Teacher candidates’ transformative thinking on issues of social justice Rona Frederick * , Agnes Cave, Kathleen C. Perencevich The Catholic University of America, USA Keywords: Teacher education Social justice Foundations of education Culturally responsive teaching abstract This article examined how teacher candidates’ thoughts shifted regarding social inequity in a sopho- more-level Foundations of Education course located in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. First, we described in detail the teacher education program and course, as well as class simulations, school observations, course readings and class discussions. Then, we examined the narratives of our teacher candidates’ transformation. We found that the afore-mentioned experiences successfully supported transformative thinking regarding social justice. By the end of the course, many teacher candidates began to take ownership over their learning and started viewing themselves as responsible change agents. They began to examine education as embedded in larger social contexts, scrutinized their own schooling experiences and stepped outside of their own conceptions of education to initiate discussions of social justice. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The final days of a sophomore-level Foundations of Education course had arrived. In class, 33 predominantly White middle class teacher candidates sat intently listening to one another share their philosophies of education. Finally, it was Carrie’s turn to speak. She stated, My teaching philosophy has changed drastically over the course of the semester. In the beginning of the semester, I believed that the most effective form of education was a strict environment where core courses should be taught. .now my philosophy has changed to being more about social reform as a means to shape society. Instead of just teaching them [children] the basics, I believe a switch in my philosophy has changed to being more about taking those basics .along with more recent works.and studying how to keep improving our country and the world. As the class politely applauded, we recalled Carrie’s initial philosophy statement in which she wrote, The role of education is to prepare the youth of today to be successful in the future and to prepare them for a world which they will one day be independent in. This is not only teaching them about science and math, but also teaching them about life. The role of the teacher is to be an authority to his/her students, but also to connect with them. School should be a safe and welcoming environment for students and with a kind hearted teacher who can also be a disciplinarian. This would make the perfect teacher. We wondered what had changed. What experiences led Carrie to rethink her position to include issues of social justice and social change? More importantly, what can we learn about Carrie’s experiences in this class that led her to rethink her beliefs about schools and the roles teachers play in them? Additionally, when teacher candidates are predominately White and middle class and have limited experiences with diverse cultures and social ineq- uities, what kind of experiences are needed to transform ideas about teaching and learning as they relate to diverse populations? The purpose of this article is to explore how teacher candidates shift their understandings of issues related to social inequity in a Foundations of Education course. More importantly, we examine what teacher candidates tell us about what led to transformation of their thoughts and beliefs. ‘‘Voice,’’ grounded in Paulo Freire’s notion of dialogical communication, became an analytical tool used to uncover teacher candidates’ experiences in the classroom. In other words, we attempted to foster a space in which active, dia- logical, critical and stimulating methods (Freire, 2001) encouraged candidates to perceive themselves in the world differently and, in turn, develop the capacities to make positive change. To this end, we shed light on the thoughts and experiences of teacher candi- dates as they shared their experiences through direct exposure to social inequities that exist within the school context. This article describes what we learned from our candidates as we laid the groundwork for the development of culturally responsive compe- tencies during the beginning stages of a teacher education program. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: frederick@cua.edu (R. Frederick). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Teaching and Teacher Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tate 0742-051X/$ – see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2009.05.004 Teaching and Teacher Education 26 (2010) 315–322