Learning to unlearn within teacher education: transformative professional learning to challenge and re-frame understandings of a social justice mentality

Concerns around globalisation, global issues and increasing political and social divergence now ‘transcend borders’ (Bryan et al, 2009, p.31) and amplify the importance of the need for authentic social justice; not just as a concept but as a practice in critical and independent thinking rooted in a commitment to equity which results in ethical action. Education plays a potentially pivotal role though, arguably, it has been more likely to sustain predominant frameworks of conceptually unquestioned charity mentality and mythmaking about the ‘other’. Thus, ensuring the continuation of the status quo rather than engaging in the more challenging transformative critical pedagogies required to remove the smokescreen of ‘sanctioned ignorance’ (Andreotti, 2006, p.44). Additionally, approaches such as active global citizenship have possibly deepened the issues by unintentionally continuing imperialistic thinking and reinforcing stereotypes and prejudices (Andreotti, 2006) as well as creating little developers (Biccum, 2010), able to participate in the global economy but without the skills or experience to critically engage with issues such as inequality and injustice.

In this presentation I argue further that these potentially negative impacts are not only related to the global ‘other’ but the ‘other’ within our local societies and communities, hindering the drive towards a socially-just society. My original, small-scale study designed a transformative professional learning model inspired by Jan Fook (2006) which followed a process of ‘Learning to Unlearn’ to initiate active unlearning or deconstruction, as an essential part of deep learning (Illeris, 2003), which targeted fundamental, personal perceptions to influence professional practice. This innovative model was designed for high impact within a limited timeframe, such as an after-school twilight session, therefore manageable within the constraints of teacher educator timetables, especially if there is a marked impact as a result. Indeed, the initial qualitative research results with teachers indicated a positive shift in perceptions and increased criticality though additional study and investigation was recommended to further explore the factors which encourage or inhibit this transformational move and how the model of Learning to Unlearn could develop and support this work. In contrast to the original research, my new study aims to explore this in the context of teacher education, with those beginning their teacher pathway, to evaluate the potential to engender a social justice mindset, influence future practice and enable a more equitable education.