Putting Equity to Work: A Qualitative Case Study Exploring Equity and Social Justice in a Teacher Preparation Program and its Outcomes with Teacher Candidates

This study seeks to explore equity and social justice in a teacher preparation program through the lived experiences of teacher candidates who are attempting to enact equity and social justice in their teaching. This study suggests that for a university-based teacher education program to support teacher-candidates enactment, while addressing the tension between focusing on equity and social justice or pedagogy, they must: a) identify how the curriculum addresses equity and social justice, b) identify how teacher candidates are attempting to enact equity and social justice in the classroom, and c) identify what the teacher candidates gained from the curriculum that helped them incorporate equity and social justice in the classroom. This study applied a case study approach to reveal the lived experiences of teacher candidates, who are student teaching in diverse urban schools during their last year in a teacher preparation program. Findings suggest when incorporating social justice and equity, teacher preparation programs need to thread equity and social justice in the curriculum in a way that is fluid and integral. When supporting teachers’ enactment of equity and social justice, bold and courageous decisions must be made to dismantle the racist systems in education.