Educators' Confidence: Social Justice

Abstract

The study addressed three problems related to social justice education (SJE): inconsistent vocabulary, siloed teacher education programs, and the neglect of teacher intersectionality when designing professional development. The study asked three questions, “How confident are WI 6-12 educators in facilitating SJE in their classroom, do demographics correlate with that confidence, and do personal histories with diversity correlate?” An anonymous self-administered online survey collected self-reported data about participants' inherent traits and asked respondents to self-select for categorical variables. The results indicated 79.7% of participants (N = 566) self-identified a level of confidence above 50% (Moderately confident teaching SJE). Confidence positively correlated (f = 0.294, p <0.00001) with experience with diversity during childhood and young adult years. The study was originally planned as a needs analysis to provide evidence that Wisconsin educators were not feeling confident about providing SJE in their classrooms. Instead, the survey showed 79.7% of participants (N = 566) participants felt "moderately confident" or more. Perhaps this study instead provides evidence that Wisconsin educators might not be aware of their shortcomings in their SJE competencies.