Abstract
This case study draws from complexity theory to examine one teacher’s social justice pedagogy development vis-à-vis three interrelated systems: a professional development context, the teacher’s school, and the teacher as an individual system. The study provides analysis of a teacher who participated in a five-year professional development network of experienced middle school social studies teachers and the author/researcher. The case study narrows in on one White teacher participant who taught mostly White students. It explores her developing conceptualizations and implementation of social justice pedagogy in her eighth-grade classroom, with a focus on her evolving racial literacy and how to support her students’ racial literacy development. Analysis revealed Grace’s complex learning about social justice pedagogy included three phases that broadly shifted from hesitancy and avoidance to consistently and explicitly integrating social justice topics across her curriculum in ways that challenged students to become comfortable with potentially uncomfortable topics, especially in terms of White structural racism and White dominance. The study adds substance and depth to the emergent literature about complexity theory in education by describing how the PD, school, and teacher systems each dynamically interacted with each other to influence Grace’s learning across her developmental trajectory.
Recommended Citation
Popp, Jacquelynn S.. (). From “The Elephant in the Room” to “Being Comfortable with Discomfort”: A Teacher’s Complex Change about Social Justice Pedagogy. i.e.: inquiry in education: Vol. 18: Iss. 1, Article 10.Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.nl.edu/ie/vol18/iss1/10