Equity in Teacher Education Programs: A Systematic Review of Conceptions and Program-Level Efforts
This research report identifies key patterns in the design and implementation of equity-oriented efforts in teacher education programs (TEPs) by conducting a literature review. TEPs play a critical role in shaping preservice teachers’ understandings of systemic oppression and their capacity to advance educational equity. The author gains answers to questions such as conceptions of equity in TEPs, programmatic efforts in TEPs that address educational equity issues, and the focus of equity efforts in TEPs. By examining the structures and strategies through which equity is enacted in TEPs, an emerging typology of equity approaches in TEPs was then crafted. The typology identifies themes, surface-level commitments, symbolic representations, discrete efforts, systemic approaches, and more. This resource may help teacher education faculty and administrators seeking to thoroughly prepare candidates to successfully educate students from diverse backgrounds who have encountered racial and economic disparities, as well as teacher education faculty and administrators looking to embrace the concept of strong equity.