An ethics of access: using life history to trace preservice teachers’initial viewpoints on teaching for equity

Johnson, A. (2007). An ethics of access: using life history to trace preservice teachers’initial viewpoints on teaching for equity. Journal of Teacher Education, 58(4), 299-314.

There are two stories here. The first is a life history of a preservice teacher and the events that led her to believe that her future elementary students needed access both to technology and to diverse types of people. The second is the story of an extensive case study in which a doctoral student (Johnson) elicited the life histories of 10 preservice teachers and their journeys toward teaching for equity and social justice. Both stories are interesting, and I admire Johnson for the great lengths she went to in order to paint vivid and accurate life histories of her participants. Not only did Johnson interview her participants, she also researched the histories of the communities where they grew up, and even visited those communities. Her account (which developed one story in depth and one story more briefly) made me want to read more of the participants’ life histories. Truly, each individual’s life path is unique.

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