Teacher education for social justice : mapping identity spaces

Teacher education requires an account of the complex ways that beginning teachers negotiate their relationships to social justice. A determinate view of identity successfully describes relationships to relatively stable social justice positions. This supports the adoption of pedagogies of discomfort and inquiry. However, socio-cultural accounts of identity emphasise indeterminate aspects of identity. The concept of striated and smooth identity space is proposed and illustrated by analysing the responses of four beginning mathematics teachers to the experience of a discomforting and inquiry based pedagogy. This challenges teacher educators to extend their pedagogies to embrace additional principles of respect and compassion.