Prospective Teachers’ Narrative Sense-Making of Equity

Abstract

Equity has been a persistent focus of research in education and in particular teacher education. While numerous studies have investigated instructional interventions aimed at supporting teachers’ learning about equity, few studies have investigated teachers’ learning of equity. In this study, I used narrative inquiry as a lens through which to investigate how prospective elementary teachers make sense of equity. From eight participants’ stories, I developed ten categories of types of experiences that are drawn on in these equity narratives. I also documented eleven narrative techniques used in the stories that make equity sense-making visible. I delve into how two of these techniques (explicit re-narration and visual metaphors) make sense-making visible to researchers and teacher educators. These findings have implications for future research on teacher education research in equity as well as teacher education practice.