Table Of ContentCritical Pedagogy and Teacher Education
in the Neoliberal Era
Small Openings
EXPLORATIONS OF EDUCATIONAL PURPOSE
Volume 6
Series Editors
Joe L. Kincheloe†, Canada Research Chair of Critical Pedagogy, McGill University, Montreal,
Quebec, Canada
Shirley R. Steinberg, Montreal, Canada
Editorial Board
Barrie Barrell, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
Rochelle Brock, University of Indiana, Gary, USA
Stephen Petrina, University of British Columbia, Canada
Christine Quail, State University of New York, Oneonta, USA
Nelson Rodriguez, College of New Jersey, USA
Leila Villaverde, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, USA
John Willinsky, Stanford University, USA
Series Scope
In today’s dominant modes of pedagogy, questions about issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, colonialism,
religion, and other social dynamics are rarely asked. Questions about the social spaces where pedagogy
takes place - in schools, media, and corporate think tanks - are not raised. And they need to be.
The Explorations of Educational Purpose book series can help establish a renewed interest in such
questions and their centrality in the larger study of education and the preparation of teachers and other
educational professionals. The editors of this series feel that education matters and that the world is in
need of a rethinking of education and educational purpose.
Coming from a critical pedagogical orientation, Explorations of Educational Purpose aims to have the
study of education transcend the trivialization that often degrades it. Rather than be content with the
frivolous, scholarly lax forms of teacher education and weak teaching prevailing in the world today, we
should work towards education that truly takes the unattained potential of human beings as its starting
point. The series will present studies of all dimensions of education and offer alternatives. The ultimate
aim of the series is to create new possibilities for people around the world who suffer under the current
design of socio-political and educational institutions.
For other titles published in this series, go to
http://www.springer.com/series/7472
Susan L. Groenke (cid:129) J. Amos Hatch
Editors
Critical Pedagogy
and Teacher Education
in the Neoliberal Era
Small Openings
Editors
Susan L. Groenke J. Amos Hatch
Department of Theory and Practice Department of Theory and Practice
in Teacher Education in Teacher Education
University of Tennessee University of Tennessee
Knoxville TN Knoxville TN
USA USA
ISBN 978-1-4020-9587-0 e-ISBN 978-1-4020-9588-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2009920157
© 2009 Springer Science + Business Media B.V.
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written
permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose
of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
Printed on acid-free paper
springer.com
Joe Kincheloe passed away as this book went
into production. The book would not have
been possible without Joe’s support and
encouragement, and his chapter is a key
element in the case we are trying to make.
We dedicate this volume to Joe’s immense
generosity, his amazing contributions to the
field, and his passionate commitment to
making the world a better place for all.
Foreword
Susan L. Groenke and J. Amos Hatch
It does not feel safe to be critical in university-based teacher education programs
right now, especially if you are junior faculty. In the neoliberal era, critical teacher
education research gets less and less funding, and professors can be denied tenure
or lose their jobs for speaking out against the status quo. Also, we know that the
pedagogies critical teacher educators espouse can get beginning K–12 teachers
fired or shuffled around, especially if their students’ test scores are low. This,
paired with the resistance many of the future teachers who come through our
programs—predominantly White, middle-class, and happy with the current state
of affairs—show toward critical pedagogy, makes it seem a whole lot easier, less
risky, even smart not to “do” critical pedagogy at all. Why bother?
We believe this book shows we have lots of reasons to “bother” with critical peda-
gogy in teacher education, as current educational policies and the neoliberal discourses
that vie for the identities of our own local contexts increasingly do not have education
for the public good in mind. This book shows teacher educators taking risks, seeking
out what political theorist James Scott has called the “small openings” for resistance
in the contexts that mark teacher education in the early twenty-first century.
As we conceptualized this book, we wanted to give teacher educators committed
to doing critical pedagogy a place to tell their stories, but we also wanted to provide
the contextual backdrop describing the contemporary sociopolitical conditions within
which their narratives can be understood. We divided the book into two parts. Part I,
“Contexts for Critical Pedagogies in Teacher Education,” describes and critiques the
neoliberal and neoconservative forces that impact higher education and aim to com-
modify teacher education and standardize the experiences of teacher educators and
the beginning teachers they prepare. Part II, “Enacting Critical Pedagogies in Teacher
Education,” shares hopeful accounts of the “small openings” critical pedagogues
working in teacher education programs in places as diverse as Kentucky, Oregon, and
Wyoming find to resist and counter the discourses described and critiqued in the first
part. The book concludes with an Afterword, which synthesizes the work presented
in the book and offers future considerations for those who attempt to practice critical
pedagogy in the challenging contexts of the early twenty-first century.
