second language learners of English through the active engagement of learners through their primary, native language, viewed as an asset. Personal reflections on the authors’ experience with teaching immigrant students in Russia informed their views. They proposed immersion experiences for preservice teachers as a means for developing their capacity, understanding, knowledge and awareness of other cultures they may encounter in schools. Also included in this section was Chapter 3, which began with a brief summary of social justice principles and situated social justice perspectives in the realities of teacher education in developing countries. The chapter addressed the experiences of Japanese teachers challenged with effectively educating immigrant students, particularly Brazilian immigrant students in Japanese classrooms. Turning the spotlight on educational inequity deriving particularly from language barriers and inadequate teacher preparation, they touched on the importance of multicultural education courses in teacher preparation programs. Chapter 3 discussed the need to reframe first languages other than English as an asset that adds to cultural capital rather than representing a cultural deficit that English is a second language rather than the primary language. In addition to the suggestion of assigning student teachers in diverse placements, the authors presented a strong case for including bilingual and English Language Learners considerations and training and content/coursework in all teacher education programs as a matter of social justice. The authors touched on the need for critical self- Education Review 3 reflection on identity, privilege, and cultural perceptions. However the author(s) needed to think more critically about what preparation was needed prior to these placements so that preservice students had critical awareness of their biases and prejudices they bring into these placements. They also could have been more descriptive about the types of critical reflection needed during placements to help preservice teachers process ways of being, social mores and values they encounter in these settings, so that they do not leave these placements with their stereotypes validated or reinforced. The need for additional depth was evident throughout the text. The second dimension of Curriculum and Pedagogy, addressed in four chapters, took a variety of perspectives, including the influence of media on the educational experiences of students from non- Christian faiths, the importance of critical self- awareness and self-reflection, and critical historical analysis as a fundamental part of teacher education. More specifically, Chapter 5 highlighted the impact of the radicalization, essentialization and demonization of the Muslim faith and people who practiced it on the educational experiences of Muslim children. The authors of this chapter proposed that a social justice orientation in teacher education required a fundamental reconceptualization of course work and pedagogical teacher preparation practices. Courses should provide opportunities for disrupting dominant discourses of students, cultures, languages, and faiths to actively and explicitly intervene to challenge negative opinions and stereotypes, which teachers often reinforce in schools. The third dimension of Contexts, Structures, and Collaborators included only one chapter, which emphasized the role of preparing teachers to develop strong partnerships with diverse families. This chapter focused on the description of a community engagement project connecting predominantly White preservice teachers with Latino/a families and children to bridge cultural understandings, as well as develop students’ literacy skills using culturally sensitive literature. Finally, the fourth dimension of Outcomes for students was addressed in three chapters. Book review by Elizabeth Drame 4 Chapter 11, for instance, addressed the negative and unintended consequences of federal accountability mandates, i.e. No Child Left Behind, on the retention and achievement of English Language Learners (ELLs) in Indiana public schools. Some unintended consequences include inappropriate accommodations for non-English proficient students who are required to take the state test, teaching to the test, and targeting interventions only to those students who could pass the test rather than focusing on student needs overall. The author presented recommendations for teacher educators and preservice teachers who need to be prepared to navigate these types of challenges. While the contributions by student authors were valuable, I found the text to be poorly organized and lacking a solid grounding in an analysis of the theoretical construct of teacher education for social justice. Though Cochran-Smith included a thoughtful reprisal of her theoretical framework in the foreword to the book, the superficial critique of the theoretical framework provided by the editor in a brief paragraph on p. 3 and the lack of explicit application of the framework to the subsequent chapters weakened the overall delivery of the text’s content. What was missing in the introduction was a review of the need for a fundamental reframing of teacher education to embed critical analysis of the systems, beliefs and attitudes that interfere, and perpetuate inequitable structures. In contrast, Chapter 4 provided a more critical conceptualization of social justice for teacher education, drawing on pedagogical perspectives from researchers such as Freire and Darling-Hammond, as well as Cochran-Smith, and approaches, such as Culturally Responsive Teaching. They took a much more critical and definitional stance on social justice for teacher education than did the editor in her introductory chapter, situating their discussion in the context of historical and political dispossession of ‘others’ and power differentials among groups. The authors highlighted the importance of teacher education programs problematizing the oppressive societal structures that create opportunity gaps facing Education Review 5 diverse students and teachers. This chapter presented the critique of educational systems and teacher education programs within the context of a social justice framework that the introduction chapter to the book should have done/framed. They presented concrete ideas for how to transform teacher education, through examination of how a specific teacher education program operationalized their purported social justice mission. They rightly noted that including one course on diversity or multicultural education in a teacher education program does not do justice to fundamentally grounding teacher education in social justice principles. Despite the important contribution of this chapter, the authors needed to more critically interrogate concepts of diversity, multiculturalism, globalization, and privilege as well. Finally, the text could have been organized much more effectively. For example, after presenting different views of social justice, critiques, and then the theoretical perspective of the book in the introductory chapter, the rest of the text, including the table of contents, could have been organized into sections or parts by theoretical dimension, with an overview of the particular dimension and synopses of the chapters included in a specific section/part. The text should have concluded with a conclusion or discussion chapter that integrated overlapping themes and similarities across all of the chapters with implications for practice in teacher education for social justice. Readers would them come away with a clear set of solutions and practical strategies that could provide a blueprint for how teacher education faculty prepare the future generation of critical educators for the 21st century diverse schools. A key aspect of this blueprint includes strategies for promoting, through our partnerships with public schools, critical analysis of the impact of systemic impacts of racism, classism, ableism, etc. on equity and social justice in K12 settings. Part of this critique include recognition of K12 systems as implicit instruments in the maintenance of the status quo and systems of oppression. In addition, the concluding chapter could have provided a more substantial description of strategies alluded to in Book review by Elizabeth Drame 6 specific chapters that encourage teacher change. These strategies include action research and service learning and critical self-study within professional communities through ongoing exchange and inquiry across universities and public schools. About the Reviewer Elizabeth Drame University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee United States Dr. Elizabeth Drame is an associate professor at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is currently the chairperson of the Department of Exceptional Education. She is a teacher educator, preparing secondary special education teachers, and coordinates the undergraduate and graduate Autism Spectrum Disorders Certificate Program. erdrame@uwm.edu Education Review 7 Education Review/Reseñas Educativas/Resenhas Educativas is supported by the edXchange initiative’s Scholarly Communications Group at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Arizona State University. Copyright is retained by the first or sole author, who grants right of first publication to the Education Review. Readers are free to copy, display, and distribute this article, as long as the work is attributed to the author(s) and Education Review, it is distributed for non-commercial purposes only, and no alteration or transformation is made in the work. More details of this Creative Commons license are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/. All other uses must be approved by the author(s) or Education Review. 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