The Development of the Teacher Social Justice Advocacy for Children Scale

Background

Competencies and guidelines regarding social justice exist in the field of psychology, counseling, and education. These competencies and guidelines inform professionals to go beyond their office or classroom to facilitate societal change, to collaborate with other professionals and administrators in creating change, and to develop an understanding of the impact of sociopolitical forces on students’ wellbeing (Cheatham & Mason, 2021; Constantine et al., 2007; Field & Baker, 2004; Lewis et al., 2003; Proctor et al., 2019). Other recommendations include to empower students to become change agents themselves and to challenging the power dynamics between teachers and students that maintain status quo and marginalization (Allen, 1997; Duncan-Andrade, 2005).

There is no consensus in the literature as to how much training pre-service trainees need to effectively engage in or whether they need endorse social justice advocacy to be effective teachers (Goodlad, 1990). Goodlad surveyed pre-service students and faculty members in educational programs and reported that only 5% of the sample identified change agent as being an important aspect of the role of a teacher. In Duncan-Andrade’s (2005) study of exceptional teachers and social justice in one urban school, the exceptional teachers identified important factors to advocacy to be the importance to empowering students to question injustices, collaborating with administrators, and working outside of the classroom to implement social change.