S.L. Groenke and J.A. Hatch
University of Tennessee
vii
viii Foreword
We believe this edited collection is well suited for university educators, critical
scholars, and students in the fields of teacher education, cultural studies, founda-
tions of education, educational leadership, and critical studies. Education profes-
sionals, such as teachers, principals, and policymakers, who are interested in
critiquing the contexts of contemporary schooling, should also find the book to be
of value. Following are some of the features that make this book unique:
Critical Pedagogies in Teacher Education in the Neoliberal Era: Small Openings
● The book is by and for those interested in applying critical perspectives in higher
education settings.
● Chapter authors represent scholars from diverse backgrounds, institutions, and
levels of experience.
● The book is divided into parts focused on (a) sociopolitical contextual influences
that impact the development and teaching of critical perspectives and (b) ways
to enact critical pedagogies in real teacher education settings.
● The book adds to the theoretical, empirical, and practical knowledge base of
multiple disciplines, including teacher education, critical pedagogy, foundations
of education, and educational policy.
● A chapter is included that traces the roots of critical pedagogy to the early social
reconstructionists, bridging the gap between past and present teacher education
efforts on behalf of social justice.
● A chapter reporting findings from a recent study of critical teacher educators’
perspectives on the issues they face and how they deal with them is featured.
● A comprehensive bibliography of materials for working with preservice teachers
is presented.
● Volume editors conclude with a synthesis of themes, conclusions, and applications
woven throughout the book.
Overview
Part I, “Contexts for Critical Pedagogies in Teacher Education,” charts the contex-
tual territory in which critical teacher educators are forced to operate in the first
decade of the twenty-first century. We are concerned that the small openings avail-
able for critical teacher educators may be becoming even more constricted in the
current climate of neoliberal economics, neoconservative education policy, and
standards-based reform. We invited scholars to address some of the powerful forces
impacting possibilities for doing critical teacher education in the current social,
political, and economic climate. Contexts addressed in Part I range from historical
influences to the impact of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and the section con-
cludes with a report of a research project designed to capture what those currently
doing critical teacher education in a variety of places perceive to be the factors that
influence their work. We believe the chapters in this section provide a powerful
Foreword ix
backdrop for contextualizing the narratives of practice in Part II, and they stand
individually and collectively as important, with often troubling statements about the
current state of affairs in teacher education and schooling.
The part opens with Chapter 1, “Social Reconstructionism and the Roots of
Critical Pedagogy: Implications for Teacher Education in the Neoliberal Era.” In
this chapter, Susan Groenke of the University of Tennessee traces the history of the
social reconstructionist movement of the 1930s, showing this movement’s influ-
ence on contemporary critical thought and the evolvement of teacher education in
the United States. Groenke makes a powerful case that the capitalist policies that
the original reconstructionists resisted so strongly have been reincarnated in the
neoliberal assault on contemporary schooling—and teacher education in particular.
She argues that lessons from those who fought for social justice in the past should
not be forgotten by those engaged in critical teacher education today.
Before he passed away in December of 2008, Joe Kincheloe authored Chapter
2, “Contextualizing the Madness: A Critical Analysis of the Assault on Teacher
Education and Schools.” Kincheloe was one of the leading advocates for using criti-
cal approaches to understand and change how schools work. His chapter builds on
the historical context in Chapter 1, providing a prescient critique of what he terms
“the recovery movement” of the past 30 years—that is, efforts by right-wing con-
servative forces to “recover” White supremacy, patriarchy, class privilege, and
heterosexual normality. The chapter exposes both the madness and the impact of
the recovery movement on education in general and teacher education in particular,
arguing that change will not be possible unless critical pedagogues reframe the
“commonsense” that right-wing political, economic, religious, and cultural forces
have successfully created over the past three decades.
