Advancing or Inhibiting Educational Opportunity: The Power of New Teachers to Reinforce or Deconstruct Social Reproduction in Urban Schools

• Published in: The Power of Resistance Vol. 12; pp. 31 - 57
• Main Author: French, Kate Rollert
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Emerald Publishing Limited 12.09.2017
• Subjects: Comparative education; Education; Global & comparative education; teacher beliefs; Urban education
• ISBN: 9781783504619; 1783504617
• ISSN: 1479-358X
• DOI: 10.1108/S1479-358X20140000012004

Abstract Beliefs about teaching influence practice and can play a powerful role in the day-to-day decision-making of teachers. Pre-service teachers commonly accrue their original set of beliefs on teaching from teacher preparation programs or personal experiences, but unlike teachers with more experience, new teachers are more susceptible to changing their beliefs on teaching once they become official teachers of record. If these beliefs change in a negative way, such as by adopting a set of beliefs that views students through a deficit lens, or capable of achieving less than their privileged counterparts, then schools will continue to foster tendencies for social reproduction instead of tendencies for social justice. In urban schools, this increase in negative perceptions of students is even more common as new teachers face challenges that are less likely to occur in non-urban schools. Findings suggest that new teachers do change their beliefs during their first year, and that these beliefs often reflect the beliefs of trusted and close colleagues within their social networks. While some teachers experienced positive changes in their beliefs and teaching practices, other teachers experienced negative changes in their beliefs that unfavorably affected students. Most teachers were unaware of their belief changes, but offered explanations for how and why their beliefs could have changed without their noticing over the course of the study. Implications and possible directions for future research are discussed.