Practicing the promise of critical pedagogy: Case studies of three pre-service teachers mediating the meaning of race, equity, and social justice in middle school classrooms

The purpose of this qualitative multi-case study was to document the efforts of three white preservice teachers to engage in critical pedagogies across three different middle school contexts. Inherent in this study is the belief that teaching and learning to teach from a critical perspective is a process that is responsive to the context in which it is performed (Enciso, 2007; Fecho & Meacham, 2007; Orellana, 2007). For preservice teachers working in middle school classrooms this means acknowledging the politics of teaching literacy in their field placement site and actively working to construct alternatives that are rooted in critical pedagogy. I draw upon the framework of critical pedagogy to address the potential for working with preservice teachers to create transformative experiences for themselves and the students they work with in their middle school literacy classrooms.