Chapter 3, “Standards Talk: Considering Discourses in Teacher Education
Standards,” is authored by Nikola Hobbel of Humboldt University. Hobbel’s project is
to deconstruct national standards discourses to examine the complex social and politi-
cal processes that both enable and constrain teachers and teacher educators, especially
in terms of preparing teachers for effective, culturally relevant practices. She provides
an overview of standards proposed by National Council for Accreditation of Teacher
Education (NCATE) and Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC), with the
purpose of explicating the kinds of discursive themes that are present within them. She
explores the frames of reasoning that act as the NCATE and TEAC standards’ underly-
ing assumptions, arguing that understanding the political symbolism of the standards
movement allows us to envision alternatives to the status quo.
Kate Menken of the City University of New York, Queens College & Graduate
Center, has written Chapter 4, “Policy Failures: No Child Left Behind and English
Language Learners.” Menken provides a comprehensive overview of NCLB and
the controversies surrounding it, then explores its impact on English language
learners (ELLs)—the fastest-growing population in US schools—and on teachers
and teacher educators. She concludes that teacher educators have the responsibility
to inform future teachers that they have the final say in how policies like NCLB are
implemented in classrooms and to take an active role in advocating for ELL stu-
dents and informing policymakers of the impact of failed policies on schooling.
x Foreword
Part I concludes with Chapter 5, “Issues in Critical Teacher Education: Insights
from the Field,” by Amos Hatch and Susan Groenke of the University of Tennessee.
The chapter is a report of findings of an open-ended, Web-based survey sent to
critical teacher educators, asking them to identify issues they face in their work,
ways they address those issues, and the major critical texts they find useful with
teacher education students. Based on data from 65 respondents, the findings use the
words of critical teacher educators to bring to life their perspectives on issues
related to students, colleagues, and expectations. The chapter includes an extensive
bibliography of materials critical teacher educators have used successfully with
preservice teachers. The insights offered by study respondents offer an empirical
bridge that connects the contexts described in Part I to the stories in Part II.
In Part II, “Enacting Critical Pedagogies in Teacher Education,” we include ten
narratives of practice written by critical educators working in a wide variety of roles
and institutions. As we planned this part of the book, we invited abstracts from indi-
viduals with different levels of experience in higher education, who work in different
kinds of college and university settings in different parts of the United States, who
teach in programs preparing teachers for different grade levels and subject-matter
areas within the K–12 system, and who represent a variety of ethnic and racial back-
grounds. We selected chapter authors who share the experience of attempting to do
critical pedagogy as part of their teacher preparation activity, but who bring unique
and interesting perspectives to the task because of who they are and how they adjust
to the contexts in which they do their work. Some chapters are single-authored, some
are written with colleagues, and others are by professors and graduate students who
share the experience of introducing critical pedagogical approaches to future teachers.
The first set of narratives in this part (Chapters 6–10) are grouped together because
they represent teacher educators working across the spectrum of grade levels and
subject specialties; the latter set (Chapters 11–15) includes diversity in terms of
grades and subjects, but emphasizes the impact of a variety of settings on critical
pedagogical work. We believe the stories collected across the part create a narrative
mosaic that can give a sense of solidarity to those who do critical pedagogy in teacher
education and provide a source of insight for those imagining their own “small open-
ings” in the future.
Chapter 6, “A Critical Pedagogy of Race in Teacher Education: Response and
Responsibility,” is authored by Jill Flynn, Tim Lensmire, and Cynthia Lewis of the
University of Minnesota. The chapter presents stories of the authors’ experiences
implementing a critical pedagogy of race with predominantly White preservice
teachers. Lessons learned related to positioning the students as “responsible” but
not necessarily “guilty” are explored.
In Chapter 7, “Anti-oppressive Pedagogy in Early Childhood Teacher Education:
A Conversation,” Beth Swadener, Cristian Acquino-Sterling, Mark Nagasawa, and
Maggie Bartlett of Arizona State University frame their stories of practice as a
conversation among a professor and three graduate students. Authors recount their
personal/professional journeys to critical pedagogy, discuss tensions and contradic-
tions in their work with early childhood teacher candidates (especially around
issues of high-stakes testing and accountability), and explore the place of “radical
love” in teacher education experiences that aim to be anti-oppressive and critical.
