The (dialogical) pedagogical agency of novice teachers. : A critical perspective of initial teacher formation for social justice

Echeverria De La Iglesia, Priscilla and McArthur, Jan (2024) The (dialogical) pedagogical agency of novice teachers. : A critical perspective of initial teacher formation for social justice. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

This research is about formation of teachers for social justice when this later is understood as an act of empowerment, through dialogical interactions careful to give due recognition (Honneth, 1995) and elimination of institutional oppression (Young, 2011a), so people can develop major degrees of autonomy both individually and collectively, to deal with the difficulties of the neoliberal scenario. This research is based on a double concern, which are two sides of the same coin -the pedagogy student as a recipient of an institutional culture and a subsequent transmitter of it once work in the school: on the one hand, whether initial formation empowers them agentically, and on the other hand, if it sensitizes to know how to exercise power from the teaching authority to empower others. This perspective circumscribes this study from the sociology of education due to: - it focuses on how education as a social institution is affected by and effects the social structure (Crossman, 2021), considering teacher formation a crucial link in cultural transmission. - it puts agency as a central element of formation, from a Bourdieusian perspective in which the person´s habitus sustains a dialectical relation to social structures. - It discusses a micro/macro dynamic: a pedagogical practice that has place in the micro educational level -the classroom-, tensioned by the macro educational level – standardized and managerial educational policies that frame the teaching practice. Through the interviews and experiences offered by twelve novice secondary teachers of different subjects graduated from Chilean universities, this research aims to unveil how prepared they are to face the reproductive nature of the school system, exercising a dialogic pedagogical agency to educate their students considering contextual needs. Thus, this research, designed and developed from a critical perspective, seeks to lay the foundations to discuss the importance of teachers be prepared to resist a bureaucratic and instrumental system to develop a transformative role, opening a discussion about the critical part that initial teacher formation programs play in offering future teachers a preparation accordingly.