A justice oriented examination of teacher education through the lens of deans’ innovations and leadership in schools of education

Social-justice teacher education literature is widespread, but research highlighting the perspectives and insights from those who lead is far less common. This interview-based case-study of 20 deans from the Schools of Education across the United States addresses this gap and explores insights that pertain to the leadership and implementation of teacher education programs that advance social justice and teacher agency. Using conceptualisations of thin and strong equity, we identify, explain, and discuss three themes which emerged from the data. The first involves addressing barriers and access issues for prospective teacher candidates. The second includes programmatic actions taken by deans in attempts to further social justice goals and the third highlights an understanding that social justice work inevitably includes working to change systems and structures at the societal scale. We explore the extent to which these patterns reflect strong equity and provide ideas for deepening this work through the development and reframing of teacher agency.