Conference Agenda

Decolonizing pedagogies affect student learning, the learning environment, and stand as a model for future teaching practices. As teacher educators, we are reviewing our methodology courses in Early Learning as well as Physical Education, Health and The Arts, to address Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action (2015) and pursuing our commitment to reconciliation and decolonization practices. As settler educators we are responsible “to reflect critically on the current educational system in terms of whose knowledge is offered, who decides what is offered, what outcomes are rewarded, and who benefits, and more importantly, how those are achieved in an ethically appropriate process” (Battiste, 2013, p. 28).

While we are in the education field, our courses throughout the year can be considered transdisciplinary as we think through the lenses of literacies, educational law, and Indigenous education and consider new forms of decolonizing pedagogy. In our methodology courses, we aim to ensure that this spiraling of curricula persists and demand that our teacher educators revitalize and renew course content and structure to rise to the Calls to Action of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation (2015). Through the application of community practices (Wenger-Treynor, 2015) and our partnerships with Indigenous outreach programs, we support our teacher candidates in gaining an understanding of the connections to be addressed in education to further work in the arts, sports, health, and cultural communities.

We believe our work in this project will link to Madden’s (2015) “pathway circle” as deep learning and understanding will occur and the journey is “continuously contextual, distinct, relationship, and unforeseeable” (p. 3). Findings, both practical and reflective, will be presented during our session.

This proposal meets the sub-themes of Curriculum design for equitable teaching and Equity and inclusion in teacher education and would a roundtable format allows for further considerations for this topic.

One of the aims of UFC's PIBID Letras Inglês Subproject is to introduce undergraduates majoring in English or Portuguese and English into the daily life of public schools, providing them with opportunities to create and take part in innovative methodological and technological experiments and teaching practices. There are three partner schools that act as co-educational centres for teachers in initial training: EEM Adauto Bezerra, IFCE Fortaleza and EMTI Maria da Hora, each receiving groups of eight scholarship students, who are supervised by English teachers at the school, as well as the Sub-Project coordinator. In this context, this study aims to present the intervention actions, such as: the MH News, which focused on the creative production of texts in English; the Movies Club, which addressed the different forms of language through audiovisuals; and the Theatre Club, which valued artistic oral expression to improve English practice and pronunciation. As a methodology, we started with an overview of the actions, according to the specific objectives of each one, analysed the materials created and the scholars' own accounts of their experiences, triangulating this data. As a result, we can see advances in English learning in the partner schools in an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary way as a result of PIBID's actions, given its potential to transform through didactic dynamics and the reimagining of academic practices. We have seen advances in the quality of English teacher training at UFC and the valorisation of teaching careers in basic education.

Undeniably, most STEM secondary classrooms do not reflect an inclusive environment in which students with disabilities are expected to thrive (Basham & Marino, 2013). Outdated teaching strategies and the marginalization of students who require inclusive learning experiences have led to a limited representation of students with disabilities pursuing post-secondary educational careers in STEM (NSF, 2023). Fortunately, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) provides a framework that STEM teachers can use to create transformative learning experiences that support and foster appreciation for learner variability, social justice, and equity (Kohnke, Patterson, & Moehlmann, 2022).

At the heart of UDL are the ideas of inclusivity and equity. By adopting a curriculum that is accessible to all students, STEM teachers can ensure that none of their students are disenfrancised. Adopting an equity-focused UDL approach is key to developing inclusive strategies for teaching STEM content and encouraging the disintegration of systemic barriers that in the past have prevented students with disabilities from embracing STEM careers. By adopting the UDL framework, educators work alongside students as co-agents of change and effectively create an inclusive, fair, and equitable learning ecosystem that cultivates social justice for all students (Waitoller, 2023).

Researchers at the University of North Georgia designed professional development workshops for STEM high school teachers. During the three-year period from 2022-2024, three cohorts of teachers were provided with intensive geoscience education training using the UDL framework. Participants examined geoscience content through the UDL lens and engaged in daily self-led discussions on topics related to UDL, agency, inclusion, and justice-centered STEM education. Participants maintained workshop reflection journals and developed action plans designed to initiate justice-centered changes in their classes. This presentation will explore participants' reflections on discussionds related to UDL, social justice in STEM education, and the transformation of teachers and students as co-agents of change in STEM classrooms.

