Critical Pedagogy and Teacher Education in the Neoliberal Era

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 pe- 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.

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 pe- 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.

Contexts for Critical Pedagogies in Teacher Education.- Social Reconstructionism and the Roots of Critical Pedagogy: Implications for Teacher Education in the Neoliberal Era.- Contextualizing the Madness: A Critical Analysis of the Assault on Teacher Education and Schools.- Standards Talk: Considering Discourse in Teacher Education Standards.- Policy Failures: No Child Left Behind and English Language Learners.- Issues in Critical Teacher Education: Insights from the Field.- Enacting Critical Pedagogies in Teacher Education.- A Critical Pedagogy of Race in Teacher Education: Response and Responsibility.- Anti-Oppressive Pedagogy in Early Childhood Teacher Education: A Conversation.- Integrating Macro- and Micro-Level Issues in ESOL/Bilingual Teacher Education.- Standards, Critical Literature, and Portfolio Assessment: An Integrated Approach to Critical Pedagogical Development.- Leaders-Cloaked-As-Teachers: Toward Pedagogies of Liberation.- Regulation, Resistance, and Sacred Places in Teacher Education.- Small Openings in Cyberspace: Preparing Preservice Teachers to Facilitate Critical Race Talk.- Teaching for Democracy and Social Justice in Rural Settings: Challenges and Pedagogical Opportunities.- Adjusting to Rose-Colored Glasses: Finding Creative Ways to Be Critical in Kentucky.- Becoming Critical in an Urban Elementary Teacher Education Program.