The pedagogy of teacher activism

Teacher activism takes various forms, both inside and outside of the classroom. Teacher activists might fight for educational equity or focus on other social justice causes. They might be supported by unions and grassroots teacher organizations, or their activism might be embedded within broader social justice movement groups. For the purposes of this study, I define teacher activists, however affiliated, as those teachers who understand their work to be political, see themselves as social justice change agents, and act upon this understanding with deliberate intention. This is a study of four teacher activists connected to a grassroots teacher organization called the New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE). Designed to explore how teacher activists understand and do their work, the study uses the methodology of portraiture to address the following questions: How do four teacher activists understand and explain the development of their approaches to teaching and activism? How do they see their life histories informing these approaches to teaching and activism? From their perspectives, how do they attempt to put their teacher activist commitments into practice? What do they identify as the challenges they face and supports they rely upon in their work?

Framed by existing theory and research on critical and social justice education, feminist and union teacher activism, and how people become activists, this study employs portraiture to trace participants' personal life histories, political and activist development, and current teacher activist practice to illuminate what it means for them to become and be teacher activists. Data drawn from in-depth interviews, observations, and document reviews are analyzed to present dynamic illustrations of the various ways in which teachers are activists. In examining both individual stories and cross-case lessons, this study finds four elements that together inform the pedagogy of teacher activism: purpose, passion, power, and possibility. As mainstream reform trends continue to focus more and more on technical solutions to educational problems, this study helps the field think critically about how to cultivate and support teachers as social, cultural, and political activists fighting for social justice change in the world.