Shaping Teacher Identity Through Equity Literacy Framework (RPA Pilot / Seed Project)

Teacher educators must go beyond skills and strategy practice to prepare educators who can be successful in learning environments with a diverse range of student needs. Reflexive, analytical practice with dispositions and discourse focused on what counts as learning, achievement, and ability is just as important. The Shaping Teacher Identity through Equity Literacy (STI-TEL) project will engage students in action-oriented discussions specifically on ableism, racism, and other forms of marginalization by offering a newly developed module in the EDS 505 Diverse Learners course in the spring of 2024. The STI-TEL PI will use critical frameworks to guide practice-based opportunities that give teachers the language they need to discuss racism and ableism as well as dispositions necessary in the work of inclusive education. This project focuses on the following research questions: To what extent do the language and dispositions of pre-service teachers change with the use of critical frameworks as a tool for analysis? What do student responses and applications in practice reveal about their development from dysconsciousness to critical consciousness? The project’s aim is to develop educators who are confident in their ability to engage in practice using equity-minded discourse to meet the needs of diverse learners and their families.