Research Report: Shared Responsibility Across a Shared Island (SRASI): Teaching Social Justice in Initial Teacher Education

Research Impact:  The findings of the SRASI project, which explores the experiences of teacher educators and PSTs in the North and South as they engage in social justice education, align with the broader body of research on social justice in PETE (Flory & Landi, 2020; Lynch et al., 2022; Mitchell et al., 2021). We leave the reader with six recommendations:

• Recommendation 1: To create a safe space, teacher educators and PSTs should continually engage within and across their respective jurisdictions to determine how best to maximise the engagement in discussing social justice matters, appreciating that this takes time.
• Recommendation 2: Teacher educators’ understanding of their positionality and vulnerability in exploring social justice matters is central to appreciating their role in encouraging PST engagement with social justice matters.
• Recommendation 3: Sufficient time needs to be allowed to determine the ‘readiness’ of teacher educators and PSTs to develop appropriate dispositions and aligned skill-sets that will enhance engagement with social justice matters.
• Recommendation 4: Appreciating that the realities of teaching in a school heightens PSTs’ exposure to social justice matters, PSTs need support to consider how best to encourage teachers and schools to adapt approaches and practices that address social justice matters.
• Recommendation 5: Consider the extent to which teacher educators and PSTs can learn from each other about social justice matters that arise in different school and teaching contexts as well as geographical jurisdictions.
• Recommendation 6: Provide PSTs with opportunities for modelling practices and regular reflection on experiences and exposure to social justice matters with a view to acknowledging personal growth and determining how best to develop an ongoing commitment to social justice matters.

MacPhail, A., Calderón, A., Moody, B., McAuley, C., Scanlon, D., Murtagh, E., McFlynn, P., Luguetti, C., Walton-Fisette, J., and Campbell, A. (2023) Shared Responsibility Across a Shared Island (SRASI): Teaching Social Justice in Initial Teacher Education. Research Report, SCoTENS. https://doi.org/10.34961/researchrepository-ul.24241960