Shared Responsibility Across a Shared Island (SRASI): teaching social justice in initial teacher education

The Shared Responsibility Across a Shared Island (SRASI) project aimed to (i) develop and share a teaching approach to social justice across two Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) programmes from North and South, and (ii) encourage teacher educators and preservice teachers (PSTs) to learn with and from each other, within and across their respective jurisdictions. The participants were teacher educators and PSTs attached to two teacher education programmes in the North (Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) Physical Education) and in the South (Professional Master’s in Education (PME) Physical Education). Three teacher educators and 12 PSTs were attached to the programme from the North and five teacher educators and 24 PSTs were attached to the programme from the South. Multiple data sources (including online recorded meetings, one face-to-face meeting, focus groups and debriefs) were collected and analysed throughout the thematic analysis.

The findings are presented as multiple ways of considering the experiences, positions and directions of those involved in the project and are captured with reference to ‘space’. PSTs and teacher educators occupy multiple spaces (sometimes at the same time) that are considered to be connected to exposure to, and experiences of, social justice matters. The concept of space allows the findings to be presented in a way that directly relates back to addressing the research questions of (i) the way in which facilitating shared discussions around social justice (in PETE programmes North and South) enhance PSTs’ and teacher educators’ perspectives and experiences of addressing social justice in schools, and (ii) considerations that need to be addressed in formalising a shared North and South PETE space to discuss and enact social justice in schools.

The key findings focus on (i) the integration of social justice matters across two jurisdictions and within PETE programmes, (ii) teacher educators’ exploration and experience in teaching about and for social justice, (iii) setting realistic expectations to encourage engagement with social justice matters, (iv) School Placement as an opportunity to experience the realities of social justice matters, (v) the similarity of experiences between jurisdictions, and (vi) PSTs’ acknowledgement of personal growth with respect to social justice matters.