Article summary on Putting Equity at the Centre of Initial Teacher Training research article by Cochrain-Smith et, al.

1. Initial teacher education: What does it take to put equity at the center?
Main Arguments
Four essentials tasks in putting equity at the centre of ITE
1. Conceptualising educational inequity and recognizing
the [intentional] role of ITE in combating it.
• Multifacet/intersectionality | Sociohistorical
perspective)
2. defining practice for equity
• Principles & patterns
3. creating curricula and structures that are equity-
centered and tailored to local patterns of inequality.
• Example of Mtchg |using principles, inquiry, linking
community, transdisciplinary teaching
4. engaging in research for local improvement and
theory building about the conditions that support
candidates' equity practice.
• How things are, How things work
Background and Methodology
• Team of 6 researchers from US and New Zealand
• Political interest (Twin goals)
How can ITE practices prepare teachers to
1. maximise learning outcomes for marginalized
students?
2. Recognise intersecting systems of inequality and
challenging systemic norms
• Goal: to develop an explanatory theory of
teachers' learning that determine whether, how
and what extent they teach for equity.
• Context: mostly New Zealand
• Variety of methods: Research synthesis and
qualitative content analysis – part of a bigger RITE
project
Cochran-Smith, et al. (2016). Initial teacher education: What does it take to put equity at the center? Teaching and Teacher Education, [online] 57, pp.67–78.
Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0742051X16300440.

2. Given the systemic, multifacet and complex nature of
inequity, to what extent can teachers with the ‘power’
of their classroom practice address systemic inequity?
A critique?
• Programmes like Teach For All “see teachers and schools as
both the cause and the solution to the problem of inequity,
they focus on recruiting bright young people into the schools …,
but not help to deconstruct (and wrestle with how to
challenge) the institutional arrangements and systems that
reproduce inequalities” p70
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLfLxDmPivU
Main Arguments…countd.
General principles of practice
• selecting worthwhile content and designing and implementing
learning opportunities aligned to valued learning outcomes
• connecting to students' lives and experiences
• creating learning-focused, respectful, and supportive learning
environments
• using evidence to scaffold learning and improve teaching
• adopting an inquiry stance and taking responsibility for
professional engagement and learning
• recognizing and challenging classroom, school, and societal
practices that reproduce inequity.
Question for reflection
Patterns of practice for equity
• practice is not simply what teachers do but also how
they think about what they do.
• specific teaching actions cannot be fully determined
and prescribed in advance of, or outside of, particular
teaching contexts.
• Regularities in practice can be seen over time.
00.00 - 01.30 mins, 08:45 to 09:00 mins