Teacher education accreditation plays a pivotal role in ensuring that educators are adequately prepared to address the diverse needs of students in contemporary classrooms. The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) has made significant strides in embedding principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within its 2022 standards. These standards mandate that teacher preparation programs cultivate equitable learning environments and equip candidates to effectively teach students from a wide array of cultural, social, and economic backgrounds (CAEP, 2022). This presentation explores how CAEP’s standards effectively promote DEI and advance social justice in teacher education. CAEP’s standards encourage teacher preparation programs to engage in culturally responsive pedagogy, recruit and support diverse candidates, and integrate equity into both coursework and field experiences (CAEP, 2022). Existing literature underscores the positive impact of these standards, with research indicating that CAEP-accredited programs are better positioned to foster inclusive teaching practices and to support students from historically marginalized groups (Darling-Hammond & Oakes, 2019). Moreover, the alignment of teacher education curricula with CAEP’s DEI standards equips future educators with the knowledge and skills necessary to enact socially just pedagogies (Zeichner, 2020). This presentation will showcase successful examples of teacher education programs that have embraced CAEP’s DEI standards, highlighting innovative approaches to fostering equity in both teacher preparation and K-12 classrooms. Additionally, it will explore opportunities for continued innovation in teacher education to further align with CAEP’s commitment to advancing equity, inclusion, and social justice.

Pre-service teachers (PSTs) often find themselves well-versed in theories, instructional strategies, and pedagogical frameworks, yet once confronted with the nature of real-world teaching, applying that knowledge to support students proves more difficult than planned. Given the complexity of today’s classrooms, it can be challenging to effectively integrate all of the instructional practices, such as scaffolding, through coursework assignments (Darling-Hammond, 2014; Phillips & Condy, 2023). Rather than acquiring meaningful practice with scaffolding, PSTs often end up viewing it as a box to check in a lesson plan. As such, PSTs and novice teachers alike face challenges in enacting scaffolding in the classroom (e.g., Alvarez et al., 2023; Peercy & Chi, 2022; Schall-Leckrone, 2018).

To better understand how the practice of scaffolding might be intentionally integrated into coursework as an exercise of application, we asked: How do pre-service teachers perceive the process of scaffolding content and creating instructional materials for multilingual learners? This qualitative case study was carried out with two groups of elementary education PSTs. PSTs in both groups were tasked with creating a digital jumpstart (DJ) (Jones et al., 2022; Rance-Roney, 2010), a form of digital storytelling technology that can be used to scaffold content and language for MLLs. DJs bring together various modes with the goal of introducing a topic and providing the preliminary knowledge students will need to engage with new content.

After collecting multiple sources of data and engaging in analysis, the following three themes emerged: PSTs perceived digital storytelling technology as a means to (1) be creative in their content development; (2) develop personalized content beyond “pre-packaged” materials; and (3) provide meaningful support for MLLs. Overall the creation of DJs appears to be one way for teacher educators to bridge the gap between theory and practice for PSTs, specifically as it relates to scaffolding content for MLLs.

This workshop uses the nascent concept of “excessive teacher/faculty entitlement” to capture the seeming teacher/faculty disinclination to recognize the need to change for creating more equitable educational ecologies in a rapidly evolving multicultural world. Excessive teacher/faculty entitlement is the inconsistency that arises in the gaps between who teachers/faculty think they are but are not. An unawareness of this inconsistency gives rise to a sense of arrogance and deservingness making them hold unreasonable expectations of both the self and others, including students.

International research piloted to study this phenomenon of excessive entitlement in schools and universities showed its ubiquitous presence (Ratnam & Craig, 2021; Forthcoming). In these studies, excessive teacher/faculty entitlement manifested itself in diverse forms—a lack of self-awareness, tendency to hold on to inherited script, closed to other points of view/worldviews (including importantly of students), externalising blame, professional jealousy, competitiveness and aggression hampering learning and relationships in the workplace and the health of the institution. However, these findings are not used to berate teachers and faculty, but to gain an empathetic understanding of them and the complexity of their work and seek effective ways to control the triggers of excessive teacher/faculty entitlement in educational institutions.

The workshop will be in the form of a Walk and Talk dialogue with the audience.

Session structure

• Introduction
• Authors share their experience of excessive entitlement.
• Invite audience for a walk and talk where they respond to thought provoking episodes and questions by uncovering and naming the sources of excessive entitlement in their workplace and examine their positioning in it as victims/victimizers.
• Discuss its impact on social relationships, learning and wellbeing in the workplace, and
• What action we can take individually and collectively to mitigate feelings of excessive entitlement in the workplace to promote student flourishing and collegial relationships in the workplace .