Social justice professional development: Using teacher voices to understand need and impact

Abstract

As social justice pedagogies gain traction within language education, both novice and experienced teachers participate in professional development experiences to inform their understanding of and teaching for social justice. This descriptive report documents the perceptions of postsecondary language teachers as they engaged in a social justice curriculum development project, which included a variety of opportunities for professional development. Using illustrative data from questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, group work sessions, and consultation meetings, this report identifies insights into professional development tools, resources, and experiences around social justice education that teachers found most impactful and those that are most needed for their continued learning. Implications for individual teachers, language program administrators, and language teacher educators seeking to advance the teaching of social justice in language classrooms are discussed.