TEACHING FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE: PALPATING THE TENSIONS BETWEEN A ROYAL AND MINOR SCIENCE by MATTHEW CHARLES GRAHAM A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of Education Studies and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2019 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Matthew Charles Graham Title: Teaching for Social Justice: Palpating the Tensions between a Royal and Minor Science This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of Education Studies by: Lisa Mazzei Co-chairperson Jenefer Husman Co-chairperson Jerry Rosiek Core Member Michael Bullis Institutional Representative and Janet Woodruff-Borden Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2019 ii © 2019 Matthew Charles Graham iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Matthew Charles Graham Doctor of Philosophy Department of Education Studies June 2019 Title: Teaching for Social Justice: Palpating the Tensions between a Royal and Minor Science In this study, I develop a formative assessment designed to provide feedback on the use of research supported and locally valued social justice teaching practices. This assessment can provide teacher educators a tool for providing feedback to in-service and pre-service educators to support their motivation for engaging in social justice teaching practices. However, calcifying social justice as a set of discrete practices comes at the expense of other possibilities and, ultimately, at the expense of realizing educations true liberatory potential. In order to attend to these philosophical limitations, I simultaneously map the assessment development project onto the argumentation Deleuze and Guattari use to address the metaphysical presuppositions that differentiate a royal and minor science. I argue that it is only by attending to both these royal and minor tendencies inherent to the development of the Teaching for Social Justice Formative Assessment that we are able to move away from systemic inequities and realize educations’ liberatory potential. iv CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Matthew Charles Graham GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, Critical and Sociocultural Studies in Education, 2019, University of Oregon Bachelor of Music Education, Department of Music, 2006, Valparaiso University AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Social Justice Educational Psychology Philosophy of Research Research Methodology PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon, 2013-2019 Education Program Manager, Boys and Girls Club of Corvallis, 2012-2013 Program Director and Music and Performing Arts Teacher, Prince of Peace Catholic Schools, 2006-2011 GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Graduate Employee Excellence Award, University of Oregon Department of Education Studies, 2018 Outstanding Poster Award, American Educational Research Association Division C, 2017 Graduate Employee Excellence Award, University of Oregon Department of Education Studies, 2017 Doctoral Research Award, University of Oregon College of Education, 2017 Student Travel Award, American Psychological Association, 2017 v Rose Grose Scholarship, University of Oregon College of Education, 2016 Gary E. Smith Summer Professional Development Award, University of Oregon Graduate School, 2016 PUBLICATIONS: Villanueva, I., Husman, J., Christensen, D., Youmans, K., Khan, T. H., Vicioso, P., Lampkins, S., Graham, M. C. (in press). Considerations for studying near-real- time authentic examination experiences: A cross-disciplinary and multi-modal experimental design. Journal of Visualized Experiments. Anderson, R., Graham, M. C., Kennedy, P. Nelson, N., Stoolmiller, M., Baker, S., & Fien, H. (2019). Self-Belief and disengagement at the crux: Latent growth curve analyses of student motivation and engagement across the transition to high school. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 56, 205-217. Mazzei, L., Graham, M. C., & Smithers, L. E. (2018). Enactments of a minor inquiry. Qualitative Inquiry. doi:10.1177/1077800418809743 Graham, M. C. (2016). Heralding the other: Sousa, simulacra, and settler colonialism. Action, Criticism, and Theory in Music Education, 15(2), 146-177. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my sincere appreciation to Drs. Jenefer Husman and Lisa Mazzei for their assistance and dedication, without which this manuscript would not have been possible. Additional recognition goes to my other committee members, Drs. Jerry Rosiek and Michael Bullis, for their time and support. I also wish to thank my parents, my father for his willingness to always discuss this project and my mother for her willingness to discuss anything else. Special thanks are due to my colleagues at the University of Oregon who provided countless hours of assistance, particularly to Ross Anderson and Michael Their for their constant feedback and to Allie Ivey, Becky Crowe, Juan Rafael Mesa, Max Skorodinsky, and Niki DeRosia for serving as research assistants on this project. I wish to thank Erik, Christine, Amelia, Coraline, and Caleb Haluzack for their constant support over countless dinners. Most of all I want to express my gratitude to my family, to my two children, Oren and Gilia, who put up with so many missed opportunities so I could complete this study, and to Liz for her willingness to share that burden to make this project possible. This study was supported in part by a Doctoral Research Award granted by the College of Education at the University of Oregon. vii To Oren and Gilia, may you be part of a more equitable future. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 Motivational Consequences in the Absence of Conceptual Clarity......................... 3 Assessing Social Justice ........................................................................................... 6 Evaluating Teacher Dispositions ..................................................................... 7 Evaluating Teacher Practices ........................................................................... 10 Limitations of Current Assessments ................................................................ 12 Philosophical Limitations of Assessing Social Justice .................................... 14 Statement of the Problem ......................................................................................... 14 Purpose of this Study ............................................................................................... 16 Research Questions .......................................................................................... 18 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................ 19 Scope, Assumptions, and Limitations of Study ....................................................... 23 Summary .................................................................................................................. 26 II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ......................................................................... 27 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................ 27 Practices within Prominent Theories of Justice ....................................................... 31 Social Justice Education .................................................................................. 32 Culturally Responsive Pedagogy ..................................................................... 36 Multicultural Education ................................................................................... 39 Critical Pedagogy ............................................................................................. 42 Democratic Education ...................................................................................... 45 ix Chapter Page Practices within Literature in Teaching and teacher Education ...................... 49 Learning Environment .................................................................................. 51 Physical Space ..................................................................................... 51 Student Identity .................................................................................... 52 Care and Respect.................................................................................. 55 Agency ................................................................................................. 58 Curriculum ....................................................................................................... 59 Inclusive Curriculum ........................................................................... 59 Social Issues ......................................................................................... 60 Pedagogy .......................................................................................................... 62 Students’ Lives..................................................................................... 62 Critical Engagement............................................................................. 64 High Quality......................................................................................... 67 High Expectations